V/Line patronage increased 30 per cent in the 2006-07 financial year and 23 per cent in 2007-08.

Over the past few weeks The Advertiser has received several calls from disgruntled passengers standing on services from Melbourne to Bendigo, including one from regular traveller Megan Bowdell.

"I catch the train every second Sunday, usually the 5.15pm from Melbourne to Bendigo," she said.

"It's always packed - there are always people standing.

"It's a joke. It's ridiculous. There needs to be some control on how many people can get on."

V/Line spokesman Daniel Moloney said trains had been busy during school holidays and the AFL finals series.

Mr Moloney acknowledged the network was having "growing pains" in response to increased patronage.

"We are experiencing similar issues on the Geelong line," he said.

"Every line has three or four services that are consistently very busy.

"People often say 'just put on an extra carriage'.

"We would if we could, but they are in full use.''

The third new carriage of a scheduled 50 was delivered to the Gippsland line last week.

One has been allocated to the Bendigo line to deal with peak services.

Each month another carriage will be added to the V/Line fleet.

Mr Moloney said V/Line conductors would have the final say on passenger numbers for busier V/Line services.

"We're seeing huge numbers, and the nature of public transport is that we can't turn people back.

"The basic principle is that the conductors' discretion applies; they will make the decision about what they believe is acceptable."

He said that passengers were not being put at risk by standing.

"It is not a safety issue, it's a comfort issue - the trains are designed to allow people to stand.

"We don't want it to be that way, but the alternative is to deny people travel."

As a guide, a two-carriage VLocity train that seated 140 people could have 80 standing.

If the numbers standing exceeded this recommendation, passengers would be transported by coach.