V/LINE has vowed to check every section of cable on the Geelong line after train services were disrupted twice in one week by a signal fault.
The faults on April 3 and 10 were caused by a broken cable near Little River.
On April 3, passengers were trapped on trains between Werribee and Little River for up to five hours after a fault was discovered during evening peak-hour services.
V/Line then discovered a fault in the track about noon on April 10 and
ran replacement buses between Geelong and Melbourne until trains resumed at 12.23pm the next day.
V/Line CEO Rob Barnett said engineers would check the line over the next several weeks.
He said the train operator was also working on ways to respond faster to major problems like cut cables, lightning strikes or traffic accidents involving signal equipment.
Mr Barnett’s comments came as Little River commuters accused V/Line of leaving them stranded for almost two hours last Wednesday. Commuters claimed a replacement bus failed to arrive in place of the scheduled 11.48am service.
Although the first train of the day left South Geelong at 12.23pm, it wasn’t due to stop at Little River. The first train to stop at Little River didn’t arrive until 1.48pm.
V/Line spokesman James Kelly said two replacement buses arrived at Little River for the 11.48am service, but said nobody was waiting at the station.
However, between 11.30am and 12.15pm, the Weekly spoke to commuters waiting for the service, which they say failed to show.
One commuter, who asked not to be named, said she was furious the service hadn’t arrived because it meant a further 90-minute wait.
“We didn’t hear anything about the trains not running. There should’ve been an announcement,” she said.
Mr Kelly said the drivers of the two replacement buses said they stopped at Little River station, but he was unable to answer the Weekly’s questions about when the last bus arrived.
