Ms Harvey and her four-year-old son were among hundreds of passengers inconvenienced when the 7.12pm Melbourne to Warrnambool service arrived more than two hours late, with buses coming in shortly after 1am. 

The Dennington mother of four had taken her son to the Royal Children’s Hospital for a health check, taking the 6.08am morning service to Melbourne. 

The health check had a good outcome but the pair’s return trip to Warrnambool on the 7.12pm service only made it as far as the western Melbourne suburb of Sunshine before being terminated.

Ms Harvey said that prior to the service’s termination, the train stopped before Sunshine for up to 20 minutes and passengers were told a mechanic was coming to check a problem.

At Sunshine, passengers were told buses would replace the train because there was concern the train might break down far from a station during the night if it continued.

Ms Harvey and her son got on a bus that stopped several times before getting to Geelong, with that trip extended when the driver missed a turnoff to Tarneith and had to return to drop off passengers.  At Geelong, they transferred to another bus that took them via a number of stops to Warrnambool.

“It was a long day and a long night,” Ms Harvey said.

Ms Harvey said she felt for the elderly passengers as well as for those who still had to travel on from Warrnambool to Port Fairy and Portland by bus.

Another inconvenienced by the breakdown was John Maddock of Warrnambool who was annoyed not only by arriving in the early hours of Thursday morning, but also by the efforts he made to get redress for the disruption.

Mr Maddock, 63, travelled on a seniors’ voucher and said staff at Warrnambool station had initially refused his request for a replacement voucher for the Melbourne to Warrnambool trip. 

When told he would have got a replacement voucher if he had paid, he argued he was being discriminated against because he was on a seniors card.

Staff rang Melbourne before giving him a full voucher for a return trip.