Commuters call for refunds after power failure leads to peak-hour train delays

A POWER FAILURE has been revealed to be behind yesterday’s Melbourne peak-hour train “chaos” as commuters call for refunds.

Commuters cram on to a platform at Southern Cross railway station. Picture: Channel 7/Twitter

A POWER failure has been revealed to be behind yesterday’s Melbourne peak-hour train “chaos” as commuters call for refunds.

Hurstbridge, Mernda, Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein and Glen Waverley lines suffered major delays after a track fault at Flinders Street just after 4pm, while trespassers on the tracks at Narre Warren and Croydon added to commuters’ woes.

Metro Trains today said a loss of power to track points — the mechanical switches guiding trains from one set of tracks to another — was behind the disruption.

“Getting home was frustrating for many of our passengers last night, and we again apologise to them for the experience,” a Metro spokesperson said, adding the incident was being investigated.

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Yep let’s all get a tram. pic.twitter.com/NyXbMiy3cu

— Andrew (@hawksandrew) October 24, 2018

Commuters cram on to a platform at Southern Cross railway station. Picture: Channel 7/Twitter

Buses replaced trains from Parliament to Clifton Hill until trains resumed about an hour-and-a-half later.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen labelled the delays “catastrophic” and said Metro should consider providing refunds.

“More than that they need to make sure this sort of catastrophic major delay doesn’t happen again,” he added.

Signal issue on the train line. And we have lots of disgruntled passengers. Including me. #metroTrains pic.twitter.com/mVdFcf2N2C

— Nick Wong (@methylnick) October 24, 2018

Hurstbridge commuter Moshidi Manaka said her trip home from Melbourne Central to Dennis train station was tripled to 90 minutes.

“I witnessed a woman crying out of frustration at not being able to pick up her child in time from childcare,” she said.

“The situation at Parliament was chaotic, it seemed to be a bit of a mess.

“It was crazy.

“People should be compensated.

“They (Metro) should run free trains to the city tomorrow.”

Metro said it would provide compensation if it failed to meet its performance targets for October, which is the delivery of 98 per cent of scheduled services, as well as 90 per cent of metropolitan services on time.

See what commuters said about the delays on social media:

Such a failure services in the whole afternoon peak hour today. pic.twitter.com/tGCUex4nZi

— Michael Kan (@reachmitch) October 24, 2018

@metrotrains at Clifton Hill. What's the bet we just wasted an hour getting here and only 2 passengers will get on the train? pic.twitter.com/ErZ5uZyoFu

— Ian Kaing (@AznStallion) October 24, 2018

@northernassist @AndyBurnhamGM @metrotrains absolute disgrace as usual. Gotta be the worst in Europe pic.twitter.com/oYgjTZZkNy

— in (@Nenjamib) October 24, 2018

What's more annoying is that by the time anyone was able to get to Clifton Hill, the trains had resumed again from Flinders.
The communication is terrible - with this many frequent delays and suspensions you'd think Metro would have a better response plan.

— Jaybberwocky (@Jaybberwocky) October 24, 2018