Yesterday (13/7/17) at approximately 4pm the metropolitan rail network in Melbourne Australia came to a standstill. The current title holder of "World's most liveable city" was brought to it's knees as thousands of commuters were left stranded on a winter evening at peak hour. Announcements informed those waiting that a computer malfunction had resulted in all signals throughout the CBD loop turning red. As all metropolitan trains pass through this loop the entire network came to a standstill. Buses, trams and taxis were swamped as commuters
The issues was eventually rectified over an hour later and services were returned to normal across the 16 lines and 218 stations.
- The network transports in excess of 400,000 passengers daily
- Waiting times for taxis were upwards of an hour
- More than 1000 people were trapped on trains that had been forced to a halt between stations
- Uber price surges were reported to be at 3.8x