The State Opposition has called for a formal inquiry into Tuesday 3 February rail network disruption, where peak-hour disruption left thousands of Cranbourne and East Pakenham line passengers stranded for up to two and a half hours.
The State Government has rejected the call.
The disruption occurred on just the second working day of the new Metro Tunnel timetable, but the power faults, which led to the disruption, were not related to the Tunnel itself.
The State Liberals stated that the only way to get to the bottom of the rail network failures is through a proper inquiry that examines how much power is being drawn from the network by new High Capacity Metro Trains (HCMT), whether the system is structurally capable of supporting the new HCMT trains, and whether the electrical substation network has received sufficient investment to ensure it has capacity for the increased load on the system.
Shadow Minister for Public Transport Matthew Guy said if the Premier were serious about “new solutions,” fixing the rail network should be the first priority.
“It beggars belief that the largest commuter rail network in Australia could be brought to its knees by a single sagging cable,” he said.
“Melbourne commuters need confidence that the system is sound at a basic infrastructure level, not just shiny new trains.
“Victorians don’t want a free day of travel. They want a reliable network that works when it is supposed to.”
In response to the inquiry call, a State Government spokesperson said: “We won’t take lectures from Jess Wilson’s Liberals whose track record on transport is cutting services across the state and cutting infrastructure funding.
“Jess Wilson’s Liberals will say anything to distract from her $11.1 billion blackhole which means one thing: cuts.
“Cuts to train services. Cuts to transport infrastructure.”
On Tuesday 3 February, thousands of afternoon-peak commuters on the Cranbourne and East Pakenham lines were stuck in the trains without air conditioning in 30-degree weather for up to two and a half hours, after a fault with overhead wires in the Armadale Station area at around 5pm.
The power faults affected Metro Tunnel services and a small section of the Sunbury line
Buses replaced trains on the Cranbourne/Pakenham and Sunbury lines between West Footscray and Caulfield stations, but the passengers were told it would take over 60 minutes for the buses to arrive.
According to Metro Trains, to keep passengers and staff safe, the two trains closest to the fault remained in the position where they stopped until the situation was confirmed to be safe for Metro staff to help passengers off the train and to walk to nearby Malvern station.
Passengers were helped off the first train from 6.30pm, and off the second train from 7pm.
Local resident Steven Agius, who was one of the thousands stranded in the train, said it took him 4.5 hours to get home that night.
He got on at the State Library at 4.30pm and was evacuated from the train at 7.30pm.
“That was my first day of experiencing the new Metro Tunnel, so that was great fun,” Steven said.
He recalled that at around 5.15pm, the train just stopped for no real reason, and he realised that the power had gone out.
“Everything was turned off, and they kept saying that please don’t open the doors because it could be live wires on the roof of the train, so they had to get someone to actually clear them,” he said.
“But it ended up that one of the passengers took matters into their own hands and pulled the emergency thing, which somehow managed to open one of the doors.
“That was literally a breath of fresh air.”
When asked what the experience of stuck in the train for 2.5 hours was like, Steven said it was okay for him.
“They kept saying that it’ll be fixed soon, and then once the message saying buses have been ordered, and they’ll be here in 60 minutes, but they kept saying that over and over again, so it was okay,” he said.
“There were a couple of people who were stressed.
“But, overall, it was in pretty good humour. Actually, some of the older women cracked some pretty good jokes.
“A lot of us were sweating.”
Steven, who works from home three days a week, said this was probably the first and only disruption he had experienced for the past two or three years.
“I’ve never had anything like this at all before,” he said.
The overhead power fault was fixed overnight, but select services were cancelled the next morning, including three morning peak-hour services on the Cranbourne Line, due to some trains being out of position.
On Wednesday 4 February morning, Metro Trains spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience this disruption caused and thanked passengers for their patience.
“While we know there was a lot of extra travel time for passengers, safety is always our top priority,” a spokesperson said.
“As a result of the Metro Tunnel being unavailable, we directed passengers to the City Loop as the alternate way in and out of the city.”
The State Government informed that an investigation is still ongoing to understand the exact cause of the disruption, which is related to damaged overhead wires.
