For the third time this year, all trains in regional Victoria have stopped running.
All trains in regional Victoria stopped this morning because there was a "communications fault" on the V/Line network. This is the third time this year that the network has been down.
Because of the problem, thousands of people from Shepparton, Albury, Traralgon, Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Warrnambool, and Swan Hill who were on their way to work were stuck on platforms at 6 a.m. with no idea when services would start again.
Just after 6 a.m., V/Line said on Twitter, "Due to a communications fault, no trains are running on all lines."
Later, V/Line posted on Twitter that some train services would start after 6:30 a.m., and that there would probably be more delays and cancellations throughout the morning.
Customers were angry about the train network's messages, and many of them said that this was the third time in five weeks that they had been left stranded.
Some people didn't like that the network didn't apologize or give more information. They said the system needed a "complete overhaul."
"Cool, is that all? All of regional Victoria can't travel without a plan or an estimated time of arrival? "In response to V/first Line's tweet at 6am, one rider wrote.
"This morning, there are a lot of angry customers," someone else said.
This morning, Steph Ryan, who is the Shadow Minister for Public Transport in Victoria, said that the situation was "complete chaos"
She said in a statement that regional passengers deserved better services and more information.
She said, "The only thing people in rural Victoria want is to know that a train will come and take us where we need to go."
"Commuters are realistic; we know that there may be delays or cancellations from time to time. But when the whole network is shut down three times in just five weeks, something is very wrong."
"We need a full explanation of what this "communications fault" is, how it threatens the safety of commuters, and why it's causing a 21st-century shutdown of a whole regional train system."
People think that V/Line CEO Matt Carrick will talk about the issue in public later this afternoon.