newy.com.au – Maitland and Dungog train services remain disrupted as rail authorities carry out full checks on a safety critical radio system affected by Wednesday’s national Telstra outage.
Buses are continuing to replace Hunter Line trains between Newcastle Interchange, Maitland and Telarah, Scone and Dungog, Transport for NSW have warned some NSW TrainLink services remain cancelled or replaced by coaches. Passengers have been urged to check the latest service information before travelling, allow extra time, listen for announcements and monitor information displays.
The disruption is continuing even though Telstra has largely restored mobile services, because the Australian Rail Track Corporation is verifying its National Train Communications System before allowing passenger services back onto affected sections of the network. The system allows control centres to speak directly with train drivers through in cab radios and operates on Telstra’s 4G network across ARTC’s interstate and regional rail network.
ARTC said the Telstra outage prevented essential communications with train crews and frontline workers, creating a safety risk. It said Telstra and ARTC were undertaking comprehensive testing and verification of the train communications system, with a limited number of units returning positive results.
“Testing of a limited number of train communications units has produced positive results,” ARTC said. “ARTC will begin progressively moving tested services where communications have been confirmed and all required operational checks have been completed.”
The corporation said services would return in a controlled and phased manner because of the size and complexity of the national rail network. “Passenger services will remain paused until the network is fully operational,” it said.
ARTC stressed the problem was not caused by signalling or track infrastructure, but by the telecommunications outage affecting the communications needed to safely operate trains. “Safety remains our highest priority,” it said.
The outage began about 4.30am on Wednesday and affected mobile calls and data services across Telstra’s network, as well as some smaller providers using Telstra infrastructure. It also caused flow-on problems for EFTPOS terminals, taxi payments and other services that rely on mobile connectivity.
Telstra has said the fault involved network nodes that keep time across its mobile network and that it was confident it had identified a software defect. Those timing systems help keep mobile network equipment synchronised so calls and data sessions can be carried reliably. Reports on the technical cause have pointed to a GPS time synchronisation fault, Telstra saying its investigation into the root cause is continuing.
The Hunter disruption differs from services between Sydney and Newcastle, which have not been affected in the same way. Trains on the electrified Sydney to Newcastle corridor use Sydney Trains’ Digital Train Radio System, a private GSM-R rail communications network based on 2G technology, while the ARTC-controlled regional network used by Maitland and Dungog services relies on in-cab radio communications carried over Telstra’s standard 4G network.
Transport for NSW said work was continuing to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. Customers are being encouraged to check travel alerts at transportnsw.info before and during their journey.
Meanwhile some 4G emergency pendants relied on by elderly and vulnerable Hunter residents have still not returned to service following Wednesday’s Telstra outage, raising concerns for people who depend on the devices to call for urgent help. The pendants are commonly used by people living alone or with medical conditions, and any continued loss of connectivity means some users may be unable to trigger an emergency alert until their device is confirmed to be working again.
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