What the V/Line outage tells us about resilient infrastructure

Victoria's regional rail network remained at a standstill this morning after yesterday's nationwide Telstra telecommunications outage disrupted the communications system used by V/Line trains, forcing the suspension of services for a second day.

While Telstra resolved the underlying software fault on Wednesday afternoon, V/Line said extensive testing was required before trains could safely return to service. The operator hoped to resume services for the afternoon peak but advised passengers to avoid travel where possible.

Professor Hai Vu, Deputy Dean (Research) and transport engineering expert of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said the incident highlighted the challenges of modernising critical infrastructure while maintaining ageing systems.

He told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) NEWS "Over time, the system has been built on a certain technology, and then, after that, it's been incrementally updated rather than thinking from the system and design perspective to make it more resilient."

Professor Vu also noted the greater complexity of maintaining regional rail networks compared with metropolitan systems, saying "It is also an indication that the urban metro system is probably a newer system."

He said digital technologies remain essential to modern rail operations, arguing that the focus should now be on improving resilience rather than abandoning digital systems. "We need to be thinking about how we can make these systems more robust and more resilient, rather than saying that we shouldn't rely on them, because I think it's almost a point of no return."

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