V/Line

V/Line Corporation

A VLocity train at Ballarat station.
Corporation overview
Formed	1 July 1983 (1983-07-01) (as State Transport Authority brand) 1 October 2003 (2003-10-01) (as statutory corporation)
Preceding corporation	Victorian Railways
Type	Statutory authority
Employees	2,419 (June 2022)
Annual budget	AUD$1.2 billion (2021–22 income)
Ministers responsible	Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Public and Active Transport Tim Pallas, Treasurer
Corporation executives	Howard Ronaldson, Chair Matt Carrick, CEO
Parent department	Department of Transport and Planning
Parent agency	Transport for Victoria
Key document	Transport Integration Act 2010
Website	vline.com.au
Footnotes
[1]

Victorian railway network in 2014
Overview
Headquarters	Melbourne
Locale	Victoria, Australia
Predecessor	Victorian Railways Public Transport Corporation
Technical
Track gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in the Australian state of Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne. It also provides bus services across Victoria and into New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. In addition, V/Line is responsible for the maintenance of much of the Victorian freight and passenger rail network outside of the areas managed by Metro Trains Melbourne and the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

The V/Line brand was introduced after the split-up of VicRail in 1983, and has been used by all successive government and private operators of the state's regional public transport. Until 1999, when its freight operations were privatised, V/Line Freight was also a monopoly government provider of the state's rail freight services. From 2004 the main operating rail company V/Line Pty Ltd was owned by the V/Line Corporation, a Victorian state government statutory corporation. In 2016, V/Line Corporation became a subsidiary agency of Public Transport Victoria and in July 2021 V/Line transitioned from a government-owned corporation to a statutory authority.

In the 2018–19 financial year, V/Line carried 22.4 million passengers, mostly on its commuter rail lines, which have experienced considerable patronage growth since 2005 due to improved services and population increases. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on usage, with patronage falling to 10.7 million passengers in 2021–22.^[1] V/Line's operations, particularly those on long-distance routes, remain heavily subsidised by the Victorian Government.