industry rail & coach transport founded 1 july 1983 headquarters melbourne australia area served regional victoria adelaide canberra southern new south wales key people jenny dawson chairman gary liddle acting ceo services regional trains and coaches revenue 618.8 2014 15 net income 2.1 m 2014 15 number of employees 1 586 june 2015 parent government of victoria website www.vline.com.au victorian railway network in 2007 locale victoria australia dates of operation 1 july 1983 predecessor victorian railways public transport corporation track gauge 1 600 mm 5 ft 3 in 1 435 mm 4 ft 8 1 2 in albury line headquarters melbourne v line is a government owned corporation that operates the regional passenger train and coach services in victoria australia . it was created after the split up of vicrail in 1983 . v line is owned by the v line corporation which is a victorian state government statutory authority . v line carried 15.05 million passengers in the 2014 15 financial year . v line is also track manager of the victorian intrastate rail network outside of the australian rail track corporation and metro trains melbourne leases . 1 as at june 2015 it operated 90 stations 41 locomotives 134 locomotive hauled carriages and 179 diesel multiple unit carriages . 2 contents 1 as a government authority 2 as a corporation 3 services 4 ticketing 5 fleet 6 network access 7 branding 8 see also 9 references 10 external links as a government authority edit on 1 july 1983 the state transport authority and a range of other transport bodies were created when the transport act 1983 came into effect . 3 the new authority replaced vicrail and established the v line operating brand for both country passenger and freight . the vicrail orange and silver teacup livery used on passenger rolling stock was replaced in august 1983 by an orange and grey livery . the white and green v line logo was launched on 14 august 1983 by the then minister of transport steve crabb at spencer street station with special trains running to essendon to mark the occasion . 4 5 this was altered when on 1 july 1989 the transport amendment act took effect merging the state transport authority with the metropolitan transit authority to form the public transport corporation . 6 the relationship between the country v line and suburban the met brands was blurred with the sprinter trains delivered in the 1993 1995 period appearing in ptc colours but with both ptc and v line logos . 7 in 1995 the freight and passenger rail divisions of v line were divided with a new red blue and white v line passenger livery unveiled which remains on some of the fleet today . 8 this split was finalised on 1 july 1997 when separate management was brought in . 9 v line freight was sold to a consortium of railamerica fluor daniel macquarie bank and a goninan & co and rebranded as freight victoria effective from 1 may 1999 . 10 11 12 v line passenger was franchised with national express beating freight victoria . 13 14 15 16 the v line freight contract included a 45 year lease from the government of most regional track passenger and freight with responsibilities for track signalling and level crossings with access to passenger sections of track granted to v line passenger . v line operates under a franchise agreement entered into with the director of public transport . the director also sub leases tracks and other infrastructure which the director holds under lease from victrack the agency which owns victoria s rail related land and infrastructure . as a corporation edit on 29 august 1999 national express took control of v line passenger . 17 it included all country rail operations in victoria with the exception of the west coast railway operated warrnambool line and the hoys roadlines operated shepparton line previously franchised in 1993 . 17 in 2004 operational difficulties hit the two privately operated lines and they came back under the control of v line . in december 2002 national express handed in its victorian rail and tram franchises having been unable to renegotiate financial terms with the state government . 18 19 20 full control was taken on 1 october 2003 by changing the shareholding of v line making the government the sole shareholder via a recently created statutory corporation v line passenger corporation . 1 in 2000 the regional fast rail project was launched to upgrade the tracks linking ballarat bendigo geelong and the latrobe valley to melbourne . the project which also included new rolling stock and an expanded timetable of rail services commenced full operations from december 2005 . in november 2006 pacific national who had purchased freight australia entered into an agreement to sell the remainder of its victorian rail lease of the network back to the victorian government for 133.8 m. 21 the sale was completed on 7 may 2007 with v line becoming the track manager of the victorian intrastate network . 22 in may 2008 it was announced that part of the v line fleet would be converted to standard gauge to operate an upgraded albury line service . 23 in december 2008 v line ended the sale of alcoholic beverages aboard long distance trains after almost a century of the practice . 24 in 2014 15 the subsidy per passenger trip was 20.17 . 2 the transport integration act renamed the v line passenger corporation as v line corporation . 25 the act also gave v line a new statutory charter . as part of these changes the corporation s responsibilities were explicitly expanded to cover both rail passenger and rail freight services . 26 the act received the royal assent on 2 march 2010 and came into operation on 1 july 2010 . 27 in january 2016 v line s vlocity rolling stock was identified to be suffering from abnormal wheel wear 28 in addition to the fleet being banned from the metropolitan track lease by the suburban rail operator metro trains melbourne after failing to activate a level crossing in dandenong 29 30 in turn causing as many as 70 services a day to be cancelled . 