A trip to Sydney

I decided to make the trip up to Sydney this month, catching the XPT north from Melbourne.

And being greeted by a light rail vehicle tram as soon as I arrived at Central Station.

I saw a double decker train the next day.

And presumably took some other photos up there, but they weren’t of trains – as I still haven’t uploaded them to my Flickr account.

Then then flew back home to Melbourne – to be greeted by a Myki visitors pack advertisement inside the Qantas terminal.

Along with a SkyBus one.

A decade on and the Myki machines at Melbourne Airport are just as hard to find, and SkyBus is still the only public transport route that runs from the airport to the CBD.

Melbourne Central

I also went on a tour of the Melbourne Central Tower this month, where we got to look out over the roof of Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, towards Myer House and Emporium.

But unfortunately we only got to look down on the glass cone, not look inside like some previous tours did.

Technology

It seems like an everyday scene now, but a decade ago seeing an entire tram full of passengers absorbed in their smartphones was still novel.

But Telstra was still behind the times – rollout out their ‘Telstra Air’ wifi hotspots to payphones, despite almost everyone having stacks of mobile data to use on their phone.

The Wi-Fi network is still in place today, but free since 2023.

Trams

‘Safety’ zone trams stops were still common place in the Melbourne CBD a decade ago – this one was on Collins Street at William Street.

This particular tram stop was replaced by a platform stop in June 2015, with the last safety zones in the CBD upgraded in July 2024. As for the rest of the tram network – the December 2022 deadline to make all tram stops accessible has been and gone, with hundreds still non compliant.

Meanwhile Yarra Trams was coming up with crackpot schemes like a coffee stall taking up precious space for passengers at the Flinders and Swanston Street stop.

Luckily that idea got kicked out very quickly.

A handful of 1970s-era Z1 class trams were also still kicking around the network, with their crappy little sliding windows and only two doors per side – despite having supposed to have been retired a decade earlier in favour of the incoming low floor C and D class trams, but kept on due to increasing patronage.

This particular tram – Z3.86 – was eventually retired in August 2015, following the delivery of the new E class trams.

A different flavour of stupidity are people who drive down Swanston Street – this driver managed to break down in the middle of the tram stop, and drum up help from passersby to get clear of the tracks.

While this confused country bumpkin headed up Swanston Street in their LandCruiser got pulled up by an unmarked police car, and got sent on their way.

And a decade on – nothing much has really changed.

V/Line trains

Here we see an original liveried VLocity train departing Richmond station for the city.

These days the entire VLocity fleet is in the PTV purple livery, the open air ramps at Richmond station are now roofed over, and Eureka Tower has been usurped by Australia 108 as the tallest building in Australia.

Down in Geelong I photographed a 6-car V/Line train approaching the brand new terminus station of Waurn Ponds.

Opened in October 2014, Waurn Ponds gained a second platform in 2022, and the 8 kilometers of track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds has just been duplicated.

And a V/Line train in are more shocking condition was VLocity set VL12.

Involved in a collision on the Werribee line in August 2014 where a V/Line train passed a signal at stop and crashed into the rear of a Metro train, it had to be dragged to the workshops at Bendigo to be repaired.

The collision resulted in Metro trains rewriting the rules around passing a signal at stop, while VLocity VL12 reentered service in March 2015 as the only 2-car VLocity set to ever wear the PTV livery.

A load of rubbish

After the removal of rubbish bins from Melbourne stations due to the “increased terror alert level”, they all got dumped in a pile at Flinders Street Station.

And the average passenger responded as you might expect – like a filthy pig just leaving their rubbish on the ground.

The bins were eventually returned in March 2015, with the exception of the private management at Southern Cross Station, who still refuse to place any rubbish bins on their platforms.

A different kind of rubbish

It was the leadup to the 2014 State Election, and the Napthine Government was ramped up their ‘Moving Victoria’ campaign, promoting their unfundedthe Melbourne Rail Link project.

Conceived as an alternative to the Metro Tunnel, the Melbourne Rail Link tunnel would have run between South Yarra and Southern Cross, serving new stations at Domain and Fishermans Bend – instead of Arden and Parkville, who would be stuck using buses and trams.

