Her invitation comes after a horror Christmas-New Year period with widespread cancellations of train services which has prompted angry commuters to contact her directly about the sub-standard service.

V/Line has corrected the number of train services cancelled since Boxing Day to 15 after releasing a figure of 30 a day ago.

Buses have replaced the train services scrapped due to faulty locomotives.

But Ms McGowan said the revised figure was still too high and the “intolerable situation” needed rectifying by the federal and state governments.

Mr Joyce has taken on the transport and infrastructure portfolio in the pre-Christmas ministerial re-shuffle due in part by his return to parliament following the citizenship fiasco.

“This continues to be a great inconvenience to passengers, particularly during this most recent holiday period and is not nearly good enough,” Ms McGowan said.

“The Deputy Prime Minister needs to prioritise the promised upgrade.

“The previous minister, Darren Chester has done a good job but it now requires Minister Joyce to follow through on this work.”

National Party deputy leader and Victorian Senator Bridget McKenzie couldn’t be contacted by The Border Mail.

Ms McGowan, who famously stated in the lead-up to her election in 2013 she would “fix the trains by Christmas”, has also called on the Victorian government to make public its plans for the procurement of new rolling stock.

Ms McGowan said the most recent meeting of the Hume Corridor Passenger Rail Collaboration on December 12 was advised the scope of works for the $100 million upgrade to the North-East line would be with the state and federal ministers before Christmas.

An announcement on the scope of works is expected to be made this month.

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NO toilets, late services and being left in the dark – it seems many people have a tale to tell about the shortcomings of V-Line's North-East line service.

Border Mail readers were quick to respond when asked about some of their experiences on the much maligned service.

The common theme for most was simply not knowing what was happening.

On a trip between Melbourne's Southern Cross Station and Springhurst just before Christmas, Rutherglen's Neil Michael said their train was left stranded on the tracks near Sunshine for nearly an hour and a half.

“The 6:02 service departed on time, then at 6:15 we came to a stop,” he said.

“There it sat for almost 90 minutes. 

“The staff on the train were brilliant, apologising many times. The buffet worked flat out. 

“Eventually we were informed of a signal fault on the line between here and Sydney, yes Sydney.

“We arrived at Springhurst 90 minutes late, 11pm.

“This line is continually plagued with delays and paying customers are handballed all over the place.

“No one accepts responsibility, it is just not good enough.”

Wangaratta's Bec Rowe said she was left feeling like “unimportant country folk” after being given the run around at Southern Cross station.

“In the end it took from waiting at 6pm for the train until 11.40pm when I finally got off the coach at Wangaratta,” she said.

“This Albury line needs a lot of funding and decent upgrades, from tracks to the quality of carriages. Can't help but feel a bit like the unimportant ‘country folk’.”

- with CHRIS YOUNG