Regional Victorian rail services resume after Telstra outage

Rail services for regional Victorians have resumed after a Telstra outage caused every line to be shut down for a day and a half.

V/Line, the state's regional train operator, struggled to find enough bus replacements to cater for the tens of thousands of passengers affected by the suspension of services.

Here's why the scale of disruption in Victoria was so severe, and how the state may prevent future chaos on the regional train network.

How were commuters affected?

Every regional rail service across Victoria was out of action during the Telstra outage on Wednesday and into yesterday, as V/Line struggled to get a stable communications system back up and running.

Commuters at Southern Cross Station on Wednesday night faced hours-long waits for buses and were told to make their own way home if possible, especially if close to Melbourne.

Melbourne woman Jodi Fraser said she had to pay for expensive rideshares because of the shutdown.

"It cost me $147 for two trips," she told the ABC.

"I've been travelling five hours there and five hours home."

Emily Coleman and her brother were visiting Melbourne from Warrnambool and couldn't get a seat on a bus on Wednesday night.

"It was really nerve wracking because at first me and my brother were like, 'What are we going to do?'," she said.

She said they managed to find a family friend who could put them up for the night but she was meant to work this evening.

"I had to give up my shift tonight because of how late the train is that we're going home on," Ms Coleman said.

V/Line chief executive William Tieppo conceded there was no excuse for passengers being told to arrange their own return trips.

"A disruption of this scale is unprecedented for us," Mr Tieppo said on Thursday morning.

"Organising a bus replacement program for a whole network that normally runs thousands of people a day normally takes months to plan."

Last night, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced V/Line would reimburse all passengers who incurred extra costs and called on Telstra to match the compensation.

She said travel would be made free for two days on a date yet to be announced.

Daniel Bowen from the Public Transport Users Association said passengers deserved restitution.

"In a lot of cases, what are the options to get to regional Victoria other than by V/Line?"

"If they did end up staying an extra night in Melbourne or a regional city, or hiring a taxi or Uber at huge expense you would hope that they would be refunded for that."

V/Line said it would consider compensation on a case-by-case basis.

What caused the travel chaos?

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) manages 9,600 kilometres of rail track across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria.

The ARTC, including V/Line, migrated its essential train communication services to Telstra 4G in 2024, following the shutdown of the 3G network.

Authorities say the network outage interfered with the SIM cards used on each train to communicate with the wider network.

Mr Tieppo said V/Line was in discussions with ARTC about a longer-term backup system to address the issues arising from yesterday's outage.

"We've just got to remember, this is not a V/Line caused issue, this is a third-party issue," he said.

Why was Victoria hit harder than other states?

Yesterday's outage halted regional rail services in New South Wales on the Southern Highlands and the Hunter lines, as well as interstate services between Sydney and Canberra.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said sections of those two lines run on tracks that are also used for interstate services and are managed by the ARTC, who ordered the lines be shut down for safety.

RMIT associate professor of engineering Mark Gregory said those lines relied on Telstra for their communications, but other regional NSW lines use different carriers so the state did not suffer as state-wide regional outage like Victoria.

"The train operators are working on the principle that safety is most important and it's not safe to operate the trains while there's uncertainty with the train network."

What's more, Victoria has the busiest regional network in Australia — meaning the consequences for commuters were far wider-ranging.

V/Line runs more than 2,500 train services each week, with its 2024-25 annual report saying there were 26 million passenger trips during that 12-month period.

By comparison, New South Wales regional rail only recorded 1.86 million trips over the same period.

Was Victoria under-prepared for the outage?

Much of Victoria's public transport network including train control, passenger information screens, ticketing and security relies on Telstra, said RMIT University public transport systems specialist Koorosh Gharehbaghi.

"When Telstra's network went down, many of the interconnected systems failed partially and some entirely,"

Dr Gharehbaghi said the reliance on one telecommunications service provider clearly exposed vulnerabilities, but said it was not a question of whether Victoria was less prepared than other states.

"New South Wales and Victoria both operate their rail networks differently, have different infrastructure, technology and risk management strategies, and different levels of redundant systems, which contributed to the different service disruption,"

"This incident is not about a lack of preparedness, but a warning about the lack of redundant infrastructure that could provide resilience across Australia's entire transport system."

Leader of the Victorian Nationals Danny O'Brien questioned why the government didn't have contingencies in place for this kind of outage.

"It beggars belief that our entire regional train network can be shut down because of a mobile outage. Where is the back up plan?"

"Regional Victorians deserve better than being an afterthought. They deserve a government, and a rail network, that actually turns up."

V/Line's Mr Tieppo said the radio communications and back-up satellite system were regularly tested as part the operator's train maintenance program.

"We'll undertake a comprehensive review with ARTC, with Telstra, to understand what really happened and make sure that we have the best possible robust system we have running our train network," he said.

How can future chaos be prevented?

Victoria's rail shutdown highlighted the needed for more resilient transport across Australia, with greater diversity of telecommunication service providers and better back-up communications and emergency management procedures, Dr Gharehbaghi said.

V/Line trains have satellite back up phones but Mr Tieppo said during the outage they were constantly dropping out as the 4G network rebooted and came back online.

"The 4G network was connected to the train radio system and the satellite phone would be talking to the 4G network and saying: 'The 4G network is connected and you don't need me anymore',"

Dr Gregory said it was up to Telstra to ensure its main telecommunications system did not interfere with the back-up satellite system.

He said it was not practical to simply introduce a second telecommunications carrier.

"They would have to completely duplicate all of their systems and it may not be cost-efficient."

The ARTC said it was working closely with Telstra to monitor the stability and performance of the telecommunications network.

"We thank our customers, train operators and the travelling public for their patience and understanding throughout this incident," ARTC said in a statement.

Ms Allan said she expected action from Telstra.

"Australians have endured too many major outages — and it's always country people who bear the brunt," she said.

Mr Bowen of the Public Transport Users Association said there was a strong argument for the Victorian government to invest in improving transport infrastructure instead of the recent free public transport program.

"Ultimately, people need a public transport system that is reliable,"