Two trains a day leaves Ballarat students stranded for five hours
Regional Victoria mayors are calling for five weekday services instead of two on the Maryborough-Ballarat line.
The line between Maryborough and Ballarat has only two return services daily. One leaves at 7:30am.
One leaves at 6pm. The timetable has remained unchanged since 2012.
Mayors of Ballarat, Hepburn and Central Goldfields say it leaves students facing big delays. Students face five-hour daily trips.
It forces families to book overnight rooms just to reach Melbourne. Even watching football in the city requires staying over, says Central Goldfields mayor Ben Green.
In a cost-of-living crisis, that pushes out ordinary families. The mayors are demanding five weekday services to make train travel work again.
Public Transport Users Association convenor Patrick Jarvinen called the current schedule almost completely useless for fitting into people's daily lives. Ahead of the state election, Labor has mentioned a possible single extra service.
The Coalition has proposed hybrid-electric trains on the corridor.
- Two (7:30am, 6pm)
- Daily return services
- Five hours
- Student delay per day
- 2012
- Timetable unchanged since
- Minimum five weekday
- Services demanded
Why it mattersRegional Victorians have no transport choice. Without decent trains, they face rising fuel costs and cannot reach work, education, or health services reliably.
AustraliaThis directly affects thousands of regional Victorians who depend on rail to access Melbourne for work, study, healthcare and sport.
✓ Claims checked against the source. checked 2 h ago
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