The Rail Tram and Bus Union will hold rolling strikes across the VLine network from next week as negotiations for a new enterprise agreement with that state government falter.

Bans start next Wednesday when there'll be no services on the Bendigo line. The Ballarat, Ararat and Maryborough lines will stop the next day. Similar bans will be imposed on different lines on different days culminating on the last Friday before Christmas when the union is halting services on the Geelong and Warrnambool lines all day.

The Rail Tram and Bus Union says that unlike the tram and metro trains disputes, this action is all about conditions. The union wants VLine to hire more workers in the name of improving service and reliability.

Union secretary Luba Grigorovitch says if there is no ribbon to cut or shiny project to announce, it's clear the government is not interested.

Negotiations for a new enterprise agreement have been underway for four months, leading to this action.