But as you might have guessed, the Melbourne Rail Link project went nowhere, construction of the Metro Tunnel started a few years later and is almost finished, work on the Melbourne Airport Rail project has been stop-start, and a rail link to Fishermans Bend is as far away as ever.

And another piece of pork barrelling I photographed was this Denis Napthine’s $115 million dollar train on the Frankston line – or what the government called the ‘Bayside Rail Project’.

Announced in May 2013, the Bayside Rail Project was promoted as bringing the newest trains in Melbourne – the X’Trapolis – to the Frankston line.

However these trains accelerate faster than anything else in the Melbourne fleet, putting them at risk of beating the boom barriers at level crossings, but because of the upcoming election, it was decided in October 2014, to just run a single X’Trapolis train on the line each morning, but with a speed restrictor on the throttle and two drivers in the cab.

Following changes to level crossing timings on the line in August 2016, the restriction on X’Trapolis trains was removed, allowing any X’Trapolis set to run revenue services to Frankston, and more amazingly a decade later, the bulk of the level crossings on the Frankston line don’t even exist anymore.

And a third kind of rubbish

For decades this ancient advertisement for Medibank Private faced passengers at Melbourne Central platform 1.

But 2014 saw this billboard finally removed from the platform wall, replaced by the ‘Xtrack TV’ digital screens with their insipid loop of advertisements – with audio soundtrack.

And Medibank Private – it’s still just as useless as the rest of the Australian private health insurance system.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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The first coincidence

The story starts in 1977, when the Victorian Railways called tenders for 100 new air-conditioned trains for the Melbourne suburban network. Comeng Dandenong won the $108.5 million contract in 1979 with a stainless steel train with GEC traction equipment.

The first train of what are known as the ‘Comeng trains‘ was handed over in September 1981.

Weston Langford photo

A follow-on order for 90 additional trains followed in 1982, the last of which entered service in June 1989, with around half of the fleet still in service today.

Meanwhile over in South Australia, in 1983 tenders were called for 20 suburban diesel railcars for Adelaide. Both Comeng Granville and Comeng Dandenong submitted bids for various combinations of single and double-deck trains with diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic transmissions.

In 1985 it was announced that the Comeng Dandenong design was the winner, marrying a Victorian Railways derived stainless steel bodyshell with a Stromberg diesel-electric traction package. The body shells were assembled at Dandenong and then transported by rail to Dry Creek in Adelaide for final fitout.

The first of the ‘3000/3100 class‘ railcars entered service in November 1987.

Image via Wikipedia

An additional 50 railcars being completed by Clyde Engineering between 1992 and 1996, with the fleet still being in service today.

And lighting strikes twice

In 2001 the Victorian Government called tenders for 29 2-car diesel railcars for V/Line. The $206.8 million contract was awarded to Bombardier Transportation, who had taken over the Comeng Dandenong plant through a series of corporate takeovers. The train was designed at their Brisbane offices, and was intended to follow on from their previous XPlorer train designed for NSW, but used a new bodyshell mated with a cab designed by the team behind the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Dubbed ‘VLocity‘, the first train entered service in 2005.

And in the decades since, over 100 trains to the same design have joined the V/Line fleet thanks to dozens of follow-on orders.

And in 2011, the South Australia approved the electrification of the Adelaide suburban network, and needed some new electric trains to run on it. Bombardier con the contract, based on their bid combining the VLocity railcar bodyshell with the underfloor design of the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Classified as the ‘4000 class‘, the first train entered service in February 2014.

Like the previous Adelaide order the Dandenong plant was involved in the contract, but this time they were responsible for completion of the entire train, which was then transported carriage-by-carriage by road for the thanks 700 kilometre section of standard gauge between the broad gauge rail networks of Adelaide and Melbourne.

An interior related footnote

As delivered the Comeng trains in Melbourne had 2-by-3 seating with tartan cushions on white fibreglass bases.

John Dunn photo

A design also applied to the Adelaide version.

