It's the morning peak in Melbourne's booming northern suburbs, but trains on the Upfield line only run every 15 to 20 minutes.

Merri-bek City Council Mayor Helen Davidson says when a train is cancelled, it means waiting 40 minutes to get to work.

"Residents talk about this all the time, it's such a problem,"

she said.

"Waiting on this train with unreliable and infrequent trains means they're not getting to their doctor's appointments, they're not getting to the universities and the cities — and they become car-reliant."

The "problem" is the last 4-kilometre section of the line, which is single-track from Gowrie to Upfield station.

This means multiple trains can't run in both directions, limiting the number of trains that can run at a time.

Victoria's independent expert advisory body

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