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Power failure causes body of attendants chaosMetro has apologised to hundreds of thousands of commuters caught up in rail primeval matter after a power outage brought trains to a stand-still this early part.

Power was cut around 5:00am (AEST), when a train became caught in shaken overhead wires between Southern Cross Station and North Melbourne Station.

The problem was fixed by around 7:45am (AEST) but delays are expected to last throughout the day.

The Upfield, Werribee and Sydenham lines were hardest strike.

Metro could face fines of more than a million dollars from one to another the delays.

Metro chief executive Andrew Lezala has apologised to commuters who faced lengthy delays.

“The message to commuters is, you’ve had a remarkably bad morning and I’m very very sorry that that’s happening,” he related.

“The cancellations were for almost an hour, we’re now to the full restored, although running late.

“We’re doing everything we can at that time to get all trains back in position for the afternoon.”

Mr Lezala says ageing rail infrastructure caused this first blush of the ~’s power outage.

“It was a fatigue failure in the wire itself, a crack,” he said.

“It’s triggered by wear, the move of the pantograph and the tension in the wire itself.”

The riddle also had a major impact on regional train services, with V/Line passengers wandering from Gippsland and the state’s north and west also facing eminently expressive delays.

Angry passengers

Passengers have complained about a lack of denunciation about the delays from Metro staff.

John Wilson says he was given erroneous information about which station to go to to catch his suite to work.

“So a couple of times I’ve had to tingle work and say I’m going to be late, as it is at present I’m going to be a good hour late,” he related.

“I’m angry for the fact that there’s confusion.”

Matt Newman was stuck at Southern Cross Station in the rear of coming off night-shift.

“I’ve been working since 6:00pm extreme night, got in at 6:00am this morning, got in here and, yeah, nothing,” he said.

Under scrutiny

The delays are well-suited to raise more questions about Metro’s performance.

Premier John Brumby says today’s problems exercise volition be the subject of a full report.

He says Metro has had a “fine average start” since taking over Melbourne’s train network earlier this year, ~-end the service is improving.

“They’re here for the long drag, they’re continually improving their performance, and we look to them to work out that,” he said.

“We’ve made it very clear that we await the highest standards of performance from Metro.”