Victoria's regional rail network crippled by Telstra outage

Victoria's regional rail network is experiencing significant disruptions, with V/Line services remaining at a standstill following a nationwide telecommunications outage. The incident, which occurred yesterday, has stranded commuters and continues to affect today's morning peak services, with only "very limited" replacement bus services operating.

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We acknowledge this has been inconvenient to many people and thank passengers for their patience as work continues to safely restore services.

V/Line is strongly advising passengers to avoid traveling on its services if possible, acknowledging the inconvenience caused. The cause of the widespread outage was identified as a software defect within Telstra's network, leading to time synchronization issues. Although Telstra reported resolving the problem by 4 p.m. yesterday, V/Line services remained suspended overnight and into this morning.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), which manages the rail infrastructure, has deemed it unsafe to resume train operations due to Telstra's ongoing telecommunications reliability issues. V/Line chief executive William Tieppo explained that the outage interfered with the SIM cards used on each train for network communication. These communication services were migrated to Telstra 4G in 2024 after the shutdown of the 3G network.

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The backup system is obviously one that will be looked at at a national level, not only just for Victoria.

Tieppo indicated that V/Line is discussing a longer-term backup system with ARTC to prevent future disruptions. He noted that this issue might be addressed at a national level, involving collaboration with national operators and ARTC. Unlike the V/Line system, the Metro Trains system was unaffected because it utilizes a different radio system. Transport engineering experts suggest that such issues are common when systems rely on legacy technology that has been incrementally updated rather than fundamentally rethought.

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That's predominantly a contract that's between the Australian Rail Track Corporation and Telstra, and we obviously get that service through ARTC and Telstra.