Metro chief executive Andrew Lezala​ told a parliamentary hearing into the regional rail crisis that the operator had stepped up the greasing of tracks around Melbourne to avoid the risk of wheel damage that might force it to pull trains from service.

The accelerated rate of wheel wear afflicting V/Line's VLocity fleet has an abrasive effect on tracks, causing yet more damage to train wheels, Mr Lezala said.

"You can get a cascading effect once you've got this kind of wheel damage and you've got high friction between wheel and rail, until you restore your lubrication regime," Mr Lezala said under questioning from Victorian MPs.

"What we did find is we had got some drying of grease around the network and so we stepped up our lubrication regime to try and avoid any cascade and so far that has kept everything under control."

Excessive wheel wear had been found on one Metro train, Mr Lezala said.

Metro banned V/Line's VLocity trains from metropolitan tracks mid-last month after a boom gate failure, causing chaos for V/Line passengers who were forced onto buses. 

The ban is still in force for Gippsland services and will not be lifted until the national rail safety watchdog is satisfied the line is safe. 

The Andrews government said last week that it expected to finish work installing safety technology at 21 level crossings on the Pakenham line in mid-March, paving the way for V/Line trains to return.

But V/Line's acting chief Gary Liddle told the hearing that the government will not get the final say on when the ban is lifted. 

The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator will make the call and must be satisfied there is no risk of another boom gate failure. 

The issue of boom gates failing to close properly for V/Line trains has occurred four times in the past five years.

The current crisis is costing the state at least $250,000 a day in bus replacements and $23 million to make Pakenham line level crossings failsafe.    

Meanwhile, V/Line passengers who have been forced onto replacement buses have complained of being left in the dark, with no information about when buses will depart from towns along the line.

V/Line is rapidly pulling together a new timetable for replacement buses that includes better information about arrival times at intermediate stops. 

It expects to publish the timetable this week, Mr Liddle said.

"We are looking at having a time that a coach will leave at every station, we've taken that on board and will release a timetable that has the time that coaches actually leave stations, not just the start and end point on the line," Mr Liddle said.

Rapid wheel wear on V/Line's VLocity fleet of trains emerged in December and forced V/Line to withdraw more than a third of VLocity carriages from service. 

The decision, by then V/Line chief Theo Taifalos, to pull trains out of service to avoid the risk of derailment made it impossible for V/Line to run its timetable without calling on hundreds of replacement buses.

The crisis worsened when Metro banned V/Line's VLocity fleet from metropolitan tracks in a snap decision on January 15, after a boom gate failed to lower as a train approached the Progress Street level crossing in Dandenong.

Twenty per cent of V/Line's services each day have been cancelled and replaced with coaches. 

V/Line services are not expected to return to normal until June, when axle counters are installed on every level crossing between Pakenham and Caulfield.

The crisis cost Mr Taifalos his job. He fell on his sword on January 28, and was heavily criticised by Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan, who said V/Line had given her office inconsistent and unreliable advice about when services would return to normal.

Wheel flanges are being assessed for replacement on the entire VLocity fleet and an order of 60 new wheels arrived on Sunday.

David Hodgett, the Opposition spokesman for public transport, said V/Line and the state government should have prepared better for wheel wear issues after the Regional Rail Link opened in June. 

"When you're putting on more services, you do more maintenance," Mr Hodgett said. 

Mr Liddle told the hearing V/Line had expected increased wheel wear, but not at the rapid rate that has occurred.