The car was not deliberately left on the tracks. A dodgy GPS led to a wedging between tracks. The driver's decision to jump clear saved their life and reduced the stress enormously for the crews involved.

That’s good news, then, that it was an accident without a tragic end. Nevertheless I am sure there are some lessons to be learned - not least the need for total grade separation Sunshine-DPJ very, very soon.

One question, are V/Line services allowed to run without a conductor or would they be cancelled? Whatever the answer V/Line has made a lot of people very happy this evening and the people themselves don't even realise how lucky they are. Good Job.

A V/Line service must have a connie on it or it will be cancelled. Although it rarely occurs, the driver does have the ability to make PA announcements in Vlo's and Sprinters. Most of the time any comms is done by the driver to the connie via the end to end radio who will then announce it to the passengers.

I've said it before on RP that improvements can always be made, but despite what the naysayers constantly say on here there are a lot of people in V/Line that are busting their backsides off to try and get people to their destinations on time.

One question, are V/Line services allowed to run without a conductor or would they be cancelled? Whatever the answer V/Line has made a lot of people very happy this evening and the people themselves don't even realise how lucky they are. Good Job.

A V/Line service must have a connie on it or it will be cancelled. Although it rarely occurs, the driver does have the ability to make PA announcements in Vlo's and Sprinters. Most of the time any comms is done by the driver to the connie via the end to end radio who will then announce it to the passengers.

I've said it before on RP that improvements can always be made, but despite what the naysayers constantly say on here there are a lot of people in V/Line that are busting their backsides off to try and get people to their destinations on time.

Thanks @jakar, I thought that was the case and was going to edit my post but decided it would be unfair to anyone who had already read it, as it turned out the P/A announcer was the Connie, I heard his radio calls to the driver later in the trip, not one that I had heard before (very distinctive voice) so may have been a ring in at the last minute.

Whatever happened it was a great effort by V/Line staff to get pax to their destinations and as I said earlier a whole bunch of footy fans who have no idea how lucky they were to get to the game on time. This service was listed as cancelled on the website and app and the next train is 40 minutes later and would have been PACKED (ours was standing room only by Riddells) and they would have missed the start of the game and been stressing and complaining like no ones business.

A big tick for V/Line tonight from me, whether it was on train staff, Bendigo depot staff, management or a combination. We arrived into SC 14 minutes behind schedule and I have never been so happy to arrive 14 minutes late in my life!

BG

Trains are currently cancelled on the Warrnambool line as 58 RM has broken down near Winchelsea. An N class loco was sent out to rescue it, roughly taking the path of the 1:00 down.

Trains are currently cancelled on the Warrnambool line as 58 RM has broken down near Winchelsea. An N class loco was sent out to rescue it, roughly taking the path of the 1:00 down.

History repeating?

https://railgallery.wongm.com/derm-colac-august-2012/

BG

No good. It worries me that there might be some in V/Line or the government who would like to use this sort of incident to make life difficult for heritage groups.

No good. It worries me that there might be some in V/Line or the government who would like to use this sort of incident to make life difficult for heritage groups.

I have no doubt about it.

The major regional papers have wised up in recent days to V/Line's increasingly abstruse communications throughout 2018, and have begun to look for patterns in regional train services. The results may be interesting to some here.

The Ballarat Courier was first off the block with this on 6 June:
Is this Victoria's most unreliable service? The case of our missing train
The culprit is 8235, the 15:37 SCS-Melton. Cancelled 34 times to 6 June. The Courier correctly identified that this service is straightforward to cancel because it returns empty cars to Melbourne, specifically as 8242, arriving back at SCS at 18:17 to form a Wyndham Vale service.

Yesterday, the Geelong Addy ran a similar story: OUR GHOST TRAIN, screamed page 11. (No link, sorry.)
Here, 8763, the 15:10 SCS-South Geelong is the issue: cancelled 20 times year to date. This one is more difficult to work out as it returns as an up service immediately afterwards. It was shortened 14 times, which can be explained by missing its path through the tunnel, but cancellations? Someone else can have a go at explaining this.

Then, today, the Bendigo Addy joined the party, running "Trends in V/Line messages" on page 16. They analysed tweets numerically, meaning it is hard to establish cancellation vs disruption but the usual themes emerge. The most affected service is the 7:41 down Swan Hill, which Mike has told us anecdotally is often held at SCS to protect paths for peak up Bendigo services past Castlemaine. Next is 8033, the down 16:57 to Eaglehawk. I note this runs as 7034 empty cars to Bendigo to stable before forming a later up service.
Last in their article is 8049, the 19:02 down Bendigo, which, sure enough, I find, stables in Bendigo for the night.

In summary, it's good to see the regionals putting in some effort to advocate for their train service with a bit of nouse, and it would be interesting to see if our insiders can add anything to this information.

About 1000 school bus drivers in the region finish their shift at 1700.

Hello All,

that may be so DalyWaters , but they may have already used up their hours of service for that day / shift ( which means they are not available ) , and if not they have to be contacted and be able or willing to come back.

