Managing Disruptions Affecting Victoria's Public Transport Network

Monitoring and escalating unplanned disruptions 

The department's operational response team operates morning to evening with a duty officer on call overnight to:

• actively monitor and work with PTOs and the wider department to identify, record and, where appropriate, escalate unplanned disruptions (also referred to as incidents) impacting services
• gather situational awareness of unplanned disruptions, and identify potential consequences and mitigation activities to minimise the impact to the community, customers and businesses
• provide awareness of disruptions and, where necessary, coordination across the department, PTOs and emergency service agencies
• internally escalate significant and major incidents impacting the transport network.

PTOs notify the operational response team of unplanned disruptions in real time. The operational response team assesses the nature and potential impact of each notified incident against internal reporting criteria. 

PTO contractual requirements 

The department manages unplanned disruptions through contractual arrangements with PTOs. 

The department's contracts with PTOs outline requirements to prepare policies, plans and procedures about managing unplanned disruptions.

Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams must have network readiness plans, record actual service times and report monthly on unplanned disruptions. 

Kinetic and CDC Victoria's contracts include these requirements except recording actual service times.

PTO monthly contractual performance reports give the department oversight of how effectively PTOs are managing unplanned disruptions. PTOs must report to the department:

• the target monthly performance and the actual monthly performance, which for rail and tram operators includes analysis on the causes of delays and non-delivery of services
• a summary of any significant incidents and their cause and impact.

We found that all PTOs provided these reports in line with their contractual requirements.

Roles and responsibilities

A legislative framework supports agencies to manage public transport disruptions due to emergencies to Victoria's public transport network. 

The legislative framework includes the Act, the SEMP and the Sub-Plan.

The SEMP outlines the state-level arrangements for emergency management in Victoria, including the roles and responsibilities of agencies. The SEMP lists the department as:

• the control agency for responding to public transport emergencies
• the lead support agency to coordinate and manage public transport during other emergencies.

The Sub-Plan complements the SEMP by outlining the arrangements for mitigating, responding to and recovering from public transport disruptions due to emergencies. It provides specific information about managing and governing public transport disruptions, including where the department is either the control agency or a support agency.

The Sub-Plan outlines 3 response levels to public transport emergencies (see Figure 2) and roles and responsibilities for responding to each. These response levels align with the 3 emergency management tiers outlined in the SEMP.

Under the Sub-Plan, the department passes control of level 1 responses to PTOs where the expected impacts are minimal. PTOs manage level 1 responses as part of business-as-usual arrangements, activating their emergency and crisis management plans in consultation with the department. Level 1 responses are outside the scope of the SEMP but are in the Sub-Plan for completeness.

For emergencies that require level 2 and 3 responses, the department is involved as either the control agency or support agency:

• Part 5 of the Sub-Plan lists the department as the control agency for a specific set of public transport disruptions that relate to the network. This could include:
  • infrastructure, communication or power failure at transport hubs
  • network issues due to infrastructure faults or PTO issues
  • loss of critical train or tram controlling or signalling systems.
• Part 6 of the Sub-Plan lists the department as the lead support agency for emergencies that affect or might affect public transport services to:
  • a 'moderate extent' at a regional or area level (level 2 responses) 
  • a 'large extent' at a state tier level (level 3 responses).

During the audit period, there were no emergencies that took place where the department was the control agency. But there were 14 emergencies where the department was the lead support agency as per its roles and responsibilities in the SEMP (see Section 4).

The Sub-Plan outlines that in situations where the department is the lead support agency for level 2 or 3 regional or statewide responses, it will, or may, convene specific groups to provide oversight and support.

The department's emergency management plan

The department has an emergency management plan that outlines its obligations under the Act and the SEMP. 

The plan outlines a clear internal command and coordination structure. It assigns responsibility for leading department-wide emergency coordination and state-level integration to its resilience and emergency coordination branch through the State Agency Commander. 

The State Agency Commander is responsible for representing and advocating on behalf of the department at the state level within Victoria. This is regardless of if the department is a control, lead or support agency. 

In line with the Sub-Plan, the emergency management plan lists the department as a support agency in coordinating public transport emergencies. 

