MEMBER for Ripon Martha Haylett remains confident extra weekend train services will be delivered for the Ararat line in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Victorian Government has confirmed planning has begun for additional weekend train services to Ararat and Beaufort.<\/p>\n
In the 2023 state budget, the government announced two additional weekend services on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
It means Ararat and Beaufort will have five services to and from Melbourne each day of the week.<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s announcement of extra services across the V\/Line network has already seen extra services on the Warrnambool and north-east passenger lines.<\/p>\n
A Victorian Government spokesperson said almost 200 extra weekend V\/Line services will be added to the regional network to increase service frequency as part of a $219 million investment in the Victorian Budget 2023\/24.<\/p>\n
Ms Haylett recently told the Advocate she\u2019s pushing for the extra services as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
“I’m thrilled that increased weekend services are coming to the Ararat line. This will provide greater flexibility and convenience for commuters, tourists, and local residents.”<\/p>\n
\u201cBy increasing weekend services, we’re making it easier for people to access jobs, education, and entertainment without relying on cars. This is a win for our community,\u201d Ms Haylett said.<\/p>\n
A number of local residents continue to lobby for a variation to the timetable by scheduling a late night service on Fridays and Saturdays.<\/p>\n
It has been argued that a late evening service would allow people to attend the football, a show or have dinner with friends in Melbourne and be able to safely return home on the train.<\/p>\n
The government spokesperson said work is underway introducing additional services across the V\/Line network.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are getting on with progressively rolling out almost 200 extra weekend services on regional lines \u2013 including on the Ballarat and Ararat lines, building on the 38 extra weekly services we’ve delivered on the Ararat and Maryborough corridor, and 149 extra weekly services for Ballarat, in the past decade.”<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said the roll out of the extra weekend services on the Ararat line is being carefully planned by DTP in partnership with V\/Line, to ensure that it best meets the needs of Ararat passengers.<\/p>\n
The extra weekend services currently being planned include increasing the number of weekend services on the Ararat line from three to five return services on Saturdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEMBER for Ripon Martha Haylett remains confident extra weekend train services will be delivered for the Ararat line in 2025.
\nThe Victorian Government has confirmed planning has begun for additional weekend train services to Ararat and Beaufort.
\nIn the 2023 state budget, the government announced two additional weekend services on Saturday and Sunday.
\nIt means Ararat and Beaufort will have five services to and from Melbourne each day of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3005,"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],"class_list":["post-3016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ararat-station--scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-ME","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=3016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3016"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}