Nearly 450,000 passengers have travelled on the Albury train line in the first 12 months of discounted V/Line rail fares.
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The train operator told The Border Mail that 448,554 commuters had boarded a V/Line service in the year since March 31, 2023, when the price of a return trip from Albury-Wodonga to Melbourne plummeted from $82.40 to $9.20.
That compares to 286,077 across the same period in 2019-20 before COVID and the latest figure represents a 56 per cent jump in patronage.
In March this year, there were about 40,000 trips taken on the North East line, compared with 26,000 in the same month last year.
The recent Easter saw the passenger tally 18 per cent higher than the previous Easter in the first month of the lower fares in 2023.
The huge rise in demand for V/Line travel has resulted in complaints of overcrowding with Albury line services regularly having more passengers than seats.
"The regional fare cap has transformed the way people travel around the state and we're running additional services and trialling reservation-only seating on the line to support the demand," a V/Line spokesperson said.
However, that also involves tickets being sold on an unreserved basis with passengers warned they may be standing.
Member for Benambra Bill Tilley raised concerns about what he called the "standing or sitting-on-the-floor-of-a-carriage ticket" in the Victorian Parliament on October 3 last year with a question to the Public and Active Transport Minister about what constitutes the limit for unseated, standing passengers on the Albury line.
He received a reply from the minister Gabrielle Williams on March 1 this year that did not answer that query.
She noted an unreserved ticket "alerts the passenger they may be required to stand for all or part of their journey, or alternatively travel via a standby coach - if one is available".
The Border Mail asked V/Line how many unreserved tickets were being sold for each service and whether there was a cap.
No answers were provided.
Mr Tilley said it was dangerous to have passengers standing for long periods.
"No one should be sitting on the carriage floor or standing on our trains," he said.
"We are talking about trains travelling at more than 100kmh over a four-hour journey on a track that is far from perfect - it's not safe.
"This isn't a suburban rattler, it's a long-haul train service.
"We either need better trains, or more trains - the need for 'unreserved' or effectively no seat tickets make that very clear."
V/Line is continuing to trial the reserved seating, with an extension announced in February.
It consulted patrons and found the bulk supported that system, however it wants to conduct more research with passengers before adopting reservations over the long term.