It also outlines PTCG's role to coordinate the activities of multiple transport operators as support agencies. When activated, the PTCG must report to the department's executive coordination team on the transport network's operational status.

PTCG's terms of reference

The PTCG's terms of reference describe the group as a transport sector emergency management team convened under the department's emergency management plan or the Sub Plan. The department convenes the PTCG to help reduce the impacts of predicted or actual significant transport disruptions that affect multiple PTOs. Members include:

• the department
• Victoria Police
• Metro Trains
• Yarra Trams
• V/Line
• Southern Cross Station
• bus operators
• Bus Association Victoria
• VicTrack.

The PTCG's terms of reference state that it will be activated to coordinate the transport sector in relation to:

• readiness for, response to and recovery from a disruption, emergency and/or threat that significantly impacts public transport or other transport services (level 3 emergencies)
• level 2 emergencies with potential to escalate to level 3.

This is consistent with the department's emergency management plan but not with the Sub-Plan.

Note: The updated Sub-Plan, released in October 2024, refers to the PTCG as the Transport Coordination Group.

PTOs and VicTrack emergency and crisis management planning 

In line with the Sub-Plan, the department contractually requires that each PTO maintains and activates an emergency and crisis management plan. 

These plans outline the roles and responsibilities for the department and PTOs to mitigate and respond to emergencies as outlined in the Sub-Plan, particularly for level 1 emergencies. 

We found that each of the audited PTOs have current emergency and crisis management plans that are consistent with their contractual requirements and align with the Sub-Plan.

Specific to its telecommunication role under the Sub-Plan, VicTrack has a telecommunication emergency management framework. This framework assists VicTrack to plan for, respond to and recover from an emergency that impacts public transport communications. 

VicTrack also has a crisis management plan that supports the framework. It outlines requirements for its crisis management team to use immediately before, during and after a crisis. This includes clear actions and roles and responsibilities.

Vital critical infrastructure exercises for emergency preparedness

Under the Ministerial Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure Resilience, the Minister for Emergency Services (delegated to the minister responsible for public transport) designates certain transport services as vital critical infrastructure. This is also designated by the Governor in Council under section 74E of the Act. This designation seeks to make sure the public transport network is resilient and operates during emergencies.

The Act enables the Minister for Emergency Services to:

• protect designated critical infrastructure during emergencies
• give directions to infrastructure owners or operators to carry out safeguarding measures.

The minister responsible for public transport has designated trains and trams as vital critical infrastructure but not buses. As owners or operators of vital critical infrastructure, part 7A of the Act requires the department (Transport for Victoria), VicTrack, Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams to undertake resilience exercises in a 12-month resilience improvement cycle. This includes:

• a statement of assurance
• emergency risk management planning and documentation
• an exercise (unless otherwise agreed to by the minister responsible for public transport)
• an audit.

The department (Transport for Victoria), Metro Trains, V/Line, Yarra Trams and VicTrack completed their mandated annual resilience exercises or received an exemption from the minister throughout the audit period. 

As buses are not vital critical infrastructure, bus operators do not need to undertake resilience exercises. This means that they may not test their emergency preparedness and resilience as rigorously as train or tram operators.

Frequency and duration of significant unplanned disruptions

We analysed the significant unplanned disruptions recorded in the department's operational response team incident log during the audit period. 

The main causes of disruptions in the operational response team incident log were:

• significant network delays (41 per cent), which includes trespassers, ill passengers, rallies, service obstructions, signals passed at danger and staff errors
• infrastructure faults (37 per cent)
• emergency services requests (19 per cent).

A smaller number of recordable disruptions were due to severe weather and other factors.

As shown in Figure 3, despite month-to-month fluctuations, the number of unplanned disruptions in the operational response team incident log remained stable during the audit period. There was no noticeable increase due to any cause, including infrastructure faults and significant network delays. 

Figure 3: Number of significant unplanned disruptions recorded from July 2021 to January 2024

Source: VAGO analysis of the department's operational response team incident log spreadsheet.

