V/Line services
Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (18:24): (1475) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I demand is an explanation as to why the V/Line rail communication systems keep failing, leaving thousands of regional travellers stranded. This evening at 4 pm the V/Line train services to Geelong, Ballarat, Gippsland and Seymour were cancelled without notice due to a major equipment failure. Thousands of people were stranded and told to navigate the Metro system to other stations, where a few coaches would be waiting. This system is used by elderly people, school groups, workers and regional people who rarely use public transport outside of trips on V/Line. How are they supposed to navigate this? How are they supposed to find their way home? This is not the first time this has happened either. There have been numerous reports of this happening in the last few weeks, some caused by incidents on the tracks like the grassfire near Wandong on Monday. This evening’s event seems to have no explanation. Minister, I demand an explanation for my constituents as to why the V/Line communication systems keep failing.