Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:19): (1617) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is the immediate addition of three extra carriages for the Warrnambool line. Since late last year the service levels on the Warrnambool train line have just been appalling. People’s safety is at risk, the ride is uncomfortable and the service levels are just appalling. We have seen today and ongoing that the government’s announcement of free travel will make this problem even worse. Currently for commuters on the Warrnambool line, right through the heart of the Polwarth electorate, the government leaves three carriages in Geelong and proceeds down the line with only three carriages. There is no reason why the people in country Victoria cannot be afforded the safety and comfort of enough seats to sit on. I will read just for one moment a text I received only 10 minutes ago:

Complete chaos on Vline Southern Cross to Warrnambool because of no bookings. Some people have booked seats but the conductors aren’t enforcing them, people fighting! Ridiculous situation. Person I work with came this AM – described it as a warzone people jam packed, sitting in the toilets from Terang …

This is no way to run a modern, fair and safe public transport system. We do not allow buses to be crammed full of people, yet we have people sitting in hallways, in doorways and in toilets just because that is the seating.

The government announced this week that they are going to stop taking reservations on the seats. This has caused great chaos. Brendon Stahl wrote to me this afternoon. He and his 80-year-old wife are going to the airport, or plan to. That is how they get to Melbourne: on the train with their luggage. Brendon wrote to me with great concern that he feels that he will not be able to use the train to get to the airport in Melbourne because it is simply too packed. There is no luggage capacity – there is nowhere to put his luggage – and he and his wife simply are not fit enough to stand for the 2½ hours from our region to Melbourne. This service level is just appalling.

Further, today I was contacted by the self-advocacy group for people with disabilities, R.A.I.S.E Your Voice Colac. They wrote to me absolutely desperate that so many of their members throughout western Victoria simply cannot any longer get on the train with any degree of certainty or safety. There are people in wheelchairs and there are people with walking frames having to have their walking frames put somewhere down behind the toilet or up on the roof rack away from their access. People cannot get to the toilet during the journey because they do not have their walking aids with them. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately rail cannot be guaranteed not to have other catastrophic things happen, and to have literally hundreds of people standing and sitting on the floor, crammed in in unsafe conditions, is simply not good enough. Furthermore, people in country Victoria deserve the same services that you get in the city. They are paying the money for it. They deserve to travel safely and affordably and with some degree of certainty.