Council
20 July, 2026
Member slams rail mismanagement
LAST week’s Telstra outage which left hundreds of commuters scrambling to find their way home has been labelled another example of the state government’s “mismanagement” of the rail network.
“The Allan Labor Government’s ongoing mismanagement of Victoria’s rail network once again left south west passengers paying the price,” she said.
“Last week’s state-wide communications failure exposed a rail system with no effective backup and no contingency plan. “
Ms Britnell said the collapse of V/Line’s communications network demonstrated a fundamental failure of governance and risk management.
“Any competent risk management assessment would identify that you should never rely on a single communications system without a robust backup,” Ms Britnell said.
“The government’s failure to adequately assess and manage critical risks caused widespread disruption across the V/Line network, resulting in regional Victorian rail transport being ground to a halt.
“This is another example of a government that simply cannot manage essential public infrastructure.”
Ms Britnell said the outage was just the latest example of a rail service that continues to fail south west passengers.
“Since January, more than 26 per cent of Warrnambool line services have been replaced by buses, meaning passengers are not receiving the train service they booked and expected.
“I’ve even had community members contact me after waiting at Sherwood Park Station last week, only for the train not to arrive at all.
“In one week alone we had planned bus replacements, last week’s state-wide communications failure, ongoing disruptions the following day and more planned replacement services last weekend.
“Passengers are also still dealing with overcrowding because the government has failed to provide the additional carriages our community has been calling for, despite previous claims they couldn’t be operated proving unfounded.”
Ms Britnell believes regional Victorians deserve a reliable rail service, not one where disruption has become the norm.
“Last week’s system failure simply reinforces that regional communities are not this government’s priority,” she said.