Within the audit period, unplanned disruptions recorded within the operational response team incident log typically lasted an hour, with a median duration of 1 hour 18 minutes. Despite month to-month fluctuations, the median duration has trended downward, decreasing approximately 42 seconds a month (refer to Figure 4). However, 10 per cent of logged unplanned disruptions lasted over 6 hours.

Figure 4: Median duration (minutes) of significant unplanned disruptions from July 2021 to January 2024

Source: VAGO analysis of the department's operational response team incident log spreadsheet.

Sample selection

We analysed a sample of unplanned disruptions and emergencies that impacted public transport to assess if PTOs managed service disruptions in line with their contracts and the Sub-Plan.

We selected the sample from the department's operational response team's incident log. The sample consisted of: 

• 9 level 1 incident responses affecting Metro Trains, V/Line, Yarra Trams and Kinetic
• one level 2 emergency response caused by an Optus outage affecting Metro Trains' communication network
• 8 separate disruptions affecting Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams during a severe weather event that VAGO assessed to meet the criteria of a level 2 emergency response.

The designated response levels align with the response definitions in the Sub-Plan.

CDC Victoria was not in our sample because it could only provide records of unplanned disruption data for November 2023. The operational response team's incident log did not contain any disruptions for CDC Victoria.

PTO responses to level 1 incidents 

As outlined in the Sub-Plan, PTOs respond to incidents affecting their services as part of their day to-day business in line with their contractual arrangements (described in Section 3).

During the 9 sampled level 1 disruptions, we found that PTOs acted to maintain service continuity. In summary:

• PTOs notified the department and passengers of all disruptions
• Yarra Trams and Kinetic modified routes during 4 disruptions
• V/Line provided replacement buses during all its sampled disruptions
• Metro Trains provided replacement buses during 2 of the 3 sampled disruptions but not during an unplanned disruption lasting 3 hours because trains were still operational at a reduced frequency.

PTO responses during level 2 emergencies 

As part of our sample, we assessed the Optus outage on 8 November 2023, which was classified as a level 2 emergency. The outage disrupted Metro Trains' network for approximately 13 hours but did not disrupt other public transport services.

As per section 6 of the Sub-Plan, Metro Trains effectively managed the service disruption by exercising its emergency management plan. In line with this plan and its contractual requirements, Metro Trains:

• notified the department of the disruption to services
• notified the department and passengers of the disruption/s via station announcements, its websites and social media platforms (the department also notified passengers via the Public Transport Victoria app)
• managed service continuity by providing safe alternative transport options between affected stations.

As part of our sample, we also assessed a severe weather event on 21 November 2022. The severe weather event:

• caused 8 separate disruptions due to fallen trees or debris, each lasting between 44 minutes and almost 7 hours 
• impacted Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams.

Based on documents from PTOs and the department outlining their responses, PTOs responded to both emergencies in keeping with their contractual obligations and the Sub-Plan. 

In summary, PTOs activated their emergency management plans and:

• notified the department and passengers of the disruption/s via station announcements, their websites and social media platforms (the department also kept passengers informed through various communication channels including the Public Transport Victoria app and website, public radio, announcements and interactive voice response messages)
• managed service continuity by providing safe alternative transport options between affected stations:
  • Metro Trains and V/Line deployed replacement buses 
  • Yarra Trams changed routes.

Department oversight and support during level 2 and 3 emergencies

The department is required to provide oversight and support during public transport emergencies as per the SEMP and the Sub-Plan (see Section 3). During the audit period, there were no emergencies that took place where the department was the control agency. But the department was the lead support agency for 14 emergencies. These included:

• 8 level 2 emergencies
• 6 level 3 emergencies.

Based on the evidence the department provided, it did not always provide oversight and support in line with its obligations under section 6 of the Sub-Plan because:

• it did not activate its regional emergency management team during any of the level 2 emergencies
• it did not activate its emergency coordination team (state tier) in 5 of 6 level 3 emergencies
• it did not activate the PTCG in one of the 6 level 3 emergencies, although it did in half of the level 2 emergencies despite that not being a mandated requirement under the Sub-Plan.

This means the department did not always provide oversight and support to PTOs and the incident controller in line with its obligations under the Sub-Plan. This increases the risk of uncoordinated and inconsistent responses to public transport emergencies that impact passengers.

