Extra peak hour trains from the end of January will be a "big boost" to commuters, the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has said.
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Ben Lever, convenor of the Ballarat branch of the PTUA, responded to the news of 30 extra peak hour trains running to and from Ballarat each week, which the state government announced on Tuesday.
'It will provide a big boost for travellers and give them less crowding, as well as providing them with a lot more choice on when to travel," he told The Courier.
They will be among 45 additional peak hour services that will run every week along the Ballarat Line when a new timetable starts operating at the end of January next year.
Fifteen of those services will run to and from stations prior to Ballarat such as Melton and Bacchus Marsh.
It means there should be three services every hour during peak time for Ballarat commuters, with off-peak services increasing to at least three every two hours.
Currently a peak hour surcharge is levied when passengers travel before 9am and between the hours of 4-6pm.
"There are roughly two trains per hour [at peak time] at the moment, and this would bump it up to three trains - so in that sense you don't need that many extra to bump up the frequency," Mr Lever said.
The exact timing of the services will not be confirmed until the full timetable is released early next year. While the increased numbers will mean the average time between peak time trains is 20 minutes, there may be more or less time between specific services.
Overall, there will be 125 extra Ballarat Line Services every week, of which 85 will travel to and from Ballarat.
It will provide a big boost for travellers and give them less crowding, as well as providing them with a lot more choice on when to travel
- Ballarat Public Transport Users Association
Appearing on platform two at Ballarat Railway Station on Tuesday, the minister for transport infrastructure Jacinta Allan said the new timetable was the culmination of the work done on the Ballarat Line Upgrade.
"This has been a massive project," she said.
Ms Allan said the upgrades would mean "a better reliability of service" as well as allowing more people to travel to the regions from Melbourne.
"It's big overhaul of our regional train timetable."
Large sections of single track were duplicated as part of the upgrade.
"This has been a really huge project to start addressing that problem," Mr Lever said.
"It's definitely going to be worth the short term pain of having to go on the buses."
Mr Lever said the signs were good for improving reliability, more passing loops likely to reduce delays.
"It does seem as though this will be be a big improvement, but it's just a case of waiting and seeing what happens."
He also said he would be watching carefully for the full details of train departures when they are released.
"We will need to look at the specific timetable.
"If it could be a clockface time - a really easy and memorable time with services exactly 20 minutes apart - that will make it a lot easier."
Ms Allan said more work would be needed to ensure bus departures from Ballarat station synchronise with the new timetable.
"There's some further work that will be done early in 2021 synchronising the bus and the train timetables, recognising that it is important to get buses connected to trains," she said.
As for improving accessibility - Ballarat Station is the only station on the line that still does not have any disabled access for changing platforms - she said:
"This is an issue Juliana [Addison] and I have been discussing a lot. We understand very well the need to improve accessibility right across the train network.
"I appreciate there is a keen desire to see when an improvement can be made but we're not in a position to do that just yet because there is some more work about understanding the work that needs to be done.
"One of the great features is that [Ballarat Station] is a great, historic structure, but with that there are some challenges when you look at how you make improvements. "
The previous timetable had services leaving Ballarat every 30 minutes at peak time and every hour off peak.
The Ballarat Line Upgrade began in late 2017.
The state government announced $518 million of funding for upgrade in the 2016/2017 budget.
The total project cost is given as $601.2 million on the investment infrastructure Australia website.
As part of the project, works have been carried out at Wendouree, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh and Rockbank stations.
There were also upgrades to signalling between Melton and Wendouree, while an entirely new station was constructed at Cobblebank.
A total of 18 kilometres of duplicated track was laid between Deer Park West and Melton to help ease bottlenecks.
There are no plans in the short-term to increase capacity at Southern Cross station, despite the increased number of train services.
The completion of the final phase of the project means buses will replace trains from December 28 2020 until January 30, 2021 .
New timetables were announced for all of Victoria's train network, with 450 new services flagged including 150 peak hour services, of which 80 would be regional trains.
The new timetables are due to begin on January 31. The detailed timetable for the Ballarat Line will be available from January 8.
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