31 this resulted in the resignation of then ceo theo taifalos sixteen days free travel being provided to passengers and an independent inquiry being ordered by transport minister jacinta allan into the operational capacity of v line . 31 32 services edit southern cross railway station seen from the corner of collins and spencer streets v line operates rail services to the regional cities of ballarat bendigo geelong seymour and traralgon as well as ararat maryborough echuca swan hill albury bairnsdale warrnambool and shepparton . in addition v line road coaches connect with many rail services at major stations to serve towns away from the main rail network operating as far as adelaide and canberra . 33 rail services are grouped into two types . as part of the introduction of the myki smartcard in 2013 and to provide consistent communication to both staff and customers what were formerly called interurban services became commuter services and what were formerly called intercity services became long distance services . commuter services operate over shorter distances and more frequently than long distance services and the latter usually provide some first class accommodation as well as snack bar facilities . all rail services depart from southern cross station in melbourne on the following lines with the exception of one traralgon service which departs terminates at flinders street south west region or geelong line which continues as the warrnambool line western region or ballarat line which continues as the ararat line and the maryborough line northern region or bendigo line which extends as the swan hill line and the echuca line north east region or seymour line which extends as the shepparton line and the albury line eastern region or traralgon line which continues as the bairnsdale line rail services once extended to dimboola mildura cobram and leongatha but were discontinued in 1993 . 34 the services to ararat and bairnsdale were also withdrawn in 1993 but restored in 2004 . 35 in december 2008 as part of the victorian transport plan the state government announced that v line rail passenger services would be extended from ballarat to maryborough station at a cost of 50 million commencing in july 2010 . 36 37 the first passenger train in 15 years arrived at maryborough on 24 july 2010 . 38 the resumption of v line services to leongatha and cobram has been sought by communities along both of these lines but minimal portions of the track along both corridors has now been removed . the resumption of services to mildura has also been floated ever since it ceased operation however despite much planning little action has been achieved . a recent report into the extensions of the melbourne metropolitan rail system identified the population growth corridor from cranbourne to koo wee rup along the disused leongatha line as a key planning priority . 39 v line also runs numerous intrastate and interstate road coach services that may run wholly as a coach service or operate as a coach connecting with a rail service . interstate road coach service operated by v line are canberra link melbourne southern cross canberra via albury runs as a train to albury and then a coach to canberra capital link melbourne southern cross canberra via bairnsdale runs as a train to bairnsdale and then a coach to canberra daylink melbourne southern cross adelaide via bendigo runs as a train to bendigo and then a coach to adelaide sapphire coast link melbourne southern cross batemans bay via bairnsdale runs as a train to bairnsdale and then a coach to batemans bay speedlink sydney adelaide via albury does not travel to melbourne and runs as the nsw trainlink xpt train from sydney to albury and then a coach from albury to adelaide murraylink mildura albury does not travel to melbourne and operates entirely as a coach . ticketing edit v line thermally printed ticket v line reserved seating ticket v line currently uses the myki ticketing system on short distance train services in addition to machine printed paper tickets issued from staffed v line stations selected metro suburban premium stations v line ticket agents online or by phone . passengers boarding services at unmanned stations or roadside coach stops can purchase tickets from the train conductor or coach driver . tickets have the origin and destination printed upon them making them point to point but the fare itself is based on charging zones . 40 changes were made to the fare system to integrate it with the suburban metcard system in preparation for the introduction of the myki smartcard system to cover the entire state . 41 ticket types available include single return and a range of periodical tickets . 42 services are classified as peak and off peak with discounts available for tickets valid in off peak times only . 42 v line operates a limited number of trains with first class seating which requires the payment of an upgrade fee on top of the standard economy fare . 43 from june 2013 the myki smartcard system began to be rolled out on the v line network . 44 most v line services operate on a non allocated seating basis but all intercity long distance rail services and some coach services require seat reservations . 45 fleet edit class image type gauge top speed km h built number notes vlocity diesel multiple unit broad 160 2004 134 51 sets 43 additional cars under construction n class diesel electric locomotive broad standard 130 1985 1987 25 sprinter diesel multiple unit broad 130 1993 1995 21 a class diesel electric locomotive broad 133 1984 1985 11 6 stored p class diesel electric locomotive broad standard 100 1984 1985 8 1 stored