Recent failure of rail overhead at Armadale was found to be recently serviced

On Tuesday the 3rd February just 2 days into the new working week with trains running via the Metro Tunnel on a full time basis encountered a serious issue where the overhead around Armadale (on the eastern side of the metro tunnel) was damaged by a HCMT using the section.

The affect of this damage was to close a critical section (Cranbourne/Pakenham and Sunbury Lines) and to strand many metro tunnel services effectively shutting down 3 major lines for hours. Passengers were also stranded for approximately 2.5 hours on trains with no air conditioning and no means to be detrained. Questions are now being asked about the handling of this incident, but also how the network could have recovered faster with a track section out of service in the afternoon peak.

Melbourne is not a small city, in-fact it is a large city by world standards where people and commerce depend heavily on the availability of moving people between locations with a high degree of certainty. This is the ONLY JOB Metro Trains has and for years they have been failing to do this reliably. Our productivity and commerce depends on the availability of the passenger rail network.

Let’s examine the circumstances around the failure of the overhead. It has come to my attention the section of overhead involved in the failure was recently serviced by a maintenance company/crew. There is a review of this work underway by Metro Trains post incident. Metro clearly being tight lipped on this one (only a rumour but a solid one) as they work through the works undertaken by an external contractor.

Points removed at Caulfield ensure incidents cannot be managed effectively

Now why could the network not recover from this incident by routing trains around the problem given there are many through tracks available between Caulfield and the city bypassing the Metro Tunnel?

Some will remember the incident in August 2024 where metro trains required passengers to leave a current service and change platforms at Caulfield due to issues on the line. Why was this required when a better solution would have been to reroute the train onto a different line at Caulfield avoiding the issue?

Post the level crossing removals works and with the introduction of skyrail on the downside of Caulfield on the Dandenong Line, project teams made the ridiculous decision to remove the crossovers at Caulfield making it impossible to route trains onto different lines between the City and Caulfield to save money for Metro Trains (A Chinese owned company) and remove flexibility from the network.

Removing flexibility from the network has been ongoing for some time (perhaps without the knowledge of the Minister) as metro looks to reduce their expenses in maintenance and increase profit back to Asia. It is happening around the network.

Therefore, the incident of this week, I am reliably informed, could have been lessened by the use of those points at Caulfield, had they not been removed prior, ensuring when a line fails there is a way to recover. Use of the points would have meant trains could have been routed around the issue and continue to carry passengers on the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham Lines.

But this idea Metro Trains have of reducing the ability for train controllers to re-route around issues and keep a city of 5.5M people people moving does not stop there.

Metro Trains planning on removing access to the alternate mainline at Kensington

According to sources Metro trains Project Teams are planning to pressure management into removing points in Kensington handling train movements between the Metro Tunnel Portal (west) and the main lines into North Melbourne station. Not content with learning from their past mistakes the operator appears hell bent on causing even more stress for commuters.

This delusional position would make it impossible for trains to take any other route other than the metro tunnel even in a situation when the tunnel was closed due to an incident or maintenance. Incredible.

The mainline between the new Metro Tunnel portal (Kensington) and the city is a vital alternate path for V/Line and Sunbury Line passengers where the primary route is not available. It also prevents the running of services on Sunbury/Dandenong Line via North Melbourne and the city should this be decided after several months of metro tunnel traffic and on assessment about passenger travel.

Metro Trains need reminding this is not their rail network it is owned by the people of Victoria who are sick and tired of receiving poor service from an operator who many say should have been sacked a long time ago.