Then if they can return there is the time taken to do so, get the bus ready , ( is it fueled ? ) be briefed on the route and arrive at the pick up point. It is highly unlikely for this to happen in under a hour , and clearly on the night in question it took in excess of 2 hours despite the best efforts of the bus companies.

The bus companies get well rewarded for supplying emergency bus services , so it not due to a lack of incentive. It should also be noted there is currently a shortage of bus drivers throughout Victoria, hence the ads on the back of buses.

Regards, Radioman.

Trains are currently cancelled on the Warrnambool line as 58 RM has broken down near Winchelsea. An N class loco was sent out to rescue it, roughly taking the path of the 1:00 down.

History repeating?

https://railgallery.wongm.com/derm-colac-august-2012/

BG

Yes...I was on it

DERM failed around 300 metres on the downside of former Moriac station due to an electrical problem where it wasn't  generating enough air to release or apply brakes.

We waited in the train for around 3 hours whilst light engine travelled off the cancelled 13:02 DOWN Warrnambool to attach to DERM and tow it the 300 mretres to Moriac platform where bus was waiting to take us the final 30 mins to Birregurra station where we arrived 4 hours late for Christmas in July dinner.

So instead of a relaxed 4 hour luncheon, we rushed through Christmas dinner in 90 mins and caught replacement bus back to Geelong where we caught 18:51 UP V'Locity and I changed at Deer Park. Some of us were considering catching the 19:04 UP Warrnambool from Birregurra however that was a bus as well.

Unfortunately for DERMPAV it was their first ever total failure and they were very apologetic about it and in this instance V/Line was in no way at fault.

It's normally a great day out with lots of food, wine and great company however the food was a little lacking this year...as was the time to enjoy it.

Mike.

Then, today, the Bendigo Addy joined the party, running "Trends in V/Line messages" on page 16. They analysed tweets numerically, meaning it is hard to establish cancellation vs disruption but the usual themes emerge. The most affected service is the 7:41 down Swan Hill, which Mike has told us anecdotally is often held at SCS to protect paths for peak up Bendigo services past Castlemaine. Next is 8033, the down 16:57 to Eaglehawk. I note this runs as 7034 empty cars to Bendigo to stable before forming a later up service.
Last in their article is 8049, the 19:02 down Bendigo, which, sure enough, I find, stables in Bendigo for the night.

Good pickup PIMM although I am a bit puzzled by their reference to the 16.57.

This is the flagship "Castlemaine Flyer" service running express Footscray > Castlemaine in just over an hour and 10 minutes and arriving into Bendigo at 18.35 and is the fastest timetabled service on the line AFAIK.

It is normally a packed 6 car service and I don't recall seeing it come up in my feed as cancelled. There is one Down service however (can't currently remember the deets) which is running at a reduced capacity of 3 cars pretty much every day on the Bendigo line ATM.

BG

The bus companies get well rewarded for supplying emergency bus services , so it not due to a lack of incentive. It should also be noted there is currently a shortage of bus drivers throughout Victoria, hence the ads on the back of buses.

Some companies are well rewarded.

A friend in the industry tells me of a problem V/Line have created for themselves.  They tendered out the management of the buses for planned shutdowns to a bus company from Hamilton.  This company then calls in their friends from all over the state and interstate.  However, there are local companies that are not called in for the lucrative planned shutdowns.

You can imagine what these companies say to V/Line when they get an emergency call to front up on a cold night with no notice.

A daily issue?

Another good news story from me today - better be careful, this is becoming a habit.

This morning's 09.14 Down Bendigo service got a good run through the metro area and arrived early into Sunbury. After waiting for the timetable to catch up to the train we ran on time all the way to Woodend.

We crossed the Up Swan Hill after Woodend and I waited for the tell-tale slowing down after Carlsruhe for the crossover to P1 which always loses us a mob of time.

Next thing I realised that we were pulling into P2 and so without the time lost here we arrived into CME P2 around 3 minutes early.

This is the first time in at least 6 months that this train has been on time when I have used it (average twice a week). Goes to show what can be done and how much better it is for the service not to make the unnecessary cross over to P1 at Kyneton only to have to cross back onto the Main (West) track as soon as it clears the yard limit.

I really hope this is the start of a permanent change on this service, it works so much better and for the sake of 5 or 10 pax having to cross the tracks it is well worth it.

BG

Another good news story from me today - better be careful, this is becoming a habit.

This morning's 09.14 Down Bendigo service got a good run through the metro area and arrived early into Sunbury. After waiting for the timetable to catch up to the train we ran on time all the way to Woodend.

We crossed the Up Swan Hill after Woodend and I waited for the tell-tale slowing down after Carlsruhe for the crossover to P1 which always loses us a mob of time.

Next thing I realised that we were pulling into P2 and so without the time lost here we arrived into CME P2 around 3 minutes early.

This is the first time in at least 6 months that this train has been on time when I have used it (average twice a week). Goes to show what can be done and how much better it is for the service not to make the unnecessary cross over to P1 at Kyneton only to have to cross back onto the Main (West) track as soon as it clears the yard limit.

