Sydney-Melbourne trains out for days

Full passenger services on the main Sydney to Melbourne train line are not expected
to resume for several days following a derailment in Victoria on Saturday morning
which tore up 700 metres of track and damaged 15 wagons.
A Pacific National freight train derailed at Wodonga, on the NSW-Victoria border,
just after 7am (AEDT) on Saturday, sending two carriages flying off the track and
down an embankment, damaging a bridge.
The other 13 carriages fell onto the adjoining track.
Following urgent repair work, limited freight services are expected to resume from
6am (AEDT) on Monday.
But passenger services will not start again for several days, the Australian Rail
Track Corporation (ARTC) said on Sunday.
The derailment will force people travelling from Sydney to Melbourne to get off
trains at the NSW border town of Albury, just north of Wodonga, and then travel the
rest of the way by bus until the line is fully reopened.
Those travelling in the opposite direction must get a bus to Albury and then get on
a train.
"At this stage only freight traffic will be recommenced, with passenger services
expected to return later in the week following further repair and recovery
operations," a statement from the ARTC said on Sunday.
Repair and recovery operations would continue throughout the week and when completed
passenger services would resume, the ARTC said.



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