Victorians now have 450 extra train services every week, with the biggest timetable change since the opening of the City Loop coming into place last week (31 January).
Minister for Public Transport, Ben Carroll said 280 metropolitan and 170 regional services had been added to the network alongside new capacity indicator technology that gave passengers on Melbourne’s trains access to information about how busy their train or station was.
“After four months of extensive testing and trials, the new online tool called RideSpace provides real-time information for passengers on metropolitan trains,” Mr Carroll said.
“[It shows] them how busy, or quiet, their journey will be before they get on board,” he said.
“RideSpace is now available via a dedicated, mobile responsive mini-site – and its capacity data will soon be made available in third party journey planning apps to help passengers make informed choices about travelling safely on the network.”
Mr Carroll said the tool showed the current and predicted level of busyness for trains, stations and platforms using icons ranging from ‘Very Quiet’ to ‘Very Busy’.
The Minister said RideSpace would support public health settings and help passengers decide which service they were comfortable using.
He said the new tool, along with the timetable boost, and the 20 per cent fare discount (for metropolitan passengers travelling outside peak periods) would combine to give passengers more confidence to return to public transport and encourage them to travel on either side of the busy morning and afternoon periods.
The Department of Transport and Public Transport Victoria’s RideSpace can be accessed at this PS News link.