In the 2000s the Melbourne trains were refurbished, with the seats replaced with a more spartan design with less padding.

An idea also copied by Adelaide.

But Victoria’s VLocity trains designed for country services received 2-by-2 high back seats with comfortable padding.

A seating layout that the Adelaide 4000 class trains also received, but with a more suburban style seat.

Sources

The book series “Comeng: A History of Commonwealth Engineering” by John Dunn covers the history of all four classes of train mention in this piece, across Volume 4 (1977-1985) and Volume 5 (1985-1990 plus ABB, Adtranz and Bombardier to 2012).

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What’s under the hood?

Each train is made up of three carriages, and each carriage has two diesel engines beneath it…

A 19-litre Cummins QSK19-R rated at 559 kW (750 hp) to move the train.

And a 5.9 litre Cummins 6BT5.9G generator set rated at 85 kW to power the air conditioning, lights, and auxiliaries.

The Cummins QSK19-R engine is used in trains around the world, with over 1,700 units already in service.

The original QSK19-R, released in 1999 with the High-Pressure Injection fuel system (HPI), powered the world’s fastest diesel railcar to 222 km/hr (138 mph) and quickly set new industry standards for high reliability and low operating costs in passenger rail service.

The all-new Cummins QSK19-R, now upgraded with a Modular Common Rail Fuel System (MCRS) and urea Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) aftertreatment, delivers the same reliable power and economical operation at Tier 4/Stage IIIB emissions standards.

Clean-burn technology significantly reduces engine-out Particulate Matter (PM) and does not require an exhaust particulate filter. Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions are reduced with urea SCR, which has proven to be robust, reliable and extremely effective.

Closed-crankcase ventilation eliminates 100 percent of crankcase emissions at all times. Efficient, service-free filtration strips the oils and feeds the gases back into the engine for complete combustion, ensuring a clean engine compartment and a cleaner environment.

A few statistics

V/Line’s fleet of trains consume around 200 litres per 100 km travelled:

Fuel consumption rates (diesel) for V/Line has been based on fuel consumption data and vehicle kilometres travelled provided by V/Line for 2014/15.

And in 2008 V/Line was using around 31 million litres of diesel a year:

With a loco using about three litres of diesel per kilometre, V/Line gets through a whole lot of fuel over the course of a year.

In fact, V/Line bought about 31 million litres of diesel in the past year – an increase of 30 per cent since the introduction of VLocity trains, the start of the new service plan and the
installation of fuel points at Bendigo and Geelong.

With only a few fuel companies in Australia large enough to supply the amount of diesel needed to run our fleet, it’s important that V/Line gets the best deal going.

In September last year, tender submissions closed for the V/Line bulk fuel contract, worth a not-so-paltry $35 million. Six companies put in their tenders after attending briefings and site inspections and the contract has been awarded to BP.

In an effort to reduce emissions in 2012–13 V/Line trialled catalytic converters on VLocity trains:

V/Line has started trialling a catalytic converter on a VLocity unit with the aim of reducing diesel emissions. Catalytic converters change toxic exhaust into a less toxic substance and are common on motor vehicles which run on petrol. The converter sits in the exhaust system, and while testing is still being carried out, if found successful, consideration will be given to retrofitting the VLocity fleet.

In 2015 they started spruiking their use of BP ‘Ultimate Diesel’ to fuel the fleet.

And in their 2017-18 annual report they stated that energy consumption intensity was falling.

Energy consumption intensity continued to decrease at V/Line in 2017-18, falling to 0.839 MJ/passenger km. This is a 3.3 per cent decrease from the previous year’s consumption of 0.868 MJ/passenger km.

And the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s air quality assessment for the Caulfield to Dandenong project spelled out the emissions created by VLocity trains

Table 3 Emission Factors

Pollutant	Emission Rate, kg/h	Emission Factor, g/km
NO2	0.45	9.05
PM10	0.1	2.01
PM2.5	0.1	2.01

For two 3‐car trains (6‐car sets). The emission factors were calculated based on a line speed of 80 km/h.

So what emissions standards do V/Line’s trains meet?

