We Visited The Least Used Station In Victoria
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- čas přidán 17. 02. 2022
- Come and visit the least used station in Victoria!
Thanks to @MetroManMelbourne for coming with me, attempting two trips (the first time the train was that delayed, we would have missed our 40-minute connection, second-time success) and helping out with this video. Hope you enjoy :)
Melbournes Least Used Station: • Video
(Video by Moo Transit)
Sources:
quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingee_...
www.victorianplaces.com.au/di...
www.stationspast.net/victoria/...
search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-ex... - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Update: in the recently published 2021/22 figures Dingee had an annual usage of just 100
Where do u see it for all stations
I grew up in this area. Completed all thirteen years of schooling at the mentioned East Loddon College. I also went to the kinder at Dingee (now relocated to the school) that was across the road from the train line. Saw my first trains there, massive freight trains that would rumble through and rattle the windows. Ironically I ended up working for V/Line and travel up that way often.
That’s nice to hear, have you seen many people at the station?
Funnily enough my partner did their kindergarten teacher training (under Mrs Baker as the head teacher) at Dingee in the late 1980’s (obviously before they moved the kinder). They lived with their family up at Pyramid Hill (long before we met). We often drive up that way just to pass though and see how the area is, if we have need to go north. Go to the milk bar in Dingee, or the bakery in Pyramid.
Kind of surprised Talbot wasn't the least used
I’m originally from Bendigo, I moved to Melbourne when I was 17 and used to return to Bendigo for the weekends.
I remember on Friday evenings there was a 5:45pm Swan Hill train, it used to run express to Kyneton and then only stop at Castlemaine before Bendigo, but people travelling to Bendigo couldn’t book a seat until Friday morning. It was usually always booked out.
There was a 6:30pm Bendigo train, but it used to stop at about 12 stations.
My way around this was on Wednesday or Thursday book a seat to Dingee on the Friday train but get off at Bendigo. At the time, the price difference wasn’t much, only a couple of dollars. But it was so much better getting the express train lol.
I'm heading to Dingee today, excited. But it wasnt least used in 2022-23, it had 300 passengers whereas the new Huntly station only had 250. Still will be exciting
This is a really well produced video with thoughtful and insightful commentary. I kinda wish you had hung out at the pub for a couple of hours then caught the train back from Dingee to see if you could lift the station boarding numbers back onto the books!
Thanks glad you enjoyed, technically we booked tickets there twice although the first time we only got as far as Bendigo as the train was very late. Maybe I will have to go back to the pub one day!
@@railrover I went to the pub today by train highly recommended
Nice to see a good bit of research was done, an attempt was made to close the station was made, but as you mentioned the main reason was the fact it served a much broader community, and would have left a large gap between Eaglehawk and Pyramid, I attended the primary school (closed in 1981)from prep to grade six. Dingee in its day also had goods sheds and a cattle yard serviced by rail, also had three general stores and three churches. Many thanks for your video.
In regards to why Dingee never closed: It's the second point you gave, the New Deal was an attempt to listen to what the people of Victoria said in response to the Lonie Report wanting to can all rural passenger rail (That the lack of ridership was due to problems with the rural service which could be remedied, leading to vastly improved ridership) and tried to balance improving the financials with still providing good service.
I'm fairly sure the original plan for stations where 3-4 small stations in a row along a line were closed and 1 was left open was for a coach service to connect the closed stations with the remaining stations rail services.
Funnily enough been there. My partner did their kindergarten teacher training at the kindergarten that was in the town back in the late 1980’s. They lived up the road in Pyramid Hill - always wondered why Vline abbreviated the name - (long before we met). The front of the station is very nice as we often drive that way - lovely green park (appreciated in the heat of summer), undercover picnic area and public toilets with the milk bar across the road.
Great video. You have inspired me to arrange a trip with some friends. I hope the pub is still open so we can enjoy a meal there and still have time to get lots of photos at the station and around the town.
Awesome! I understand why Elmore is underused, it’s along the midland and northern highways, and has coaches running direct to Melbourne every few hours
Visited this station precisely because it was the only one with a Vline stop. Loved talking to the locals, although the pub was badly affected by the Covid shutdowns. The reason the station remains is that the local community rallied to retain it, and struck a deal to maintain it and the surroundings if they could make it a multi-use facility - hence the library. Some local history there too - there is a hardy white clover called Dingee which is good feed in a harsh country.
Great video , I remember the closing of the Bairnsdale line in the early 1990’s and was a kid when they protested and tried to stop the last train leaving but I also remember when in the early 2000’s the trains returned.
