Commuters have been left “shaking” and “distressed” after becoming trapped inside a V/Line train in Deer Park.
Passengers on the 7.48am city-bound service from Melton were forced to break emergency locks on the train’s doors at Deer Park to get air during the incident on Wednesday morning.
One passenger said the train stopped short of the station when the air conditioning went out.
“Once we arrived at the platform people were waiting to get off the train,” she said.
“People were standing at the door inside. The doors wouldn’t open. People became distressed very quickly. People were very upset…. I became distressed very quickly.”
Two men on the carriage broke the emergency door lock after 10 minutes of trying.
“I was lucky because the two men pulled open the door,” the woman said. “My hands were shaking when I got off.”
The woman said passengers on the carriage she was in were the only ones to escape.
“The others were stuck at the platform for another 20 minutes,” she said.
V/Line staff eventually opened all the emergency doors, but the backlog of people arriving at the station created chaos.
@VLine. This is a bad start for the day. @deerpark pic.twitter.com/jORfaoX0t2
— Yukendar (@yukendar) February 28, 2017
“People were everywhere no one could get off. Cars couldn’t cross at the level crossing. We had nowhere to move because we couldn’t get off the platform,” the woman said.
The woman said Ballarat line passengers also were slugged with delays last night. One bus was sent to Footscray station to take hundreds of passengers.
“We were told to go back on the platform but no trains were coming. It was havoc everywhere,” she said. “It’s been two days of absolute nightmare stuff.”
The fault has caused 30 minute delays on both the Ballarat and Geelong lines.
A V/Line spokeswoman said the problem at Deer Park began at Bacchus Marsh on the 7.39am train to Southern Cross. She said it took about half an hour to move the train after the fault occurred.
@VLine @theage power outage at Deer Park.Doors were jammed shut and people were stuck with no lights and aircon. 2days in a row of problems pic.twitter.com/FQPvqJSATC
— Ashleigh Bouvet (@Ashleigh_Bouvet) February 28, 2017
Geelong and Ballarat trains are making additional stops at Deer Park Station to pick up customers, but commuters should allow additional travel time.
“V/Line would like to apologise to customers for the delays this morning, after one of our trains experienced a fault with its power system,” the spokeswoman said.
By Chloe Booker and Deborah Gough, The Age