Back in 2006 someone asked V/Line that very question:

For over a year I have been corresponding with the state government on particulate pollution from V/Line Diesels around Spencer Street. There is a national voluntary reporting mechanism for emissions (the National Pollution Inventory, managed in Victoria by the EPA) and V/Line has volunteered not to do it. As part of the to-ing and fro-ing, I did get one letter from the DOI which had this to say.

Their answer at the time being:

Over the last five years, the Government commenced updating its country passenger rolling stock, opting for the VLocity passenger cars in preference to locomotive-hauled carriages. VLocity engines comply with Euro 2 emission standards.

In 2018 I decided to ask pose the same to them, to see what has changed:

I was wondering:
– what exhaust emission standards do V/Line’s VLocity trains meet (eg: United States ‘Tier X’ or European Union ‘Euro X’ standards)
– has there been any work done to reduce the exhaust emissions of VLocity trains since they first entered service a decade or so ago, and
– are there any plans to reduce the exhaust emissions of VLocity trains in future

And they eventually got back to me:

Our Fleet Maintenance Manager has advised that current traction engine is designed to Euro II requirements.

Some VLocity have had a particulate filter added to the exhaust system. This upgrade has only started this year and it is planned to upgrade the remainder of the fleet as they undergo overhaul. With this modifications the engines are capable of Euro IIIa.

A Euro IV package is currently being investigated for new builds and replacement engines.

So some progress, but plenty of work still to do.

Datasheets

• Cummins 6BT5.9G generator set datasheet
• Cummins QSK19-R engine datasheet

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V/Line fleet overview

The newest trains in the V/Line fleet are the VLocity diesel multiple units. Each train is made up of three carriages, each with a diesel engine beneath.

The first units entered service in 2004, with additional trains rolling out of the Bombardier factory at Dandenong every few months.

Next up are the Sprinter diesel multiple units. Mechanically similar to the newer VLocity trains, the Sprinter fleet was built between 1993 and 1995, so are now approaching 25 years of age.

But the oldest part of the V/Line fleet is what they call their ‘classic fleet’, carriages hauled by diesel locomotives.

The N class are the core of the V/Line locomotive fleet, with 25 units built between 1985 and 1987.

Along with a single A class locomotive – built in 1985 on the frame of a B class locomotive built way back in 1952.

While V/Line’s carriage fleet fall into three classes.

The newest are the ‘N’ type carriages, built in the early 1980s and used on long distance services.

The ‘H’ type carriages used on commuter trains are younger, having been built in 1984-1992, but using the bodies of retired ‘Harris’ suburban trains from the 1950s.

While the oldest are the ‘Z’ type carriages used on long distance services – built way back in the 1950s, and the subject to cracked bogies back in 2013.

So which train is more reliable?

One would expect something brand new should be more reliable than something old, and that a simple piece of machinery is less likely to break down than a complicated one.

Using that logic, a carriage is a simple box with doors on wheels, a locomotive is something complicated with an engine that can break down, and a diesel multiple unit is the most complex, putting all of the above into a tight space.

So which ones breaks down the most? The V/Line annual report for 2016-17 has the answer.

New trains are more reliable than old ones, and simple trains break down less than complicated ones.

The annual report explains further:

VLocity

Each VLocity carriage travelled an average of 157,805 kilometres between faults in 2016-17 compared with 155,082 kilometres during 2015-16.

The average availability of VLocity carriages during scheduled service periods, which includes maintenance and operational issues, was 91.7 per cent against a target of 86.5, the percentage of the fleet that is required to meet timetable requirements.

Sprinters

This year, Sprinters travelled an average of 42,533 kilometres between faults, against a target of 30,259 kilometres. This compares with 40,066 kilometres between faults in 2016-17, a six per cent reliability improvement.

The average availability of Sprinters was 85 per cent against the target of 84.6 per cent. This decrease from 90.3 per cent availability in 2016-17 was due to In Cab Equipment (ICE) radio installation and fire damage to a Sprinter, effectively reducing the fleet size by one for most of the year.

