Police are hunting vandals who allegedly derailed a train after breaking into the Hurstbridge depot in north-east Melbourne early on Wednesday morning.
Victorian Police are alleging criminal damage was caused after offenders broke into the depot at around 1.50am on Wednesday, before breaking into a Metro Trains X-Trapolis train.
Big clean up ahead at Hurstbridge,vandalised @metrotrains likely to be moved by crane. @BreakfastNews @abcnewsMelb pic.twitter.com/PWHnYOkZAo
— Zoe Daniel (@zdaniel) November 10, 2015
The offenders caused the stationary train on the city-bound line to drive forward and derail, Police alleged, causing extensive damage to carriages, fencing and security boxes.
“It’s a large amount of damage, so it’s possible that someone may know who is responsible,” Sergeant Mark Chetcuti said. “We’d like to hear from anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the Heidelberg-Kinglake Road area between 1am and 2am [Wednesday] morning.”
Metro Trains boss Andrew Lezala reportedly told the ABC the incident had caused roughly $3 million in damage.
“Somebody has gained access to one of our trains and managed to motor it up,” he was quoted as saying. “The train has been derailed by the derailing device, which is there to stop trains getting onto the main line when they shouldn’t be there. So it’s done its job, but [the derailment has] caused extensive damage.”
Lezala reportedly said that X-Trapolis keys – which are universal – were occasionally stolen, and may have been obtained on the black market in this instance.
“This is a severe act of vandalism,” he was quoted by ABC.
#Hurstbridge service to be disrupted for days, following train derailment @metrotrains says https://t.co/rv2InjEqWZ pic.twitter.com/Xip0Pa2FkS
— ABC News Melbourne (@abcnewsMelb) November 10, 2015
Sergeant Chetcuti told media the trespassers appeared to have used a rock to force a lever to put the train in motion, causing it to drive for 40 to 50 metres “and basically destroying everything in its path”.
“There was a cleaner and a night watchman who obviously saw the activities unfold, and just had to move away and put themselves in a safe position,” Chetcuti was quoted, “there was not too much they could do.”
The Rail Tram and Bus Union believes the incident could have been avoided “if Metro Trains employed more network surveillance staff”.
“All of this could have been avoided if Metro wasn’t skimping on their responsibilities to provide overnight security and surveillance of rolling stock,” RTBU secretary Luba Grigorovitch said.
“Metro must take more responsibility for security across the network.
“Taxpayers count on the company to look after the rolling stock and infrastructure while managing the network.
“To think they only employ 15 people in the Network Surveillance Security team to patrol across the entire network is astounding and the taxpayer should be getting a better deal.”