Department oversight and support during the Optus outage and a severe weather event

Under the SEMP, the department was the lead support agency for the Optus outage on 8 November 2023, which was classified by the department as a level 2 emergency. As a support agency for a level 2 emergency, section 6 of the Sub-Plan requires the department to activate its regional emergency management team and possibly its emergency coordination team (state tier). Given the high impact of the Optus outage, the department activated its incident coordination team, effectively meeting its requirement under the Sub-Plan.

Where multiple PTOs respond, the department may activate the PTCG to coordinate their activities. The department did not need to activate the PTCG during the Optus outage because Metro Trains was the only PTO involved.

Our sample also included a set of level 1 incidents related to a severe weather event on 21 November 2022. Section 6.2.2 of the Sub-Plan outlines the department's support agency requirements, listing typical level 2 emergencies as 'severe weather events with significant quantity of widespread fallen trees or debris'. The Sub-Plan also states that the transport disruption from these scenarios is anticipated to take longer than 4 hours.

As the severe weather event matched the criteria for a level 2 emergency in the Sub-Plan, the department would have been required to:

• convene the regional emergency management team
• consider activating the PTCG
• provide support as required through its emergency coordination team (state tier).

However, the department had already activated a statewide transport cell as a support agency for the October 2022 floods across Victoria. The cell included a departmental State Agency Commander and State Duty Officer, which operated out of the Emergency Management Victoria state control centre. 

The department used this transport cell to coordinate and oversee the transport response to the 21 November severe weather event as well.

Planned disruptions

Over the audit period, there was a steady increase in planned disruptions and the associated total network occupation time (that is, the hours that the network was occupied for planned works) (see Figure 5). Departmental and/or PTO projects, including asset maintenance and infrastructure related projects, caused the majority of planned disruptions (79 per cent). These types of disruptions make up 54 per cent of network occupation time. 

Victoria's Big Build, which is delivering over 180 major road and rail projects, has a significant impact on the public transport network. While only 21 per cent of planned disruptions relate to the Big Build, (see Figure 5) they contribute to 46 per cent of network occupation time. Big Build–related disruptions result in frequent, and often extended, disruptions to rail services. On average, Big Build–related disruptions take 26.5 hours, while other planned disruptions take 8 hours.

Figure 5: Network occupation time (hours) of planned disruptions from July 2021 to December 2023

Source: VAGO analysis of VIDA planned disruption data.

Planned disruptions mostly affected the metropolitan rail network (76 per cent) and to a lesser extent the regional rail network (21 per cent) (see Figure 6). Similarly, disruptions associated with the Big Build mostly affected Metro Trains' services on the metropolitan rail network (72 per cent).

Figure 6: Network occupation time (hours) of planned disruptions by PTO from July 2021 to December 2023

Source: VAGO analysis of VIDA planned disruptions data.

Roles, responsibilities and governance

The department, PTOs, VIDA (and its Big Build contractors) have worked together effectively to coordinate and manage planned disruptions to the public transport network. These include:

• Big Build–related disruptions
• asset maintenance and infrastructure-related projects by:
  • the department
  • PTOs.

The department primarily manages planned disruptions through its contracts with PTOs. It prepares the network for planned disruptions as part of its management and oversight role. This includes:

• supporting network planning
• assessing and minimising the cumulative impact of planned disruptions to the public transport network.

The department leads 2 key governance bodies that plan and assess the schedule of planned disruptions with relevant transport bodies and PTOs:

• the Planned Disruption Assessment Group: This is a high-level planning group between the department and VIDA that oversees the 12-month schedule of planned disruptions. It is responsible for providing strategies to minimise the impacts of planned disruptions on communities, PTOs and projects. The department and PTOs have multiple governance bodies that report into this group
• the Multi Modal Operator Group: This is the department's governance committee for the rail works program and includes the department, Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams. It is responsible for ensuring a transport-user focus when coordinating planned disruptions.

VIDA manages planned disruptions associated with Victoria's Big Build. It does this at a project level through its 3 transport-focused project offices (Level Crossing Removal Project, Major Roads Projects Victoria and Metro Tunnel Project). 

