Fire near Southern Cross causes peak hour delays on Geelong line

Geelong commuters have faced another bout of peak hour train pain on Wednesday evening, with a number of services cancelled due to a fire under tracks.

Fire at West Melbourne delays six train lines Picture 7News

Geelong commuters have faced another bout of peak hour train pain on Wednesday evening, with a number of services cancelled due to a fire under tracks.

Emergency services were called to a blaze under the Dudley St railway bridge in West Melbourne, between Southern Cross and North Melbourne stations about 3pm.

Fire Rescue Victoria arrived to find smoke and flames coming from the Metrol storage building under the bridge.

Firefighters donned breathing equipment to enter the building and found evidence squatters had been living on the site.

No one was found inside and there were no injuries reported, and the fire was under control by 3.30pm.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but will be investigated.

Heavy smoke closed services on a number of lines, including Geelong.

The Bendigo, Ballarat and Seymour lines were affected, as well as a number of metro lines.

V/Line announced via X, services would be halted just after 3.30pm, announcing at 5pm they would resume, but passengers were told to brace for delays of up to 90 mins.

It follows a string of disruptions for Geelong commuters in recent months.

A rail equipment fault at Southern Cross caused significant delays to a number of services last Thursday.

Last month, buses replaced trains between Lara and Wyndham Vale on multiple occasions.

A frustrated commuter said the disruptions were “disgraceful”.

“In the past month I cannot recall arriving to Southern Cross on time once when travelling from Waurn Ponds,” he said.

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Originally published as Fire near Southern Cross causes peak hour delays on Geelong line