Overcrowding continues to be a problem on the Craigieburn and South Morang train lines, despite a Metro bid to increase carriage capacity by ripping out seats.
Metro recently reconfigured the seats on its trains servicing busy lines, increasing passenger capacity from 798 to 900.
The move has resulted in a drop in overcrowding on peak services on the Craigieburn line, but it still remains Melbourne’s most overcrowded line, according to Public Transport Victoria’s latest passenger load survey.
On the South Morang line, overcrowding has increased.
The passenger load survey is carried out in May each year and measures overcrowding on trains against a state government-set benchmark.
A train is considered to be overcrowded if it is carrying more than 900 passengers.
On the Craigieburn line, the number of overcrowded morning peak trains has fallen from 10 to six.
There are 20 morning peak services.
The number of overcrowded afternoon peak services has fallen from three to one.
There are 25 evening peak services.
The survey also revealed that Whittlesea commuters were forcing their way on board four overcrowded trains during the morning peak. In 2016, three morning services were found to be overcrowded.
Fifteen trains run on the line during the morning. During the evening peak, one of the line’s 25 services was overcrowded, which is the same as last year.
PTV acting chief executive Alan Fedda said the reconfigured seating was allowing more people to travel on public transport.
He said new services had been introduced since August to accommodate an extra 27,000 extra trips across the network each week.
“We’re currently delivering the biggest transformation of our train network this generation has seen, with the construction of the new Metro Tunnel and new high capacity metro trains which will provide a boost to the majority of lines,” Mr Fedda said.
