Some train services across Australia continue to be affected by the national Telstra communications outage that occurred yesterday.
V/Line has suspended all services today, encouraging passengers to “defer any non-essential V/Line travel where possible”.
The regional train operator said it is continuing to closely monitor the situation and will provide updates as more information becomes available. There is no estimated time for services to resume at this stage.
“We understand the disruption this has caused and thank our passengers for their patience and understanding while work continues to safely restore services across the network,” VlLine said in a statement.
Very limited replacement buses are in operation “for essential travel only”.
In New South Wales, some train services have also been impacted the Telstra outage, with buses replacing train services on the Southern Highlands Line and the Hunter Line.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) also made the decision to pause its operations yesterday, as the ARTC’s National Train Communications System was impacted by the outage.
In an update shared today, the operator explained: “The NTCS is a safety-critical system used across Australia’s interstate and regional rail network. It enables network control centres to communicate directly with train drivers through an in-cab radio system and operates over Telstra’s 4G network.
“The nationwide Telstra outage disrupted the NTCS, preventing ARTC from making or receiving essential communications with train crews and frontline workers, posing a safety risk.”
The ARTC said that rail services are progressively returning to operation across affected networks following confirmation that safety-critical communications can be reliably established, as Telstra addresses the underlying telecommunications issues and communications performance improves.
“Given the size and complexity of Australia’s national rail network, recovery will take time and services will resume in a controlled and phased manner as communications are confirmed and all operational safety checks are completed,” they said.
“ARTC will continue comprehensive testing and verification to confirm that network control centres can reliably communicate with each train before it is permitted to operate.”
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