V/Line has responded to reports of severe overcrowding over the weekend saying “Weekend patronage was up significantly.”

“Services have been particularly popular with passengers taking advantage of cheaper fares and the school holidays to travel across the state,” Heidi Murphy said, filling in for Tom Elliott.

Press PLAY to hear V/Line’s statement

There were reports of severe overcrowding across the V/Line network over the weekend and a public transport advocate says it’s a “repeated” issue.

Press PLAY below to hear what’s fuelling the overcrowding

President of the Public Transport Users Association, Daniel Bowen, says the problems stem from the reduction in V/Line fares to match metropolitan train fares, which came into effect at the end of March.

“What they really should have done was made sure the service could actually cope with the growth that was going to result from that. The Geelong line is particularly bad … the Albury line – there seems to be constant reports of crowding on that one,” he said.

Several callers told 3AW’s Tom Elliott they’ve noticed fewer carriages on services since the fare reduction.