Melbourne commute: Passengers affected by Metro trains shutdown to get refunds

Train services were shut down on Thursday due to a fault in the computer control system that caused the entire network to grind to a halt. Passengers affected by the incident during the evening peak will be compensated, the company's chief executive declared.

Metro Trains chief executive Mike Haughton explained the train control system failure meant they could no longer “see” the trains so for safety reasons. Therefore, the system was completely shut down.

Haughton said they understand the delays are frustrating and apologised to Metro’s costumers. "We will be refunding passengers affected by the disruption and we'll confirm details of how that will happen later today,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Services on most lines are back to normal on Friday morning except for the Stony Point, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines. The computer problem halted trains, mostly at stations, at 4:00 pm AEST for almost an hour. Some passengers were trapped between stations.

Metro said the issue was resolved. However, delays continued through the evening as the system slowly resumed to normal.

Affected commuters have taken to Twitter to express their anger. One user wrote about “Hunger Games.”

Technicians are monitoring the system. Metro is yet to determine the cause of the system shutdown.

The train service, Haughton said, has systems in place to track how the system is working. He said not until their investigation is complete that they will determine the specific root cause of the failure.

For Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan, the incident was “unacceptable, infuriating and frustrating.” She said she ordered that Metro must perform a broad investigation into Thursday’s delay, adding the priority was to restore the services and ensure they’re running well in the morning peak period.

David Hodgett, the Opposition transport spokesman, said it was a “complete chaos” and urged the Premier to come out and tell people how he was going to fix the system. "I think Daniel Andrews should come out today and say he's going to compensate every person," ABC quotes him as saying.

He also questioned the point of having a backup system if it can't come online quickly. It was supposed to give information to commuters about the issue and the alternative modes of transport they can consider to get home.

It is not the first time Melbourne's train services have been shut down. Last year, the Metro control centre near Southern Cross Station was shut down for 30 minutes and was evacuated after a false alarm.

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