00:01It has been quite a chaotic 72 hours now, I think, almost, for V-Line, which says that
00:10it had a massive job yesterday to try and replace a network that carries thousands of
00:15people a day with replacement buses, which it wasn't able to do on such short notice.
00:21So there were limited services given to people trying to travel between the city and regional
00:26areas since yesterday morning's outage, which basically disrupted the radio network that
00:33trains use to communicate with the command center.
00:36Now, the CEO of V-Line says that when that outage happened, there were two key issues
00:42that occurred.
00:43So the 4G network went down, and then the backup satellite system that train drivers use also
00:50was affected as a result.
00:53Here's what he said.
00:53So yesterday's fault was related to the 4G network interfering with our backup satellite
01:00phones that are in the trains, and we now know Telstra has done a lot of good work overnight
01:06to find that repair, and we're now in the process of undertaking the testing to make sure that
01:14that repair that Telstra has programmed is safe for our trains.
01:18We're hoping to get afternoon peak up and running, and we'll just wait and see, and we'll provide
01:24updates as we get confirmation from Telstra and ARTC that we're right to go.
01:30So hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage as a result of yesterday's disruptions.
01:35We will know the full bill later today.
01:38So over the next couple of hours, V-Line says it's waiting to hear how testing goes on the
01:43radio network.
01:44It says overnight a lot of progress was made.
01:47So Telstra and ARTC, which operates this communication system, are doing testing on all of the trains,
01:52and if all of that is cleared, then hopefully we'll get the regional trains back up and running,
01:57and people can get to their destinations.
01:59But for now, it really is wait and see.
02:02Some people that I spoke to were looking very tired.
02:05One man said he missed his mother's funeral as a result of this disruption.
02:09There was another woman who had traveled all the way from Darwin, landed here in Melbourne
02:14on a flight, and then came here only to find out her train wasn't running, and she was now
02:18facing a four- to five-hour journey by coach.
02:20So it's caused quite a bit of chaos, lots of people having to quit, unable to get to work
02:26as well as a result of this.
02:27So the costs will come through in the coming days, and whether compensation will be offered
02:33to these customers is a question on people's minds.
02:36VLINE says that they'll judge it case by case, and also who will be responsible for
02:41paying that compensation will be considered in days to come.
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