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Melbourne trains resume after Optus outage

optus melbourne

Melbourne train services are running again after being interrupted by yesterday’s Optus outage.

The nationwide breakdown left millions of Australians disconnected for more than nine hours, but Optus mobile and internet services have now been restored.

The outage restricted the ability for the Metro Trains Melbourne control centre to communicate with trains for an hour, meaning no trains were able to run on the metropolitan network.

MTM chief executive Raymond O’Flaherty said there were delays to services as trains got back into position for the normal schedule.

“We apologise to our passengers for the delay to their travel yesterday morning after the outage,” he said.

“Our engineers worked quickly to rectify the issue and we were able to resume trains shortly before 6am today.

“We thank passengers for their patience while trains return to their normal timetable.”

The Federal Government has already announced an investigation. Communications minister Michelle Rowland said her department would undertake the review, adding it was critical for the telecommunications industry to learn from the incident.

“The Australian Communications and Media Authority had already launched an investigation into whether emergency calls on mobiles were hampered during the outage,” she said.

“It’s very important that we undertake an investigation into compliance here, but also how improvements can be made in the future to ensure the safety of all Australians.

“No network is immune from a large-scale outage and it is appropriate to take stock following the incident.”