Here is another yearly update on metropolitan and regional railway station patronage, this time adding the recently-released 2024/25 Financial Year data.
Since 2019 I’ve been keeping abreast of patronage for the train and tram network in Victoria. I’ve been progressively adding to the two spreadsheets I keep for this purpose. Not only to allow comparison but also to keep the data available, because it unfortunately has a habit of disappearing off government websites every couple of years.
You can see data by station going back to 2008 for metropolitan stations and 2013 for regional stations in these two spreadsheets below:
Observations
The overall patronage trend since the COVID-19 Pandemic has continued, albeit more slowly.
Metropolitan network
The total number of passengers being carried on the metropolitan network is still 23% lower in 2024-25 than it was in the last full year prior to the Pandemic (2018-19). The post-pandemic growth rate seems to have petered out though, at least for now.
There is more to the data here than initially meets the eye. If you investigate this by Line Group, you can see there is significant variation. For one, the Stony Point Line continues to suffer from lower patronage. The number of passengers hasn’t increased at all since 2022-23.
The Caulfield Group though has recovered the most which is interesting given the years of bus replacements and disruptions.
| Line Group | Change in patronage between 2018 and 2025 |
|---|---|
| Burnley | -26.7% |
| Caulfield | -15.1% |
| Clifton Hill | -23.7% |
| Inner City / City Loop | -27.1% |
| Northern | -19.2% |
| Stony Point | -40.8% |
I will likely do a future post on this to cover more detail to compare the Frankston Line to the Cranbourne / Pakenham Lines.
Regional network
V/Line is a different story. It has recovered all of its pre-Pandemic patronage and then some. For the first time, regional trains are carrying more passengers than the last full year prior to the Pandemic (2018-19).
This figure of 19.58 million is a record high over the past 12 years of available data. Even compared to 2023-24 it is a big jump of 12.6%. This may be due in part to the changes to regional fares made in 2023 that significantly reduced the cost of many trips. It may also have to do with some service increases over the past few years as well as ongoing urban sprawl.
Notable patronage changes by station
Patronage increases
| Station | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 (percentage) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Pakenham | 50,800 | 93% | New station opened in 2024 |
| Parkdale | 198,600 | 74% | Level crossing removal works |
| Hawkestowe | 262,150 | 59% | |
| Keon Park | 160,250 | 55% | Level crossing removal works |
| Narre Warren | 254,050 | 49% | Level crossing removal works |
| Croydon | 159,250 | 36% | Level crossing removal works |
| Heathmont | 49,550 | 25% | |
| Officer | 45,300 | 22% | |
| Belgrave | 60,050 | 21% | |
| Ringwood | 55,300 | 21% | |
| Ferntree Gully | 67,750 | 20% |
The general explanations for most of the stations above are either recovering passengers after disruptions or closures due to major construction works (e.g. Parkdale and Keon Park), or being located in areas of high population growth (e.g. Hawkestowe and Officer).
Ringwood and Ferntree Gully are outliers. I’m not aware of any significant changes that have happened at or near these stations during the last financial year. If anyone has any ideas please let me know in the comments!
On the regional network it is a very interesting story indeed.
| Station | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 (percentage) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mooroopna | 4,700 | 48% | |
| Creswick | 1,200 | 48% | |
| Dingee | 200 | 36% | |
| Shepparton | 41,700 | 36% | |
| Donnybrook | 65,850 | 34% | |
| Murchison East | 4,050 | 34% | |
| Huntly | 500 | 33% | |
| Nagambie | 2,100 | 32% | |
| Tynong | 2,200 | 30% | |
| Bunyip | 5,850 | 30% | |
| Stratford | 1,650 | 29% |
The standout here is the Shepparton Line, with all of its four (unique) stations featuring in this list. This is almost certainly due to the Shepparton Line Upgrade project that has brought infrastructure improvements and soon-to-come new services. Build it and they will come!
Donnybrook continues to grow with its location in a major growth corridor, while many of the others are coming off a low base which means small changes can result in a high variation as a percentage.
Patronage declines
| Station | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 (percentage) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watsonia | -119,300 | -38% | Long-term bus replacements |
| Hastings | -3,450 | -32% | |
| Macleod | -67,300 | -21% | Long-term bus replacements |
| Showgrounds | -23,100 | -20% | |
| Brighton Beach | -60,700 | -18% | |
| Rosanna | -72,200 | -17% | Long-term bus replacements |
| Sunshine | -252,800 | -16% | |
| Mentone | -86,750 | -15% | |
| Eltham | -43,450 | -13% | Long-term bus replacements |
| Reservoir | -94,850 | -13% | |
| Diamond Creek | -14,250 | -12% |
This list is a much more mixed bag. Several of these on the Hurstbridge Line are affected by bustitution lasting many months due to construction works on the North East Link. This has had an understandable negative impact on patronage.
Some of the others may also be cumulative impacts of bustitution, particularly Sunshine where there has been a lot of testing and other disruptions caused by preparations for the Metro Tunnel.
I’m not sure about Hastings or Showgrounds. Again, if you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments below!
For the regional network, once again there aren’t many stations where patronage declined due to the overall network growth.
| Station | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 | Patronage change 2023-24 to 2024-25 (percentage) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goornong | -250 | -13% | |
| Kerang | -250 | -3% | |
| Wangaratta | -1,400 | -3% | |
| Macedon | -600 | -1% |
With all of these it is important to note that they are coming off a low base and patronage for stations outside the myki network is based on manual counts by conductors and field surveys (three of the four stations above). For these reasons, I would not put much credence behind these particular figures.
Other observations
- As I pointed out last year, the closure of Mont Albert and Surrey Hills Stations seems to have decreased patronage in this part of the Belgrave / Lilydale Line. The combined figures for the new Union Station and existing Chatham Station (776,400) are higher than last financial year. But they are still well below the pre-LXR figures for Mont Albert and Surrey Hills Stations (986,050). Again, although this was pre-COVID that is a larger difference than the general trend across the metropolitan network.
- Baxter comes out as the least used station on the metropolitan network once again, with Wattle Glen also still at the bottom for the electrified network.
- After cracking 20 million trips last year, Flinders Street Station has seen a 4% decrease in passengers, once again dipping down below 20 million. I suspect at least part of this may be due to the Hurstbridge and Ringwood Lines bus replacements, which require passengers to use buses from Parliament Station instead. Incidentally, Parliament saw a 8% increase in passengers over the same period.
- Tarneit and Wyndham Vale continue to grow significantly, with 13% and 19% growth in passengers respectively. This now makes Tarneit the 12th busiest station in Melbourne overall, even including the electrified metropolitan network. It has more than doubled its patronage since its first full year of opening in 2015-16.
Notes
I will be doing a couple of other posts going into more detail on particular topics.
Unfortunately DTP have not restored the previous tram stop patronage dataset. I’m still unsure why this has happened.
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