A great and informative video Rail Rover, many thanks. It's great to know more about this wonderful state. We need all the country infrastructure to remain and be gradually expanded once again due to population movement away from the city. Why the Bendigo line was reduced to a single line in places was a mistake also when that area is rapidly growing. I really enjoyed your video and commentary.
Woohoo, little old Murchison gets a mention 😊
I love this. Great info,love the pics and the history.Well put together, really enjoyable.Love Victoria ❤
Having watched your video just now I was more impressed with your camera work, videography and editing. The content, of course, was very interesting. Well done and keep making content.
Great video.. A typical Country town and great to see.. In years to come with fuel prices rising, it may see more use.. Let's hope so? Nice to see it still being used..
A great and informative video!
I'm sure as cost of housing goes up and more people more out into regional areas, keeping the railways (and underused stations) will pay off in the long term.
Very well produced mate. Well done.
Awesome video! Please more like this!
Beautiful, nice how your fanbase has gone from like 20 to 200!
Cheers to yourself and MetroManMelbourne for going well out of your way to Dingee to document the station; considering its remoteness I'm not sure many people would. A well researched video that outlines the history of the station and township and theorizing why it's so little used and how it survived the new-deal cuts of the 1980's. Great job!
Interestingly though Dingee may not actually be the least used station in Victoria as the statistics also exclude the four stations that are exclusively served by The Overland; Stawell, Horsham, Dimboola and Nhill. Yes The Overland may not be a V/Line service and it isn't depicted on the V/Line network maps, but it is depicted on the V/Line timetables and you can use a V/Line ticket to travel to those stations. While these towns have a much higher population than Dingee, The Overland only runs twice a week in either direction so there's every chance that they could be lesser used than Dingee.
Thanks glad you enjoyed, yes it is most likely that the overland stops are less used however we decided to exclude them due to there poor service. If the service was better at these places there usage would be a lot higher than Dingee’s would ever be.
Brilliant video!
I hope you had a counter lunch at the pub or at least bought a pie at the general store. In tiny towns these places are pretty marginal businesses, so every dollar spent makes a difference in keeping them open. And without a pub and a shop, these townships in the wheat belt or the mountains invariably die.
Yeah Dave, there's probably no cops so you can go to the pub and get a skin full and drive home. Probably not much chance of hitting anything other than a Eucalyptus Camaldulensis.
Yes I’ve been through many towns like that. Didn’t help when Jeff Kennett merged many loca councils and they lost their council offices to big provincial centres and whack, in one go 20-30 customers a day. Then they amalgamated schools and of course bang again, parents drive through town and to the next town and stop by the milk bar there. It’s all cumulative.
@@andyrob3259 While I support small towns, I think you're introducing party politics into things. Many of those tiny councils in the wheat belt and in the mountains like Omeo, were just too small to be viable. Without the economies of scale they had very high expenses and rates imposed on orfinary people were higher than they had to be to pay for the inefficiencies of small councils. I reckon if the Libs didn't do it, Labor would have done it anyway.
@@Dave_Sisson I’m late to the party. Don’t disagree with some of the answers you have. Labor would have probably done it. Still doesn’t make what the other guy said any less relevant: it did strip these towns of customers And a reason to live. Plus I live in a rural area myself now, in an amalgamated council of course, and I can assure you my rates are much much higher than what my rates were in Melbourne on a property twice the value and there’s no pavements in my small town of 400, or gutters, or street lights. Gawd nows where’s the money goes. So the amalgamations didn’t change that. By the way as for party politics; isn’t that exactly what discussion of the Lonnie report would be in this channel and why this station is still here.
Terrific video guys! It was very well put together!
BTW, I don't believe that was Jacinta you saw, looked like the wrong glasses to me.
Nice video. This station is very small and very interesting.
Great Video! Will mention you did leave out one important piece of town infrastructure, the fire station.
Very interesting, and seemingly well-researched.
Dingee was available as a crossing station (loop) where Train Control could arrange for trains to cross if needed. The loop and signals were only disconnected a few years. ago. It serves no purpose in closing the station, people in rural Victoria receive poor enough public transport as it is.
That’s true, there is really no need for closure
Great video. It seems to me, as a casual visitor to Vic, the state is lucky to have a reasonably functioning rail system. More people seem to be commuting due the growth in property prices in Melbourne, particularly from larger provincial towns. I suppose Dingee is too far out to benefit from this trend, unless trains become appreciably faster. But I bet house prices are next to nothing out there!
You’d be right there, Bendigo is probably the furthest someone would commute from, anything on the long distance network currently (paper ticket required) is impractical for commuters, although lines like the Shepparton line are being upgraded to allow for a more commuter like service
I for a couple weeks last semester commuted from Sale up to Clayton each day and back. Was quite the journey. Long distance stations can be used by commuters (well some of the lines that get more services), but yeah it is very hard and tiring.
