Victoria’s regional train operator V/Line has had to replace some train services with buses and run shorter trains because of a problem with the some of its train wheels.
As the Age reports, the wheels on the network’s newest carriages, known as VLocity, are wearing faster than is normal and raising the possibility of derailments.
As a result V/Line has had to take about a quarter of the carriages out of service for repair and make the alternative arrangements to service passengers.
The train carriages are manufactured in Dandenong by Bombardier Transportation, while the wheels themselves are made in Newcastle by local company Comsteel.
V-Line spokesman Colin Tyrus told the ABC the problem was first found in December.
"Depending on the rolling stock and the type of tracks, a train wheel can last months or sometimes years but in this case we've noticed the wheels on the V-locity carriages are wearing at a faster-than-normal rate," he said.
"Wheel changeovers are a constant in any railway worldwide but we've started to replace wheels at a more rapid rate after this wear was detected in the past month or so.
"It's a continuous process, we're just having to replace wheels at a faster rate than normal."
Experts from Monash University are assisting V/Line to find the cause of the problem and come up with a solution.