VIDA maintains and distributes a schedule of planned disruptions to the network to the department, PTOs and its project offices. It provides cumulative oversight and assessment of both Big Build–related and other planned disruptions to the network. It regularly reports these to the Planned Disruption Assessment Group. 

VIDA coordinates with the department through VIDA project office coordination committees and project-specific network occupation working groups.

Scheduling planned disruptions

VIDA has principles for planning and scheduling planned disruptions, which it established with Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams as network operators. 

The scheduling follows an order of priority to minimise the impact of disruptions. This starts with aligning works with other planned disruptions, completing works outside of service hours (overnight), then using weekends. VIDA will cause a major disruption that interrupts peak services as a last resort. 

Operationally, the department and VIDA manage scheduling planned disruptions through contractual arrangements with PTOs and Big Build contractors. The department's contracts with Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams outline service continuity arrangements for planned disruptions to minimise the impact on passengers and maximise efficiencies. VIDA requires Big Build contractors to:

• gain approval from Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams for any network occupation
• adhere to PTOs' policies and procedures.

We reviewed the scheduling of planned disruptions across the audit period. We found that most occurred outside peak travel times (between last and first service, or on weekends) (see Figure 7). The main exceptions were level crossing removal projects, which spanned peak service hours due to their necessary duration.

Figure 7: Distribution of planned disruptions across a week by PTO from July 2021 to December 2023

Source: VAGO analysis of VIDA planned disruptions data.

Our analysis also found that PTOs have mostly scheduled asset maintenance and infrastructure upgrades to overlap with Big Build planned disruptions (see Figure 8). This has helped minimise the impact of these types of disruptions on passengers and the cumulative impact of planned disruptions overall.

Figure 8: Distribution of planned disruptions across a week by occupation type from July 2021 to December 2023

Source: VAGO analysis of VIDA planned disruptions data.

Meeting contractual requirements

We analysed a sample of 10 planned disruptions related to the Big Build, asset maintenance and infrastructure projects. The PTOs we looked at were Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams. We assessed if:

• the timing and coordination of each disruption minimised the potential impact on passengers
• PTOs met their main contractual requirements around managing planned disruptions.

We found that:

• Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams always met their main contractual obligations, including providing alternative transport during timetable hours
• 5 of the 6 sampled Big Build–related disruptions and all maintenance and infrastructure projects either occurred during or spanning weekends, including overnight. However, a 4-day Metro Tunnel Project occupation of the Mernda train line occurred during weekdays (including during timetable hours). This disruption occurred during the day because COVID-19 lockdown restrictions had suspended all night network transport
• all PTOs had disruption management strategies, which included contingencies, where disruptions spanned normal timetable hours
• for longer disruptions, the department approved PTOs altering their timetable by either shortening the affected service, adding additional run time, or bypassing the City Loop
• the department approved all disruptions in advance.

Providing alternative transport arrangements

Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams have contractual requirements to provide alternative transport arrangements during planned disruptions. To extend our sample analysis above, we analysed if PTOs provided alternative transport across all planned disruptions from July 2021 to January 2024.

We found that Metro Trains, V/Line and Yarra Trams provided alternative transport arrangements for all planned disruptions that impacted passenger services during standard service hours. This was usually bus replacements.

Passenger complaints on public transport service delivery

The department receives public transport service delivery complaints that may relate to planned and/or unplanned disruptions. While the number of planned disruptions increased during the audit period, the number of significant unplanned disruptions remained stable, and their average duration decreased (refer to Section 4). 

This means that poor planning and management of planned disruptions and disruption fatigue could have increased complaints about public transport services. But the department's complaints data shows that transport bodies' and PTOs' actions to minimise the impact of planned disruptions on passengers have been effective. 

Between July 2021 and January 2024, the number of service delivery complaints per passenger did not markedly increase for any public transport mode. This includes complaints about Metro Trains, whose network and services were the most impacted by planned disruptions, including Big Build projects (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: Standardised monthly complaints about public transport services per 10,000 trips from July 2021 to January 2024

Source: VAGO analysis of the department's complaints data.