Probably was Jacinta Allen as her electorate is in Bendigo East
Great Vid!
I drove the v line bus through dingee. Nice spot
Hi, nice little video and unique way to learn a little bit more about Victoria. I subscribed to help keep your motivation up!
A classic example of closing railway lines and stations is Mernda. At the time of closing the housing estates were just reaching Mill Park and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a few years down the track that infrastructure is going to be needed. Well they closed the line and ripped up the rails and fortunately they kept the land reserve. Now, at great expense the line has to be relaid and the infrastructure rebuilt. The line was probably removed for 20 years if that.
Mark from Melbourne
Look at that Cranbourne line closing. Again when it closed in the 80’s/99’s blind Freddy could see the city was marching out that way within 20 years. Same with Mornington. And then we have the stupid singling of a major trunk line to Bendigo after Kyneton to ‘save money’ and make curves smoother - when they should have just widened the cuttings as within 20 years demand will require it.
And it won't be long before the Mernda line is extended to Whittlesea...its original teminus until the late 1950's.
Mark - the housing estates were nowhere near Mill Park when Mernda first closed in 1959. In fact, Thomastown, Lalor, Epping, South Morang and Mernda were very rural. Mill Park itself only had population and housing expand in the late 1970s and 1980s, a good 20 years after the line first closed. Hardly "a few years". The line was always going to have to be rebuilt and track relaid whether it had remained open or not - and the level crossings were never going to a feature of the new line, and all the original station sites were not used, so the "expense" is irrelevant. Mernda station opened in 2018, 59 years after the original station closed.
Thanks for the video, I think it is Serpentyne rather than Serpenteeen. Pretty silly Lake Boga doesn’t have a stop.
100% on the pronunciation. That’s how we say it.
I now know a lot about Dingee.
Pork Barrelling is why this station stayed open would be my cynical bet.
I can also just imagine the internet connection in the Dingee library is very up to date indeed!
I'm in the Spring Hill, Glenlyon, Porcupine Ridge area. This area is approximately 30 nautical miles from Melbourne airport. On a good day we get 1.5mbs via wireless internet.
I can imagine Dingee having 50mbs internet - I can.
You should move to Glenlyon. At least we got a wireless NBN tower a year or so ago down at the reserve (why they installed a tower to reach surrounding areas at a reserve which sits in a valley is beyond logic apart from it was already government owned land). The fact it’s in the valley probably means it’s only good for the town and can’t reach you.
For 2018-19 Dingee had 400 passengers, had 250 passengers in 2019-20 and 250 passengers in 2020-21, unless I'm not mistaken. All of the figures above rounded to an interval of 50 passengers (whether they are rounded down, up or just rounded to the nearest 50 I'm not too sure).
Interesting, what source is this data from?
@@railrover For some reason it won't let me send the link, but it's from Discover Data Vic "Annual regional train station patronage (station entries)."
Would you believe the Minister for Pork Barrelling (Transport) now our Premier not only opened another station 15 minutes away at Raywood for $$$ but Goorang. Too tiny towns likely to compete with Dingee for least used stations.
It’s the Australian Geoff marshall!
Excellent video. I've been through Dingee many times on my train/bus journeys to Mildura. Do you know if the pub has meals and did you have time for a meal there? I believe Lake Boga station should be re-instated, because as you say, there are many more people living there than at Dingee. Elmore's station will increase patronage once the authorities stop fart arsing with the Echuca line and there are three trains each way each day...proposed for later in 2022 I believe.
I went to the pub today by train highly recommended
You see it would be nice if they reopen harcourt station as it is a growing town and we could benefit from it and take the strain off the cmain train station
It's in the pipeline and it will serve a great purpose with the nearby mountain bike trails at Mt Alexander.
Yes. And being just off the freeway would make a much better park and ride for the surrounding areas.
I was a member of a group of rail enthusiasts who travelled from Warrnambool to Pomborneet which was about to close in the esrly eighties. The disembarcation of 30-odd people at Pomborneit would have skewed the annual usage statistics and maybe raise official eyebrows.
Really good video - very interesting! 🙌 Out of interest, how did you make the animated map at 1:12? 🤔 Very cool.
Made about 100 images erasing a different station each time, then compiled them all together
@@railrover Wow … that’s some effort! Impressive! 😲
very nice
Maybe I’ll have to visit the least used station in nsw as well
@@railrover good luck with darnick
set of stairs next to a camp site in the middle of a desert
You mean around the corner too Kerang. The N class is also in Kerang while I am commenting this it’s 10:22pm
Its in a lot better condition than Springhurst station on the Albury line. You just about need a 4wd vehicle to use the road in. The old buildings are disgraceful and the distance between the new and old platforms is ridiculous as you are never quite sure which platform will be used. When a bus is used sometimes it cannot reach the station and you have to meet it on the other side of the underpass which is 100 meters from the station down the 4wd track entry road and has no shelter if it is raining which would also mean the underpass you have to walk through would be ankle-deep with water. But hey it's 2022 what should we expect of a station on the main north-south line that services Rutherglen and the NSW town of Corowa with a combined population of 5000 odd.
