COMMUTERS are slowly returning to the local train network with new figures showing an improvement in the number of people catching the train from Ararat Station.<\/p>\n
Train patronage plummeted during the pandemic, but the Department of Transport confirms the figures are slowly returning to pre-COVID levels.<\/p>\n
In the 2021\/22 financial year there were 20,986 boardings at Ararat Station.<\/p>\n
This was an increase from 15,222 in the 2020\/21 financial year but still short of the pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
In 2019\/20 there were\u00a0 30,711 boardings at Ararat Station and 41,172 in 2018\/19.<\/p>\n
A Government spokesperson said it was pleasing to see people returning the V\/Line network.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased to see more people returning to our regional train network, and will continue to support V\/Line to deliver safe and efficient services.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working to deliver more V\/Locity trains onto the regional network, offering more modern, reliable and comfortable journeys for passengers across Victoria,\u201d the Spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Ararat has a long and proud railway history, with trains reaching town on 7 April 1875.<\/p>\n
The passenger line between Ararat and Ballarat was closed in the mid 1990s by the Kennett Government, but two return services a day were returned by the Bracks Government in 2004.<\/p>\n
Since then, the service has expanded with five return services from Ararat Station to Southern Cross each weekday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COMMUTERS are slowly returning to the local train network with new figures showing an improvement in the number of people catching the train from Ararat Station.
\nTrain patronage plummeted during the pandemic, but the Department of Transport confirms the figures are slowly returning to pre-COVID levels.
\nIn the 2021\/22 financial year there were 20,986 boardings at Ararat Station.
\nThis was an increase from 15,222 in the 2020\/21 financial year but still short of the pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_7093-3-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-pR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}