Nationwide Telstra Outage Halts Regional Train Services in Victoria, Affects Canberra Lines

All regional train services in Victoria have been suspended due to a radio network error linked to the nationwide Telstra outage.

Services on the Bendigo, Seymour, Gippsland, Geelong and Ballarat lines were suspended on Wednesday morning.

"The V/Line network has been impacted by the nationwide Telstra outage," a V/Line spokesperson said.

"This has resulted in significant impacts to our passengers this morning with no trains able to run on the V/Line network."

The nationwide Telstra outage left millions of Australians unable to make phone calls or access the internet.

Trains in and out of Canberra suspended

The outage has also affected train services in several states.

Trains to and from Canberra were shut down as a result, according to Transport for NSW.

Acting coordinator-general Matt Longland told 666 ABC Canberra that the Canberra-bound service was brought to a stop just outside Sydney, earlier this morning, after it lost communications with the control centre.

The Sydney-bound service was also suspended mid-journey.

Mr Longland said today's timetables would be adjusted when communications were restored, but travellers should expect extensive delays.

Transport authorities in Canberra said they were investigating a "likely" connection between an information outage with its ticketing system and the Telstra outage.

Transport Canberra says the disruption to MyWay+ meant commuters trying to access the system this morning "may experience intermittent travel information".

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said there were "no known impacts" to Sydney metropolitan services or Opal systems.

"We are monitoring impacts to regional rail services, with some NSW TrainLink services, including the Melbourne XPT, experiencing delays due to telecommunications-related issues," they said.

"Customer communications may also be affected while the outage continues."

Queensland Rail said there were no disruptions to train transport caused by the outage "at this stage".

Regional commuters thrown by train outage

V/Line said it was "assessing the situation and will advise when trains will resume".

The operator said there was "no estimated time for rectification at this stage".

Replacement coaches are operating from Southern Cross Station, but V/Line said space on the coaches was "very limited".

Train passenger Simone said she was stuck on a train at Ballan, north-west of Melbourne.

"The V/Line staff don't know about any [replacement] coaches or anything," she told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"We've been told Ballan doesn't have any Ubers, taxis or anything like that, so we're just stuck here until we get more information."

Tobi Harris from Briagolong, in Gippsland, said she was stuck on a train at Sale for an hour and 45 minutes and was unable to attend TAFE at Warragul.

"I'm kind of missing out on all the introductions, meeting new people, connecting with people, connecting with my teachers and stuff like that, so it's been a bit of a day."

"I travel on the V-Line quite often so I've experienced quite a few of these delays; we've got tradies that go on the trains in the morning, we've got people going to interviews, people going to their jobs and uni."

Gippsland resident Wendy Farmer was up early to catch the 5:59am train from Moe to Melbourne for a conference, but was now stuck at Warragul Station.

"We can get off the train and just wait outside the station, but it's pretty cold out there at the moment."

Ms Farmer said V/Line staff had advised commuters that if they could make their way to Pakenham, they could continue into the city on the metro train network.

"I'm not sure how we're going to get there. It's a long walk!"

"I just feel like saying, 'Hey guys, I'm on Optus, you can borrow my phone for communication if you like.'"

Ballarat taxi driver Anurag Sharma said he would normally be busy with so many people needing alternative transport, but the Telstra outage meant he couldn't take passengers.

"I dropped a few people, and they can't pay me so I said don't worry about the money. I can't run the meter," he said.

"I'm just sitting around now, just wasting time. But that's what it is, we can't do anything."