This should probably be a request stop and get more service
maybe a group day trip to Dingee is in order to boost passenger numbers and give the pub some business :-)
Must be a bowling green somewhere. There is a Dingee bowling club.
epic
Indonesia hadir
Can you do one for the metropolitan lines (excluding Vline?). I’d like to think Stony Point has the lowest number but im not sure
Yes that’s correct, however most people would say Wattle Glen, as Stony Point has a V/line like timetable with V/line rolling stock, someone has already made a video about Wattle glen which I have linked in the description.
I really like dingee station
I live in Bendigo and never knew that Dingee was the least used Station, I would of though a Station on Another Line to be honest
What other station?
I wonder if it was used by backpackers travelling to work on the farms.
Dysart Siding?
Dingee the best station
6:06 the myki readers are actually old ones
Yes, they were probably put there in the past for potential myki barriers in the future. Really no point to replace with the new ones
@@railrover wasn’t the whole network myki zone?
Could be wrong
@@victoriantransportvideos Yep, every station in Victoria was supposed to receive them, including stations that no longer had mains power available!
@@stephenhunter70 ok thanks for that
Dingee - the flattest place in the Southern Hemisphere. And I'm not joking.
ummm i think any closed station would be less used lol
True, but for a station to be least used it needs to be used in the first place
No ,the real least used station are abandoned stations in the middle of nowhere.
The key word is used
@@railrover ahhh but they might be used by abandoned station hunter or other random people
This is true but a train cannot be caught from the platform
@@railrover touché
Are we just going to forget stony point.
You might be a little confused, Stony Point is the least used station on the metropolitan network (even though it’s not electrified with the least used electrified station being wattle glen) pre covid it averaged around 5500 boarding’s annually not even placing it in the top ten least used stations in Victoria.
@@railrover can I have the site name for where you get those statistics
philipmallis.com/blog/2019/02/14/station-patronage-in-victoria-2013-2018/
Narrator - you mumble too much, sound is very low. Video is very good.
Possibly it is a “marginal constituancy” and the library restoration was a vote catching exercise? But that’s no excuse to do nothing.
Depends if the Libs get in, they would be itching to wind back some of Labor’s decisions. The election is later this year and people are angry at Dictator Dan implementing the world’s toughest lockdowns.
I hope he stays in as I hope the next suburban loop gets built, the Libs will cancel projects that are not substantially started such as the Metro tunnel.
The Libs and their inept performance do not deserve Government. By all polling, the Liberals will make some gains but not enough to gain Government.
Nothing like a bankrupt state that can’t afford to repair anything. Driven on rural roads recently - they are falling apart. Freeways with concreted in signs saying rough roads and speed reductions to 40 (a clear indication nothing is planned to be done anytime soon). Pot holes you can drown a cat. Other buildings falling apart. Wire barriers not being fixed. Ever asked yourself why? Who do you think pays for this: if you think taxes are high now keep watching them walked up every budget. Rego, council rates, everything will be milked. I’m work in finance and the signs are there everywhere. And you think we can keep spending money? I love public transit but something will give - only thing is this time we don’t have much left to sell after Dan flogged off the Port of Melbourne other than the dams.
@@andyrob3259 I am well aware of State finances. However since time memorial funding in Victoria has overwhelmingly gone to roads.
I have used rural highways and I have not come across any that have potholes. In fact Vic roads have the best maintained roads in this nation. Where in thus state are main highways potholed. Local roads are maintained by local councils.
@@mjcats2011 Recently I came back from Queensland by road, and comparing the three Eastern States roads, I would have to agree that Victoria's are the best I have seen recently. Also you mentioned that roads are maintained by local councils, this is partly true, the major highways are maintained by Rural Roads Victoria, and the smaller arterials are Local Council maintained, and while they do a fantastic job, they can only do so much with the limited budgets they are allocated by their rate payers and the Federal and State Government to repair and maintain our roads.
@@andyrob3259 On the plus side, now that Victoria has opened up again, VicPol can go back to tailgating interstate drivers on country highways and then pulling them over when they hit 101 in a 100 zone.
Nowadays, how do we know these train cars aren't carrying illegal drugs?
There are actually people travelling in the train...OMG!
????
Will you ever get consistent in your pronunciation of words?