Carriages

Classic fleet carriages travelled an average of 162,895 kilometres between faults against a target of 130,000 kilometres.

Average carriage availability of 74.3 per cent is measured against a target of 73.2 per cent and was down from 81.4 per cent the previous year. This was due to carriages being unavailable after the Pirron Yallock level crossing collision and structural assessment to enable life extension until 2025.

Locomotives

Locomotives travelled an average of 22,957 kilometres between faults, against a target of 29,962 kilometres, compared with 27,049 kilometres in 2016-17. This represents a 15 per cent decrease.

Average availability was 70.2 per cent, against a target of 69 per cent, compared with 82.1 per cent in the previous year due to the repair of the locomotive involved in the Pirron Yallock level crossing incident.

Some interesting data – the performance of an increasing elderly carriage fleet being a stand out.

So how old is the V/Line fleet

In August 2017 the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office released their report into V/Line Passenger Services – Figure 4D detailed the average age of rolling stock.

VAGO, based on V/Line ACCRI Project, 2015

As well as V/Line’s historical neglect, of both infrastructure and rolling stock.

Asset management

In the past, major periodic maintenance funding has not kept pace with the levels of funding required to maintain a fully operational and reliable passenger network. This has resulted in a deterioration of the network.

Until recently V/Line did not have a comprehensive understanding of the condition of its assets. It was therefore unable to develop sound long-term asset management strategies or to make evidence-based decisions on how it funded and prioritised maintenance and renewal work.

In 2015, V/Line changed its asset management approach from ‘fix on fail’ to ‘predict and prevent’, based on known asset condition. V/Line has now identified its maintenance backlog and has prioritised investments according to criticality and risk. The scale of funding required to address the maintenance backlog is significant—approximately $534.8 million across the entire V/Line network.

Asset failures limit V/Line’s ability to deliver agreed service levels, resulting in customer delays and service cancellations. Many of the vehicles in V/Line’s rolling stock fleet have been in service beyond their expected life, which is typically 30 years. Consequently they have a high failure rate and require significant investment in replacement and refurbishment.

Given V/Line’s difficulty in merely keeping up with patronage growth, I don’t see the retirement of life expired rolling stock happening any time soon.

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This is the disabled toilet onboard a VLocity train. Introduced to service back in 2005, each train consists of three carriages. One carriage has a small toilet with a standard door lock, while the third carriage has an electrically operated door to provide easy access for anyone using a mobility aid.

Inside the door are three buttons, with a ‘You must push [lock] to lock door’ sticker alongside.

Simple?

The complaints begin

With such a complicated system of locking the toilet door, you can expect that many users won’t be able to work it out – and you would be right.

I found this piece from 2006 on a blog titled ‘V/Line Whinger’.

Toilet doors..ahem.
Lets just say if you’re gonna make the toilet door electronic and the person has pressed the “Lock” button, make sure the bloody thing actually locks. (Like with a LOCKING pin).
I was sitting down on the throne the other day and noticed the gap in the door sliding open a couple of cm’s despite the fact I’d pressed the lock button.
I feel sorry for the poor soul sitting with their pants down and it fails completely going around a fast bend, exposing them to the view of the whole carriage.

Followed by this comment from 2008 on the Railpage Australia forums:

Although I have never seen it, I reckon that the disabled toilets on the VLocity’s are an extremely embarrassing moment waiting to happen.
All you need to do is forget to push the “lock” button, someone outside presses the “open” button and “oh sh–“, the whole carriage sees you sitting on the throne.
Has anyone ever seen this happen or had it happen to them.
As an extra precaution, whenever I’m on a VLocity I will always use the other toilet which has a more conventional lock on it.

With another poster weighting in.

I must admit that very experience did happen to me. I was convinced I had pressed the lock button, but (fortunately as I was washing my hands) the door suddenly opened. The person wanting to come in was more embarrassed than I was…

And another.

It basically happens every-time I’m on a VLocity run, I t don’t understand why there is a separate buttons to close and another to lock the door. it’s not a very intuitive system unless your used to it.

