A 500-ton crane was deployed to remove the faulty carriage from the tracks near Clifton Hill station yesterday, after it partially derailed around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The incident inflicted significant damage to approximately 100 meters of track and caused substantial harm to overhead infrastructure, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

That means services on parts of the Hurstbridge and Mernda lines will remain suspended until at least Monday.

Hurstbridge line passengers will need to use buses between Eltham and Parliament stations.

Replacement buses will service Mernda passengers between Reservoir and Parliament.

Trains continue to operate between Mernda and Reservoir, but delays are likely.

Previously planned works mean buses will continue to replace trains between Heidelberg and Eltham until Thursday, July 24.

Long queues of commuters formed at Reservoir station this morning as lines of replacement buses filed in.

“[It’s] a little bit frustrating”, one commuter said.

“Certainly they used to compensate the customers, it is a lot of inconvenience and they should do better,” another said.

The ATSB is continuing to investigate the cause of the partial derailment.

“Investigators from the Office of the Chief Investigator (OCI) were deployed to the accident site on Monday, engaging in various evidence-gathering activities,” an ATSB spokesperson stated.

“The ATSB and OCI will release a preliminary report detailing factual information established in the investigation’s evidence-gathering phase in about two months.

“A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation and will detail evidence, analysis and findings.

“However, should a critical safety issue be identified during the investigation, the ATSB and OCI will immediately notify relevant parties so safety action can be taken.” 

Metro Trains chief executive Raymond O’Flaherty said a decision about whether impacted passengers would receive compensation would be made at the end of the month.

“We will look at passenger compensation at the end of this month,” O’Flaherty said yesterday.

“In the meantime, what we are focused on is trying to ensure that passengers can still make journeys.

“We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on passengers on both of these lines.”