COMMUTERS will get a free day of travel after this morning's mayhem, as Melbourne rail operator Metro says they have 'more work to do'.
It comes as the company faces a fine of up to $1 million after the meltdown on the train network this morning, with almost every train service delayed and hundreds of thousands of people affected, reported the Herald Sun.
Metro has apologised to commuters, with spokeswoman Geraldine Mitchell answering angry traveller's questions on the Herald Sun's website.
She said a faulty overhead power line caused a power outage between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations, severely limiting the amount of trains that could move through that section.
"We do regular inspections of our overhead lines and all parts of our network infrastructure," she said.
"This particular line was inspected recently and at that time there was no visible fault.
"The replacement and maintenance of infrastructure with high volumes of use is an ongoing matter. We do all that we can these types of disruptions.
"Each day we're delivering more than 98 per cent of our 2200 services. And the reliability levels are showing month on month improvements. But we know, it still needs to improve further," she said.
Transport Minister Martin Pakula apologised to commuters for the delay and confirmed the government was looking at additional penalties after the morning peak hour was thrown into fiasco when a power shortage near Southern Cross cut electricity on the lines.
Metro reported that most train services had returned to normal by noon.
"This morning was not acceptable and not desirable. It is very disappointing for commuters to have to endure that sort of disruption,'' Mr Pakula said.
The minister said he had full faith in the head of the Department of Transport, Jim Betts.
But he is demanding a full report of events ahead of crisis talks with Metro's board and senior management this evening.
Mr Pakula promised a "full and frank" exchange of views with Metro as the government prepares to slap the operator with a $1 million fine for its failures in July.
But Mr Pakula was unwilling to say if commuters will get a refund or compensation - outside of the normal system - for this morning's chaos. Earlier this month, Mr Pakula invoked emergency powers and withheld $4 million owed to Metro after the operator failed to meet timetable targets for seven consecutive months.
The trouble was triggered when a power line broke and became tangled in a train's pantograph near the Melbourne yard, not far from Southern Cross station.
The incident cut overhead power supplies to all trains in the vicinity.
Metro spokeswoman Geraldine Mitchell said the "northern group" was the worst affected with severe delays on the Craigieburn, Upfield, Sydenham, Williamstown and Werribee lines.
While power was restored to most of the system and trains were back running again by 9am, it took about three hours more before service times returned to normal.
Almost every service this morning was affected as other trains were diverted and delayed.
In a press conference this morning, Metro boss Andrew Lezala apologised for the chaos.
Premier John Brumby, talking on ABC Radio, admitted Metro had had an ordinary start in the first half of the year.
Explaining the outage, Metro's Ms Mitchell said: “We lost overhead power at Melbourne yard, near Southern Cross station at 4.45am, so for a while there was no power between Flinders St and Southern Cross".
"As you can imagine they are our two biggest stations, so that’s where just about every train goes."
Ms Mitchell said power was partly restored shortly before 7am for some trains in the City Loop, but the delays would continue for hours.
Bill Shorten and Senator Stephen Conroy were both caught up in the train chaos.
Mr Conroy was forced to apologise to members of the deaf community after delaying the launch of a captioned telephone at Federation Square this morning by almost 30 minutes.
Yarra trams scheduled extra services this morning to cope with the backlog including the Route 8 to assist passengers between South Yarra and the City, extra services on Route 59 to assist passengers from Essendon, and along Route 19 to assist Upfield passengers.
Yarra Trams spokesman Colin Tyrus said the aim was to help people get to work by calling in several trams to help with the situation.
Coaches were brought in for outbound services in an attempt to deal with the thousands of stranded passengers.
Taxi services were also affected as frustrated commuters tried to find alternative ways to travel.
In June, about 17 per cent of trains ran late, well over the 12 per cent target.
And today's meltdown will almost certainly mean that Metro will not meet its targets for July.
In the past two years, the State Government has given Metro $319 million to improve maintenance.
But critics claim this money is too little and too late.
My News:
Melbourne Rail Operator Metro was charged up to 1 million by the Department of Transport of Australia due to a meltdown of power supply between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations. The incident cut overhead power supplies to all trains in the vicinity. Almost every train services are affected by this incident which is considered as a fiasco by the commuter. This mayhem has causes great disruption to the commuters that rely on the train services. The commuters will have a day free travel of train services as Metro need to fix the problem.
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