V/Line’s initial solution to the problem – asking conductors to make an announcements as part of their opening spiel, telling passengers to press the lock button in addition to the close door button.

But a poor design will fight back against any awareness campaign – I found another blog post from 2013 from a passenger who encountered two separate people getting surprised while sitting on a VLocity train toilet.

My own eyes saw a lady enter the toilets and at the time I didn’t know the system of lights on or lights off for occupied. I then saw a young man come along and press the button to open the door to the toilet. To gasps and horror down the whole train that had a full view of the toilet door, it opened where a lady was seen jumping from the toilet and franticly trying to close the door. The young man stood there in shook, before running away.

Then not even 10 minutes later another young woman entered the toilet as I thought “god I hope that wouldn’t happen again”. As I turned away and looked back a young woman with her face in her phone was at the toilet door and pushed the button to open the door again. To everyone’s shock the door opened revealing another lady jumping from the toilet and trying to close the door. The lady on the phone waited outside laughing and then entered the toilet.

By this time I noticed when the light is off the door is locked from the inside not merely just closed. The lady who just entered hadn’t locked the door. Thankfully no one came by again and no one else was embarrassed.

This leads to the question why? Why does the door not automatically lock when closed? Why is there a system that you need to press a second button whilst inside to lock the door. Once inside there is a big sign on the door that reads, please lock the door to avoid embarrassment. This sign obviously is not working.

V-line may I suggest two ways to fix the problem. Place a sign on the outside of the door, so it can be seen before entering, or change the whole system that the door is also locked once closed.

Clearly this is a major problem and I’m sure as it happened in the time frame that I was on the train it has happened many times before.

How many complaint letters have you received so far?

And how about the visually impaired?

The point of the electronic operated lock was to allow mobility impaired passengers to use the onboard toilet without assistance. But what about visually impaired passengers, who are unable to see a blinking light?

In January 2015 the Latrobe Valley Express took up the cause, after a legally blind Traralgon resident pointed out the flaws in the door locking system.

Flushing out some issues
Jessica Chambers
8 Jan 2015

V/Line has answered calls to upgrade its trains toilets to avoid embarrassing problems for users with a visual impairment.

Legally blind Traralgon resident Phillip Chalker said there was no way of telling when the toilet doors on a V/Line train were locked, leading to users being walked in on.

“They have three buttons with lights on them, but this is not an accessible method because a person who is blind or vision impaired cannot tell if the door is locked or not,” Mr Chalker said.

“To make the toilet doors on V/Line trains more accessible they need to come up with a better solution, such as making the buttons on the toilet doors audible with a sound.”

A V/Line spokesperson said the organisation was aware of these concerns and was about to embark on a trial, which would test an audible locking system on VLocity trains.

“The system will be set up to provide audible information to customers using the toilet, through a speaker in the bathroom cabin,” a spokesperson said.

“Our fleet engineers are currently fine-tuning a prototype and once finalised, we’ll start testing the audible locking system on the network.”

The spokesperson said V/Line would monitor the trial for several months, taking on board customer feedback, before rolling out the system on VLocity units.

“These projects take time to implement, but our accessibility team will continue to keep customers updated on the progress,” the spokesperson said.

V/Line publishes an Accessibility Action Plan, updated every three years, but the 2015-2018 edition of the plan doesn’t mention anything about an audible locking system.

I ended up sending an email to V/Line on the topic, with their reply dated June 2017 stating:

Currently 79% of the VLocity fleet have been fitted with the messaging system. All new VLocity trains being delivered are pre-fitted with this system.

I recently encountered a train fitted with the audible locking system.

On entering the toilet and pushing the ‘door close’ button, the following audio announcement plays:

To ensure your privacy, please lock the toilet door by pushing the key button

It begs two questions – how did such a fundamental accessibility flaw escape unnoticed for over a decade, and will this extra piece of passenger information finally address the usability flaws of an overcomplicated door locking system?

A possible solution?

A Twitter follower forwarded this photo, showing how a ‘virtual’ lock handle could solve the problem for good.

