Larisa Wasiljew has travelled from Kyneton to Southern Cross Station for work for the last five years and said the journey now took 25 minutes longer. 

“I have a yearly ticket and every time I see that I’ve paid $3136, I ask ‘what for?’” she said. “There’s been a steady decline... it gets slower and slower. 

“It’s on the whole Bendigo line and as petrol prices go up more people use the service and it’s just not coping. 

“I’m not going to blame V/Line, I think the state government needs to take a long look at it.” 

The $4 billion Regional Rail Link, designed to separate the metro and regional lines, is underway in Melbourne. 

“It’s just a band-aid,” Ms Wasiljew said. 

“It won’t be saving regional service times at all. 

“The problem is V/Line trains are still following a metro train all the way to Sunshine and if a metro train breaks down, we’re stuck.” 

Another person who has commuted for work on the line for the last seven years agreed the service was getting worse. 

Barbara, who asked for her surname to be withheld, said a recent trip was delayed by an hour and a half. 

“There’s a 5pm train specifically for Kyneton which no-one catches because it takes an hour and 40 minutes,” she said. 

“The mornings are pretty good, but when things go wrong, they surely go wrong. 

“Speak to people in Bendigo, Castlemaine and Woodend and they’re all very disgruntled about it.

“We’ve had some horrendous experiences.” 

Barbara said the journey between Bendigo and Melbourne took 25 minutes longer than it used to. 

“We’re never told anything, never updated... when you do it every day and you’re not informed of anything, it’s very frustrating.” 

Regional Rail Link Authority chief operating officer Allen Garner recently said the project underway would ensure trains ran on time and increase the capacity of regional lines.