The figures, released by the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources at the weekend, show 1535 people boarded the train at Epsom between January and March this year, up from 763 in the third quarter of 2015.

More than 700 passengers have boarded V/Line services at Eaglehawk so far this year, up from 332 in 2015, and Kangaroo Flat station has seen an increase of 515 passengers to 13,247 in that time.

Public Transport Minister and member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said the figures reflected the extra services the government had scheduled at the stations during the life of the project.

“People in those local communities have responded and responded really strongly and I'm really pleased to see that there’s great use of the extra services as part of the Bendigo Metro commitment,” she said.

“To me I always felt that by putting on extra services, people would use them.”

But Public Transport Users Association regional spokesman Paul Westcott said following those passengers’ movements through the rail network was “key” to gauging the success of Bendigo Metro.

“It’s not so much boarding at those stations, it’s also the alighting of people who have boarded there before you can tell whether it’s working effectively as a metro or whether people are just making use of the extra station close to their home in order just to catch the train to Castlemaine or Melbourne,” he said.

“Until we know the actual travel pattern of people who are getting on at those stations it’s hard to know how successfully it’s working as a metro as opposed to just an extension of the Melbourne line.”

But Mr Westcott said the increased patronage was still a positive, regardless of passengers’ final destination.

“It’s not surprising that patronage has gone up at those stations, obviously if you increase the services to stations, patronage tends to increase – build it and they will come sort of thing,” he said.

“It’s good and of course it fits with the pattern of patronage growing in general on V/Line services throughout the state.”

Ms Allan said the figures put more pressure on the Commonwealth to stump up the cash for the state government’s $1.45 billion Regional Rail Revival package, some of which would be used to fund Bendigo Metro stage two.

“Part of that work includes a package around improving the signalling at Epsom and Eaglehawk and that will enable us to run more services,” she said.

“If we can unlock the funding Victoria’s entitled to we can get moving and deliver even more services as part of the Bendigo Metro project.”