Melbourne to Lakes Entrance, Gippsland by Public Transport: A 300km Getaway
Dreaming for a quick getaway from Melbourne without wanting to break the bank on domestic or international flights? Travelling to a regional Victorian town for a day trip, like from Melbourne to Lakes Entrance, is a great idea to ease such cravings.
Wanting to step foot and have a look into the Gippsland region, a wide area stretching from Greater Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs all the way through to the New South Wales border, I found Lakes Entrance, a coastal town approximately 40km away from the terminus of the Gippsland railway line, Bairnsdale.
In this article, you’ll read about how to get to Lakes Entrance (or even Bairnsdale and other towns nearby) by V/line trains and coaches, as well as what to expect from it.
TL;DR
A day trip to Lakes Entrance (and Bairnsdale) is a long but relaxing day trip getaway from Melbourne, and it costs only $5.70 round trip with half price public transport in the state of Victoria.
Departure from Southern Cross Station
The day started at 7am at Southern Cross Station in Docklands, Melbourne, right next to Spencer Street.
To get to Lakes Entrance, we first have to catch a train towards Bairnsdale, before transferring onto a coach service (booked at the same time as booking the train) from Bairnsdale to Lakes Entrance.
Since the Traralgon / Bairnsdale line heads east after departing Southern Cross, it can only use platforms 8, 15 and 16. For instance, my train departed from platform 15.
The 07:40 Bairnsdale service was operated by a 6-car (2x 3-car sets, sets 3VL40 and 3VL57) VLocity, built by Bombardier Transportation (now absorbed into Alstom) in Dandenong, Victoria. (Our train passed through Dandy, of course!)
Inside the Train (Melbourne to Lakes Entrance)
For the railway enthusiasts out there seeking the best possible experience, all three cars of the VLocity are fitted with engines.
About the seating onboard, here’s what I noticed for the onboard configuration of the train I took:
- All seats are not reclinable and not rotatable. (Hence why I did not reserve a seat – I get motion sickness from sitting backwards on a train for long, and given the many VLocity seating layouts there was no gaurantee)
- Tray tables are found in some seats in the middle carriage (Car B)
- There are a couple face to face seats throughout the train, but not many.
As we wanted a tray table to eat on, and because the front 3 cars were reserved, we got a seat in Car B on the second set (i.e. the back 3 cars), which has a tray table and an unobstructed window view.
We ate our unhealthy Maccas breakfast, before the departure into waves of marvellous scenery.
We departed Southern Cross Station on time, and shortly after the conductor came around the carriage checking everyone’s tickets. (or mykis / bank cards)
Within Greater Melbourne, we stopped at Flinders Street, Richmond, Caulfield, Clayton, Dandenong and Pakenham, except for the lattermost all of these stations were strictly boarding only. The service shares the electrified tracks used by the Pakenham (and Cranbourne) lines, running in between Metro Trains’ suburban services.
At this point, the rising sun was in our face so we decided to switch to the right side after Pakenham, where a decent amount of passengers disembarked the service.
Speed Limits Vary
Before Dandenong, the train travels at Metro speeds of 80km/h, right behind the suburban service which calls at every station. After that, the train speeds up to 115km/h, until around Nar Nar Goon station.
After that, the two tracks along the line have speed limits of 130km/h and 160km/h respectively. This is because one of the tracks have been improved to accomodate faster speeds, while the other isn’t. This is seen from the map below.
In no time, the train went from suburban factories and houses in Melbourne, to vast fields and farmlands in Gippsland. The train took a little more than 2.5 hours to travel from Southern Cross to Traralgon, thanks to the slower speed limits in Melbourne.
Onboard Facilities
Most V/line trains don’t come with any on train buffet, except the N Set trains and standard gauge VLocitys going to Albury, so passengers will need to bring their own food onboard. I feel like this is an absolute pity, it was a very nice experience to have a hot beef pie while looking out of the window, forming part of the Before Each Arrival experience.
There are two lavatories onboard, with one of them being accessible.
Luggage storage facilities on cars A and C, as well as water fountains with paper cups, are available at the customer’s convenience.
Coach Transfer to Lakes Entrance
Upon arrival at Bairnsdale, we walked out of the station building to the bus interchange.
Stepping onboard our coach connection run by Dysons Group, it was a fun 40 minute journey mostly on the A1 Princes Highway (yes, the same A1 that runs a whole loop around Australia!).
We alighted at Lakes Entrance Police Station and walked around the town and the coastline, it was a relaxing experience and definitely a huge contrast to the suburban streets in Melbourne (though the streets somewhat look like sections of Point Nepean Road in Mornington, except with less foot and road traffic)
It was honestly pretty funny that we travelled close to 5 hours to get to this town, but we truly enjoyed ourselves on the train and along the journey. It was another 5 hours back to Melbourne after a less than two hour layover in Lakes Entrance, where we spent two hours on a coach to Traralgon, and another two on a V/line train back to Melbourne.
Bottom Line
Despite some may say the journey is a waste of time, we enjoyed our quick and affordable getaway from Melbourne to Lakes Entrance by public transport, spending almost 11 hours on V/line trains and coaches. I’d recommend this itinerary to those interested in regional Victorian public transportation, especially those interested in getting a glimpse of what Gippsland looks like in a day.