Online Ticket Sales
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Buy online at any time
Next time you need a V/Line ticket: buy
online.
No phone calls. No queues. And we’ll post
your tickets to you at no extra cost – unless you prefer to pick them up.
If there’s not enough time to post your tickets,
we’ll process your purchase and send you a reference number. Take this to
any V/Line ticket sales outlet and pick up your
tickets before you travel.
Before you
start…
If you’re a regular rail commuter who
buys Weekly, Monthly or Date‑to‑Date tickets, please use:
► Periodical rail tickets ‑ Buy online
Otherwise, use ‘Plan Your Journey’. See Plan Your Journey Help (new window) for step-by-step help.
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What the new
system can do
The
following conditions apply:
Tickets
by post
Must be purchased at least 7 business days in
advance for ordinary post (at no extra cost to you), or 5 business days in
advance using Express Post (at additional cost).
Periodical tickets (Weekly,
Monthly
or Date‑to‑Date)
Must be purchased at least 7 days in advance. Tickets will be sent by
registered post (at no extra cost to you). Pick-up is not available.
Note: although you can buy
these tickets via Plan Your Journey, we recommend you use ► Periodical rail tickets ‑ Buy online
Pick-up
You can pick up pre-purchased tickets at a V/Line ticket sales outlet.
They must be purchased at least 48 hours in
advance i.e. your outbound travel date/time must be more than 48 hours from now
[why?]
Most ticket types can be purchased online, including Family Traveller and Periodical (Weekly, Monthly, Date-to-Date and Zone B Yearly). However, you
can’t buy special event tickets online, such as country
racing.
What it
can’t do
e-Ticketing
Much as we’d love to, we can’t offer electronic
ticketing, similar to that offered by airlines. All customers must travel with
a valid ticket, printed on secure, V/Line ticket paper.
Our online ticket sales system is only an
interim measure until the new smartcard system – myki – is implemented. It’s not
financially viable for us to introduce e-ticket scanning devices (or similar)
at all stations and on board. Also, as Your V/Line ticket is also a Metcard, we would need to have validation facilities on board all
metropolitan trams, trains (and train stations) and buses.
We’re aware some other rail operators offer
this service (e.g. CountryLink), but their services are fully reserved (and
therefore have a passenger manifest) and their tickets do not then allow you to
travel on other forms of transport.
Group
Bookings
Group Bookings cannot be purchase online, but you can submit your request to our Group
Travel Co-ordinator. You should apply at least 3 weeks in advance, otherwise we
may not be able to accommodate you on your chosen service(s). Group travel
cannot be arranged less than 7 days before departure.
Some
journeys not available
‘Plan Your Journey’ has some limitations e.g. some
cross-regional journeys are not supported. We are working with Viclink (new window) to integrate their
journey planner onto our website, which will overcome this issue. This will
take time, though, as we need to integrate our fare calculator and online sales
system with their journey planner.
Travel within 48 hours
We don’t currently sell tickets online for
services leaving in less than 48 hours [why?] - though we hope to reduce this in the future.
New payment
window / pop-up blockers
Our system opens the secure payment page in a
new window. This sometimes causes issues with pop-up blockers. See Pop Up Blocker help if you have a blocker enabled.
Future
development
As
mentioned above, we are working to integrate the Viclink (new window) Journey Planner to
increase the number of V/Line journeys you can purchase online.
We
also review all feedback we receive, and make system enhancements based on your
comments and suggestions.
Feedback
We welcome all feedback or enquiries about the
new system. You can either complete the online ticket sales survey or contact us.
Buy tickets now
Periodical
tickets: ► Periodical rail tickets ‑ buy online
Single
/ Return tickets: ► Use Plan Your Journey to buy online
Step-by-step
help: ► Buy Tickets Online | Plan Your Journey Help