From 31 March 2023, Vline fares in regional Victoria will be capped at the same daily rate as metropolitan zone 1/2 fares. So no matter where you decide to travel in the state of Victoria*, you won't be paying more than someone in metropolitan Melbourne.
This also means that potentially, passengers with yearly and monthly passes who only tend to use zones 1 and 2 can probably travel regionally to Geelong or similar locations with their existing passes**
This new reduction in VLine train fares was one of Victoria Labor's pre-election promises. The results of this new change are going to be interesting, as there is an important balance to strike between ticket prices and service capacity/delivery.
This raises a few other issues, as a reduction in fares would almost certainly encourage more people to use the services, this would mean that some already full services would become overcrowded very quickly with more people taking advantage of the new capped prices. I might go into more detail at a later date...but in short...expect Vline (especially on weekends and off peak) to be way more crowded come March 31.
*Some exceptions may apply depending on the route. However, from my understanding, all myki regional zones will be accessible with a $9.20 daily cap (as of 15/02/2023 and this is expected to increase every year based on CPI)
**Not yet confirmed as of yet
This is great news, hopefully it means I can visit my children who live very far away from me more often!