Cooked footage shows Melbourne commuters literally jumping off of a stranded train after a police incident caused chaos for train-goers on Friday night.
City bound trains came to an unexpected stop around 5.30pm AKA peak hour (!!) on Friday night after a trespasser made their way onto the tracks causing major disruptions across the entire network.
The City Loop (which any Melbourne folks out there will be very familiar with) was closed for almost an hour, with any passengers heading to the CBD and needing to stop at Flagstaff, Melbourne Central or Parliament stations urged to seek alternate travel.
Whilst metro trains continued to run direct to and from Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations, the hour-long City Loop shutdown had a ripple effect on the rest of the network causing lengthy delays across all lines.
Once trains resumed just before 7pm, the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning announced there’d still be some services between 45 and 60 minutes behind schedule which pretty much means complete chaos on a Friday night in Melbourne.
But, the train troubles didn’t stop there when a train travelling between Victoria Park and Clifton Hill stations became stranded when another trespasser caused the Mernda line to grind to a halt.
Most of those on board were understood to be AFL supporters heading into to the MCG eager to watch the Collingwood v. Carlton game which over 86,000 people attended.
According to some commuters, the train which was forced to stop due to the trespasser was stationary for over an hour and I can’t blame them for taking matters into their own hands.
Frustrated passengers forced their way out of the train to try to seek an alternative route and I would’ve hated to see the Uber surge prices that would’ve definitely ensued from so many people trying to order an Uber from the middle of fkn no where.
The entire ordeal was documented on Tiktok (thank god for social media), and showed commuters who managed to get out of the train, help others down what looks to be about a one metre drop from the edge of the carriage to the ground.
Passengers are then observed standing along the side of the train before walking — or in some cases “sliding” — down a hill to get to a road and hey, desperate times right?
The situation caused further disruptions to the network as other trains had to wait for passengers to clear the tracks which is the definition of making a bad situation worse.
Police and Authorised Officers were called to assist passengers and to ensure the area was safe before services could resume.
It’s understood the driver regularly communicated with passengers throughout the disruption and with board announcements from the Network Control Centre advising of the delay and asking passengers to not to force open the doors.
As per news.com.au, Rob Hill, the Metro Trains General Manager Operations said, “People who access our network illegally affect thousands of passengers as we simply can’t run the train service they deserve.”
“We share our passenger’s frustration at the impact trespassers have on the network, but forcing doors open is incredibly dangerous behaviour.”
While that entire debacle was unfolding, footage captured at Southern Cross station filmed hundreds of commuters gathering around platforms and stairways as they waited for their train that just wasn’t showing up.
Some footy fans still eager to get to the MCG following the ordeal were forced to take alternate routes of travel, with some coughing up almost one hundred dollars to get an Uber to the ground.
Commuters took to the comment section of Metro Train‘s Twitter account to voice their frustrations at the shit show that was the Friday night public transport in Melbourne.
“How is it that Melbourne, proclaimed one of the best cities to live in, has the entire train system collapse due to one incident with no backup plans,” one person asked.
“The delays towards the city tonight shows the true ineffectiveness of the Melbourne train network,” another person said.
“Tell me why it has taken from 6pm to 8pm to travel from Blackburn to Flinders St with no communication for passengers.”
As someone who used to catch both V/Line and Metro trains daily I have experienced the shambles of delayed/stopped/broken down trains and I too have wanted to pry open a door or two in frustration.
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