Geelong trains return as V/Line begins staged service recovery

V/Line services will begin running at reduced capacity from noon on Thursday, bringing an end to more than 24 hours of suspended travel.

Services across the network were halted early Wednesday morning following a national Telstra outage, and will resume after extensive radio testing.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) confirmed to V/Line this morning that trains could safely begin using the National Train Communications System.

Though the Telstra outage was mostly fixed on Wednesday, trains were unable to begin sooner due to interference with the SIM cards used on each train to communicate with the wider network.

Overnight, V/Line staff also worked to move trains that were stuck sitting at platforms in hopes of returning services as quickly as possible on Thursday.

“Before resuming services, V/Line conducted its own testing and operational checks to ensure communications between network controllers and train crews were stable, continuous and reliable,” a V/Line spokesperson said.

“These tests were successful and confirmed that critical communications systems are operating at the level required for the safe operation of trains across the network.”

V/Line will gradually restore services on all lines, with delays expected as the network returns to its regular timetable.

“We acknowledge this has been inconvenient to many people and thank passengers for their patience as we worked with Telstra and ARTC to safely restore services,” the spokesperson said.

Most passengers were left without replacement transport during the shutdown, with only limited coach services operating.

V/Line chief executive William Tieppo said it had been difficult to source enough replacement busses for the network.

“A disruption of this scale is unprecedented for us,” he said.

“Organising a bus replacement program for a whole network that normally runs thousands of people a day normally takes months to plan.

“This is a disruption for our passengers and the Victorian community. We’re apologetic for that, for our own customers and our own passengers. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Travellers can find the most up-to-date service information at vline.com.au