| Train delays spoil Christmas day |
| By Anthony Radford
Transport
UP to 500 people were stranded at Melbourne’s Southern Cross railway station for almost two hours on Christmas Day as signals on the Bendigo line failed.
It was the third high-profile failure of the new fast train signal system in less a month.
In November, Victorian shadow Transport minister Terry Mulder was late for a meeting with V/Line management when his train from Bendigo was replaced with a bus.
Last month new Transport minister Lynne Kosky was late for a press conference at the Bendigo train station when she, too, was forced to take a bus because of signal failure.
Opposition leader Ted Baillieu was the first politician to suffer the ignomany of travelling to Melbourne on a bus when his train was cancelled in July.
Light rain is seemingly the cause of the signal failures, however a spokesperson for the company that made them, Westinghouse, was unavailable for comment.
On Christmas day passengers, including some children and the elderly, were forced to wait at Southern Cross station as staff chaotically tried to organise a fleet of buses after signal failures.
Bendigo resident Kaye Feckner was among those trying to get home for her Christmas celebrations after a night at Carols by Candlelight at the
Myer Music Bowl. “We went to where we were told to go and there were people everywhere, at least 500,” she said.
“It was chaotic. People were getting agitated.
“Everyone had their day planned. They didn’t know what to do.”
When the buses did come, Mrs Feckner said the chaos continued.
“People were pushing and shoving because each bus only took 76 people,” she said.
“There were a lot of elderly people and families with children.
“Of all days for it to happen it had to be Christmas Day.”
Despite the chaos, Mrs Feckner was full of praise for the staff. “The staff did an excellent job under the circumstances,” she said.
“There was no PA system so they were under a bit of pressure and were very apologetic.”
A V/Line spokesperson confirmed the delays were caused by a signal fault.
Despite the high-profile cancellations, he said the amount of services affected was low.
“Since the train came back on line since February, 30 trains have been cancelled because of signal failure,” he said.
“That is an average of two to three trains cancelled each month. We have about 1400 services each month.
“We always try to organise replacement transport as quickly as we can.”
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