Sadly, a gentleman has tested positive – that was a V/Line train driver. He had been confirmed to have been in the staff room at Southern Cross Station and had travelled, as part of his duties, wearing a mask, being compliant, doing all the right things – did travel to Gippsland. That gentleman has tested positive and now everyone that had been in that staff room – which was also a room that staff go and check their rosters – have now all been contacted and been told to do the right thing and isolate and to get tested if you have had symptoms.
This has had an impact on our V/Line driver network, as you can imagine. As I speak, some 20 services are now being disrupted, and we have five coaches out on the network supporting passengers where they need to go. While we only have 20 services at the moment, all the staff rostered on at V/Line are safe and have come to work as per their roster and had no contact with this gentleman, or been at Southern Cross Station. We are expecting the disruptions to go from 20 to around 100 services today.
I have met with and spoken over the phone with the staff at V/Line management, the CEO, and we’re working very hard throughout today to do everything we can to minimise disruptions, particularly as many Victorians get back to their working week, particularly in regional Victoria on Monday. So we are doing everything we can to minimise those disruptions.