A possible solution to the confusion with @vline's Vlocity toilets. A handle to make locking clear. On a Class 800 in the U.K. @aussiewongm pic.twitter.com/OXNtJquc0y

— Cam Reed (@cambriafont) October 11, 2017

The style of the other push buttons appears identical to those already used onboard VLocity trains!

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First some background – two separate issues have been afflicting V/Line’s fleet of VLocity trains:

• excessive wheel wear reducing the number of trains available for service.
• level crossing activation issues resulting in a ban from the suburban network.

The first sign of trouble was the widespread replacement of V/Line services by road coaches, as VLocity trains with worn wheelsets were pulled from service.

But things got worse on the evening of January 15, when V/Line blamed “unplanned metro works” for the cancellation of late night Bendigo and Gippsland line services – in reality it was a ban of VLocity trains from the suburban network.

New rumour – @metrotrains have banned @vline VLocity fleet from their tracks. It'd explain these cancellations… pic.twitter.com/omckFAQNFk

— Marcus Wong (@aussiewongm) January 15, 2016

By the morning of January 16 V/Line’s excuse had changed to “service changes in the suburban area”.

Now @VLine is quoting "service changes in the suburban area" for their trains terminating at Sunbury and Pakenham. pic.twitter.com/wo6lknOn4s

— Marcus Wong (@aussiewongm) January 15, 2016

At Southern Cross Station passengers for Traralgon and Echuca services were told to catch a suburban train to meet their onward connection.

That night V/Line lashed together a VLocity train between a pair of diesel locomotives, ready to send them across the suburban network to test the failing level crossing outside Dandenong.

VLocity trains are fitted with a fully automatic Scharfenberg coupler, but diesel locomotives only have a semi-automatic knuckle coupler, so a special ‘transition coupler’ needs to be fitted to bridge the gap.

To allow the tests to take place, Metro Trains obliged by cancelling all late night suburban services between Dandenong and Pakenham.

Suspicious @metrotrains cancellations post midnight, right where @vline VLocity level crossing issues occurred pic.twitter.com/dHYrltsRmK

— Marcus Wong (@aussiewongm) January 16, 2016

Once the train arrived at the testing site the diesel locomotives were removed, and the VLocity train made a number of passes over the level crossing.

In the days that followed, more special VLocity transfer trains operated across the suburban network – each movement requiring a diesel locomotive to be attached as a safeguard to activate level crossings along the way.

By January 18th VLocity trains returned to the Bendigo line – with only two troublesome level crossings on the line at Ginifer and St Albans, safeworking staff were posted at each crossing in order to manually activate the warning devices.

Staff were also posted at the pedestrian crossing to be doubly sure.

To compensate for the disruptions to services, in V/Line declared free travel on all services from January 23 to 31.

To avoid passengers mistaking touching on their myki cards and getting changed for their journey, station staff printed out their ‘Free travel – no need to touch on’ signs.

At Southern Cross Station the ticket gates were locked open.

As were the emergency entrance gates.

Yet for some reason, there was still a line of passengers at the Southern Cross Station ticket office.

After the first week of free travel and no resolution in sight, it was extended another week until February 7.

Official ‘no need to touch on or off’ flyers were printed and affixed to myki readers across the network.

Permanent timetable boards were also printed for Southern Cross Station, listing the scheduled V/Line coach replacements in place Monday through Friday.

Despite the coach replacements and free travel, V/Line commuters were still spilling out of overcrowded trains.

As an interim fix, a 25 km/h speed restriction was applied to the North Melbourne flyover – supposed source of the excessive wheel wear.

On the weekend of February 13 the flyover was shut down to rail traffic, as the ‘outside’ broad gauge rail through the curves was replaced.

In the weeks that followed, trains continued to use the track, but with rail staff manually applying grease to the rail heads.

And the worn wheels beneath VLocity carriages have been replaced with fresh sets.

From March 21 normal rail services started to return – with 43 out of the 64 disrupted services back as trains.

Yet to be completed are fixes for the root cause of each problem: axle counters at level crossings on the Dandenong line to ensure reliable train detection, and an automated rail lubricator on the North Melbourne flyover to reduce wheel wear.

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