The Australian Rail Track Corporation has been asked to explain itself after last week’s V/Line fiasco, which saw a train slow to a 25km/h crawl thanks to signalling faults.

The ARTC’s response? It “can’t ensure a signalling problem won’t happen again — all railways have to manage signalling disruptions from time to time. Our aim is to rectify any problem as quickly as possible when they do happen.”

To a certain degree, that is understandable — few, if any, systems are so perfect that issues don’t occur from time to time — and on any other line this might be acceptable.

The problem is, issues on the Albury line are hardly a rare occurrence.

Commuters have come to expect delays and faults so much so that, far from being understanding, their patience is wearing thin.

Passengers have been waiting almost a decade for the North East line to run smoothly.

And while there have undoubtedly been improvements over the past year or so, any problems that arise should be scrutinised closely to ensure we finally get the service we deserve.