Big bus bill for Victorian regional train

Victoria will spend at least $30 million on replacement buses after thousands of regional train services have been cancelled.

Excessive wheel wear and problems with level crossing boom gates in January led to train cancellations that have continued on the V/Line network.

V/Line spent up to $2.5 million a week on buses from January 16 to March 21, before a changed timetable reduced that to $1 million a week.

From April 26, buses will cost the company $500,000 a week.

"We're expecting lower costs going forward," interim chief executive Gary Liddle told a parliamentary infrastructure committee on Tuesday.

Almost 80,000 refunds have been handed out to customers, with a further 2400 people still needing to tap their myki cards on to get their refunds.

Mr Liddle said once they finish handing out the total 80,700 refunds to eligible customers, it will have cost $1.7 million.

He did not have a final figure of the total cost to taxpayers over the months of cancellations.

Upgrades to boom gates are due to be completed in July.