Spilt Milk Canberra: Sydney festival goers furious after light rail service stopped

Sydney festival goers promised public transport from Canberra event Spilt Milk were left stranded in the freezing night when light rail services abruptly stopped.

Hundreds of Sydney festival goers were forced to walk into the freezing night when they were left stranded after light rail services in Canberra abruptly stopped near midnight on Saturday.

Keen music fans descended upon the nation’s capital during the weekend for Spilt Milk, an annual music festival attended by an estimated 8000 people this year, when they were abruptly told by Transport ACT staff to walk in the dark because light rail services had stopped.

Video footage of a packed tram carriage showed a Transport ACT staff member speaking on the announcer to tired looking festival goers that the “trains have been suspended, get off and walk.”

Loud groans could then be heard from the colourfully dressed up festival goers.

One festival attendee who was on the tram told The Daily Telegraph that they were staying in Canberra CBD and were forced to walk for over an hour from the festival venue EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra).

Hundreds of Sydney Spilt Milk festival goers are angry after being left stranded by Canberra light rail.

The exhausted attendees walked up to an hour in the cold night air.

Transport ACT and Spilt Milk organisers had previously told festival attendees that a special event timetable would be in place with increased frequency in both directions to and from EPIC from 11:30am – 4:30pm and 9:00pm – 1:00am.

Transport ACT in response to the complaints said: “A special event timetable was in place for the festival. However, Light rail and bus services were temporarily suspended for approximately 20 minutes for safety reasons to allow Spilt Milk organisers and ACT Policing to move large crowds of pedestrians walking on the tracks and alignment........ Services were reinstated at approximately 11:45pm.”

Jennifer, a festival goer from Sydney that was on the Gungahlin line said: “This is absolutely ridiculous. So f***ing annoying. I thought Sydney transport was bad on days but this is so much worse. I am freezing. We can’t even get an Uber because all the roads are blocked off.”