{"id":6238,"date":"2026-05-07T01:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6238\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T01:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:21:08","slug":"mildura-passengers-struggle-for-seats-on-v-line-coaches-as-ghost-bookings-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6238\/","title":{"rendered":"Mildura passengers struggle for seats on V\/Line coaches as ‘ghost bookings’ rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a Friday afternoon and the coach service from Mildura to Swan Hill in Victoria’s north-west is fully booked with 38 seats reserved.<\/p>\n

But as the bus that links to the Swan Hill-Melbourne train departs, only 18 passengers are on board, leaving 20 empty seats.<\/p>\n

These seats are “ghost bookings”, for which passengers have not turned up, or have made double bookings.<\/p>\n

Mildura station staff and bus drivers said ghost bookings had been common during Victoria’s free public transport period. They said coach services were often fully booked, but rarely was every seat occupied.<\/p>\n

One staff member, who spoke to the ABC on condition of anonymity, told the ABC there had been ghost bookings for nearly every service since public transport became free.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands that even when passengers paid $11.40 for a daily V\/Line ticket, ghost bookings were already an issue with the service.<\/p>\n

With just five V\/Line coach services a day leaving Mildura (including two overnight), transport options for those who miss out are limited to a 570-kilometre drive or an expensive, infrequent flight to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Some prospective passengers have taken to arriving at the Mildura V\/Line station just prior to the departure of booked-out services in the hope of securing an empty seat.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign at Mildura station explaining the 10:05pm coach service to Melbourne is booked out this week. (ABC News: Grace Marshall)<\/p>\n

A seat lottery<\/p>\n

Mildura resident Karl Smith, who uses the coach service monthly to travel to Melbourne for work and medical appointments, said when he tried to book online, seats were often unavailable.<\/p>\n

“I’ll try and book online and it says not available and then I’ll ring up and they say ‘not available’. But usually if you ring five times, they say, ‘Oh, something’s available,'” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Smith has had to reschedule medical appointments due to public transport availability, and has waited up to six months to see specialists.<\/p>\n

Even though he had benefited by filling a ghost booked seat, calling it “a plain fluke”, he was concerned about future travel plans.<\/p>\n

“It’s very crappy, unfortunately. But when you think about it, they hold all the cards really,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Karl Smith has had issues with booking the coach, even weeks in advance. (ABC News: Grace Marshall)<\/p>\n

Mildura mother Amanda Bernaldo recently faced the same dilemma. She was unable secure her 15-year-old daughter a coach seat from Swan Hill to Mildura.<\/p>\n

Ms Bernaldo said she had attempted to book a seat 10 days in advance but the service was already full.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t willing to leave my 15-year-old sitting at a bus station on her own in case she could get a seat when someone didn’t turn up,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Ideally, it would have been great if she could have got home on public transport, but that just wasn’t the case.”<\/p>\n

\"passengers<\/p>\n

Passengers at Swan Hill also face the same issues with ghost bookings. (ABC News: Grace Marshall)<\/p>\n

Ms Bernaldo said the situation had become worse since free transport began.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s probably come into play a bit over the last four weeks,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If you can book two seats together for free and not have to sit beside a stranger, most people are going to do that. It’s pretty frustrating.<\/p>\n

“There would be a lot of people that utilise public transport that can’t afford to fly, that are put out by the fact that people are booking seats that they don’t intend to use.”\"commuters<\/p>\n

Passengers wait at the Mildura bus station, hoping to get a seat on a 3:55am coach. (ABC News: Grace Marshall)<\/p>\n

‘We’ve been at the back of the queue’<\/p>\n

Mildura Rural City Council Mayor Ali Cupper said the free public transport initiative highlighted the transport disparity Mildura residents faced.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have the same baseline of essential public transport infrastructure,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Every time the government does anything in relation to public transport, particularly in relation to cheap or free travel, it really does highlight that inequity that we face.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a major regional centre, [in] the most isolated part of the state, which should be at the front of the queue for baseline public transport services to its capital city. But we’ve been at the back of the queue and it’s just bewildering.”<\/p>\n

\"Mildura<\/p>\n

Ali Cupper says free public transport highlights a disparity in access between Mildura residents and those in the city. (Supplied: Ali Cupper)<\/p>\n

When asked whether it had noticed problems with ghost bookings, or an increase since the free public transport came into affect, V\/Line said it was “monitoring demand closely, including on the Mildura to Swan Hill coach route, and adding extra coach support where possible”.<\/p>\n

“We thank passengers for their understanding when services are busy and will continue to work hard to meet people’s travel needs,” a spokesperson said.More news from regional Victoria<\/p>\n

However, one V\/Line staff member, who asked not to be named, was unimpressed with that response.<\/p>\n

“Why would you need to add in an additional coach when this one is more than half empty?” they asked.<\/p>\n

The Mildura-Swan Hill coach line is one of only two V\/Line intrastate services that require seat reservations during the free period.<\/p>\n

The other service is the Melbourne-Mansfield route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a Friday afternoon and the coach service from Mildura to Swan Hill in Victoria’s north-west is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,2742,2743,7574,260,2653,7575,7573,1093,7572,2737,1217,2744],"class_list":{"0":"post-6238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-bus","11":"tag-coach","12":"tag-ghost-booking","13":"tag-melbourne","14":"tag-mildura","15":"tag-no-show","16":"tag-over-booking","17":"tag-public-transport","18":"tag-swan-hill","19":"tag-train","20":"tag-transport","21":"tag-vline"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}