A four-hour delay for about 100 passengers on a Warrnambool to Melbourne train service on Wednesday was "embarrassing" and "not good enough", V/Line's chief executive officer has said.
Matt Carrick told ABC South West Victoria's Breakfast program he was "embarrassed by the situation", which saw a damaged boom gate in Geelong affect 55 services and leave passengers on one train train stranded for four hours.
"I want to unreservedly apologise to everyone that was on that train," he said.
"It's not good enough."
Port Fairy's Rachel Kelly and her 17-year-old son, Ted, boarded the 9.30am train at Warrnambool station to travel to Melbourne for an important medical appointment they had waited three months to attend.
But what should have been a three-and-a-half hour commute to Southern Cross Station soon became much longer.
The train came to a stop at North Shore in Geelong due to a damaged boom gate at the Station Street level crossing.
"The real issue is that initially we were told it was not a serious problem, that there should not be much of a delay," Ms Kelly said.
"When we were still stuck there an hour later it should have been clear to V/Line bosses that the problem was more serious than first thought."
Bruce Campbell also boarded the train at Warrnambool and said as the minutes, then hours, ticked by, several passengers became increasingly distressed by the situation.
Bus falls short
Ms Kelly said no water or food was offered to travellers until about 3pm, and it was not until around that time that one bus was finally sent to the stranded train.
But the bus could only transport about 45 people, leaving more than half of the passengers to continue waiting.
Those who were left on the train did not arrive at Southern Cross until about 6pm.
Ms Kelly and her son had no choice but to stay overnight in Melbourne.
"And we missed my son's hospital appointment, which was the whole point of the trip.
"He has to wait another six weeks now. Next time we'll drive."
'Not good enough': V/Line boss
Mr Carrick said an investigation was underway into what happened, but clearly there was a "serious breakdown in communication between our operations centre and staff on the ground".
"We're still trying to get to the bottom of what happened, why it happened, and what we need to put in place to avoid this happening again," he said.
Mrs Kelly said at one point in the ordeal, the driver called a taxi to help five passengers get to the airport so they did not miss their flights.
"The train staff did everything they could for us … but V/Line [its operations centre] ignored them."
Mr Campbell said the train driver and onboard staff did the "best they could" in the situation.
"They were not getting any information that they could pass on to us, so it was very frustrating for the passengers and the staff," he said.
Impacted passengers have been urged to contact V/Line for compensation via its website or by calling 1800 800 007.
