V/Line subsidy blows out to $731m as trip count slumps

It cost taxpayers $81.17 to subsidise each V/Line passenger trip in 2020-21, compared to just $24.10/trip two years ago.

Running on empty: The full rail service ran in regional and metropolitan Melbourne over 2020-21, despite a massive drop in patronage.

Regional Victoria’s V/Line passenger service is bleeding money, with the taxpayer subsidies surging from $297m almost a decade ago to $731m in 2020-21.

While the dilapidated state of the rail freight network remains ignored, the Victorian Government has stepped in to prop up V/Line in the wake of Covid restrictions, boosting the V/Line subsidy by almost $200m in just two years.

As recently as 2019 the subsidy was sitting at $539m.

Both V/Line’s and the Department of Transport’s latest annual reports state all regional and metropolitan services were maintained at normal pre-pandemic levels, despite a massive slump in patronage that led the government to lift the overall annual subsidy from $2.49 billion to almost $2.8 billion over the last financial year, to offset the loss of ticket revenue.

V/Line’s trip count fell from 22.4 million in 2018-19 to just 9m in 2020-21, while metropolitan patronage dropped from 243m to 82m in the same period.

The maintenance of a full complement of services means Victorian tax payers were forced to fork out $81.17 to subsidise each V/Line passenger’s trip in 2020-21, compared to just $24.10/trip two years ago.

Unsurprisingly the lack of passengers meant V/Line’s new chief executive Matt Carrick could report a lift in customer satisfaction and more trains running on time.

But for Victorian farmers the latest transport subsidy figures are a reminder of how much the Victorian Government is willing to spend on maintaining passenger rail services, while leaving the rail freight network in disrepair.

“Even halving the (passenger) services could have saved enough to finish the half-built Murray Basin Rail Project,” Grain Growers chair Brett Hosking said.

“They could have said now’s the time (during Covid lockdowns) to get in and do the maintenance and upgrades.”

Opposition freight spokesman Roma Britnell said the government could have saved tax payers money by simply giving every nurse and other emergency worker an Uber or taxi vouchers to get to work, rather than running almost empty trains around the system.

But while the Victorian Government has left the Murray Basin Rail Freight network half built, with a mix of broad and standard gauge tracks, a recent Victorian Auditor Generals Office report showed $5.95 billion of blowouts in metropolitan projects, including a $1.35 billion hike in the cost of building what is now a $12.25 billion metro tunnel rail project.

A Government spokesman said “since 2014 we’ve added nearly 800 extra services to the regional rail network – connecting more people than ever before to jobs, education, healthcare and tourism.

“We know how vital rail is to regional communities and we’ll continue to support it through record investment in rail upgrades to improve safety and better connect Victorians.”