“Crews have been working around the clock to address the issues which prevented trains from resuming today as planned,” a Rail Projects Victoria representative said.
“Trains will commence from the first service Saturday morning and will run to a Sunday timetable for the duration of the long weekend.”
EARLIER, 8pm, April 6
Passengers on the Shepparton and Seymour lines have been given a rude shock ahead of the Easter long weekend, with construction on railway infrastructure set to continue over the long weekend.
Rail services were set to resume this weekend after trains were stopped on March 8 at the beginning of works on the line.
The hiatus will continue across Easter, with train services likely to resume on Tuesday, Rail Projects Victoria confirmed on Thursday night.
A traffic alert posted at 6.20pm warned rail services wouldn’t be resuming on Friday morning, “advising passengers to plan ahead for their travel this Easter weekend”.
“The complexity of signalling works needed to make the infrastructure operational will require additional time to safely complete and enable trains to resume,” it said.
“These works can only take place when trains are not running.”
Coaches will continue to replace trains between Seymour and Shepparton, connecting with trains running between Southern Cross and Seymour.
The temporary timetable put in place through March will continue, with passengers asked to allow an extra 60 minutes of travel.
Regional Rail Revival director Mark Havryluk apologised to inconvenience caused by the delays.
“We need to get this absolutely right to ensure train services on the Shepparton line can resume safely and we are working to make this happen as soon as possible,” he said.
“We’ve undertaken a massive amount of work during this disruption, but what is required to finish connecting and integrating new infrastructure into the existing network is extremely complex.”
A RPV representative confirmed to The News that trains could resume earlier than Tuesday if the reason for the delay was resolved throughout the weekend.
New infrastructure in place after the completion of the works will include a new train stabling facility north of Shepparton, an extended passing loop at Murchison East and improvements to train detection technology at 11 level crossings.
Passengers can find more information at vline.com.au or by calling 1800 800 007.
17°C