THE North-East rail service has hit an all-time low with a replacement bus breaking down at Chiltern on Sunday night and 11 stranded passengers completing their trips in maxi-cabs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
V/Line has confirmed the embarrassing incident and urged anyone delayed for more than an hour to seek compensation.
The rail operator partly blamed the bus company from Sunshine for being slow to communicate the fault which led to the delayed response time in hailing two maxi-cabs required with one of the passengers most affected convinced the breakdown would eventually cost V/Line thousands of dollars in compensation.
“We would like to sincerely apologise to passengers for delays caused by a rail replacement coach breaking down near Chiltern on Sunday evening,” a V/Line spokesman said.
“As soon as V/Line was notified of the fault, our local staff worked quickly to arrange alternative transport for passengers to get them to their destination.”
The “stopping all stations” bus departed Albury station about 5.30pm and was headed for Southern Cross station in Melbourne.
V/Line has asked the bus company to improve its communication procedures for drivers when a fault does occur.
Sheridan Williams, who met the bus at Chiltern, was one of the most most affected passengers and confirmed she travelled in a maxi-cab all the way to Melbourne.
She confirmed the major communication breakdown between V/Line and the bus driver.
Ms Williams said there was “no conversation” between the driver and passengers.
“It took for one of us passengers to ring V/Line complaining before we got any communication about what was happening,” she said.
“It was probably half an hour before we actually got anything said that ‘we’re stopped here’.
“By that stage some people had got off and were organising their own transport and other arrangements.”
Ms Williams said the taxi meter was displaying $750 when she arrived in Melbourne.
A spokesperson for public transport minister Jacinta Allan said: “The minister has reiterated her expectation to V/Line that passenger communication is a priority, especially when services are disrupted unexpectedly.
”The minister has asked V/Line to review their processes around replacement buses to minimise the impact on passengers.”
The North-East line was hit by a string of train cancellations late last week and into the weekend due to “train faults” which followed an improvement in the service’s reliability in January compared to December.
The V/Line carriage which was the subject of a graffiti attack at Albury station the previous weekend has been cleaned and returned to service.
But it won’t stop Benambra MLA Bill Tilley asking Ms Allan in state parliament this week what plans were going to be put in place to prevent more trains from being vandalised when parked overnight in Albury.