I really hope this is the start of a permanent change on this service, it works so much better and for the sake of 5 or 10 pax having to cross the tracks it is well worth it.

BG

I believe the 'WON' Weekly Notice this week has trains using Platform 2 at Kyneton for an extensive number of trains from now on.

Mike.

Then, today, the Bendigo Addy joined the party, running "Trends in V/Line messages" on page 16. They analysed tweets numerically, meaning it is hard to establish cancellation vs disruption but the usual themes emerge. The most affected service is the 7:41 down Swan Hill, which Mike has told us anecdotally is often held at SCS to protect paths for peak up Bendigo services past Castlemaine. Next is 8033, the down 16:57 to Eaglehawk. I note this runs as 7034 empty cars to Bendigo to stable before forming a later up service.
Last in their article is 8049, the 19:02 down Bendigo, which, sure enough, I find, stables in Bendigo for the night.Good pickup PIMM although I am a bit puzzled by their reference to the 16.57.

This is the flagship "Castlemaine Flyer" service running express Footscray > Castlemaine in just over an hour and 10 minutes and arriving into Bendigo at 18.35 and is the fastest timetabled service on the line AFAIK.

It is normally a packed 6 car service and I don't recall seeing it come up in my feed as cancelled. There is one Down service however (can't currently remember the deets) which is running at a reduced capacity of 3 cars pretty much every day on the Bendigo line ATM.

BG

I would imagine that most alterations to the Flagship involve it being terminated at Bendigo instead of Eaglehawk.

I believe the 'WON' Weekly Notice this week has trains using Platform 2 at Kyneton for an extensive number of trains from now on.

Mike.

If true (not that i don't believe you I just don't want to jinx it) this is a great example of common sense ruling out over complicating things unnecessarily, so many point moves etc just begging for a track fault to rear it's ugly head.

Hussar!

***edit Thanks Mike, I found it! https://www.vline.com.au/Service-Changes/Community-Notifications/Kyneton-platform-changes

Common sense prevails in a big way!***


BG

I would imagine that most alterations to the Flagship involve it being terminated at Bendigo instead of Eaglehawk.

I found the real culprit, it is the 17.53 Southern Cross > Bendigo. Once again today I received the email that it "will run with a reduced capacity of 3 carriages"

Pretty much every day for months I have got that message.

Would be interested to know how the service is formed and what the sets do once they reach The Go.

BG

Another good news story from me today - better be careful, this is becoming a habit.

Please stop it Brenton, this is Railpage, only negative V/Line comments allowed!

Another good news story from me today - better be careful, this is becoming a habit.

Please stop it Brenton, this is Railpage, only negative V/Line comments allowed!

Sorry @jakar, I'll try to find more to whinge about. I blame you guys, there is far too much positivity coming out of V/Line Pass ATM!

BG

Would be interested to know how the service is formed and what the sets do once they reach The Go.

Comes off an up Traralgon; the sets shuttle on the Gippsland line most of the day before heading up north and stabling in Bendigo Cars for the night.

Perhaps one of the sets is co-opted to fill gaps on a Geelong service?

I would imagine that most alterations to the Flagship involve it being terminated at Bendigo instead of Eaglehawk.

I found the real culprit, it is the 17.53 Southern Cross > Bendigo. Once again today I received the email that it "will run with a reduced capacity of 3 carriages"

Pretty much every day for months I have got that message.

Would be interested to know how the service is formed and what the sets do once they reach The Go.

BG

The other day the (perennially late) Up Traralgon to form this service arrived at 17:55.  They hooked it up to 3 car set already on platform 16, got us all on-board and away at 17:57.  Fortunately they held the Down Metro at Sunshine for a minute or two to allow us to keep to schedule.  I was impressed.  Kudos to V/line etc.

But the delays for Traralgon services at peak times is really getting ridiculous....

Also, the Up V/lo that departs SCS at 21:02 and arrives in Bendigo around 22:50 is usually the one that does the empty run with the interior lights off (the ghost train) back to Melb soon after.

Today's toll on the Bendigo line (so far)

15.20 Down Echuca reduced capacity (as per previous post)
15.20 Down Echuca train will terminate at Bendigo and connect with coaches thereafter through to Echuca (as eluded to in previous post)

16.57 Down Eaglehawk cancelled (this is the flagship express service, normally 6 cars packed to the rafters)

My 17.07 Up from CME on the other hand was bang on time into Southern Cross!

BG

Today's toll on the Bendigo line (so far)

15.20 Down Echuca reduced capacity (as per previous post)
15.20 Down Echuca train will terminate at Bendigo and connect with coaches thereafter through to Echuca (as eluded to in previous post)

16.57 Down Eaglehawk cancelled (this is the flagship express service, normally 6 cars packed to the rafters)

My 17.07 Up from CME on the other hand was bang on time into Southern Cross!

BG

The 1753 service was reduced plus the 2120 ex bgo was cancelled altogether.
As long as delays for geelong line are minimal its a success in managements eyes.