00:03Back on track after a second frustrating day for regional commuters.
00:08They came from a FIFO from Darwin so got no sleep at all and then found out like this adage.
00:13Not happy with all these that's for sure.
00:16Single digit temperatures made the wait for rail replacement buses a painful exercise this morning
00:22with many regional passengers not willing to chance it, heeding warnings to stay off V-line services
00:28after some were told to make their own way home last night.
00:32We've heard stories overnight of people having to pay hundreds of dollars to stay overnight
00:38because they cannot access a train home.
00:40I'm glad at least they provided coaches for today because yesterday there was nothing.
00:47V-line rail services resumed just after midday.
00:50My first response was to laugh that a small outage would down the entire regional network for the state for
00:57a second day.
00:58V-line uses Telstra's 4G network to communicate a train's position with satellite phones as backup.
01:05But interference between the two systems forced all services to grind to a halt.
01:10Overnight Telstra were able to stabilise the network and that involved making sure that the 4G train radio system
01:19was talking correctly and integrating correctly with the satellite phones.
01:24V-line has laid the blame for the crisis squarely at the feet of Telstra.
01:29You would expect that the telcos have the redundancy necessary so that the telecommunications network doesn't fail as we saw
01:37yesterday.
01:38Ultimately it's up to the government to rewrite the legislation to ensure that this doesn't happen again.
01:43Amid the state-wide shutdown, Victoria's public transport minister is on leave.
01:49Where is the minister for public transport today to answer why regional Victorians cannot get to work,
01:55cannot get to hospital appointments, cannot enjoy their school holidays?
01:59V-line will reimburse passengers who incurred extra costs.
02:03The government wants Telstra to match it dollar for dollar.
02:07V-line will just be good to get home.
02:10Commuters will be hoping for smoother travels tomorrow.
02:14All right.
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