Melbourne private rail operator, Metro Trains, has reportedly been fined $1.2 million over the computer problems that took down most of its network on 13 July.
The fine is the maximum that could be imposed Public Transport Victoria chief executive, Jeroen Weimar, told the ABC.
"This was the maximum monthly fine that we could have imposed, and rightly so, because obviously it was a major impact on the network for that period of time," he said.
"Tens of thousands of our passengers were inconvenienced and as a result we've used our contract to its full effect, and penalised them for their very poor performance."
The $1.2 million fine comes on top of the amount reimbursed to every passenger affected by the disruption.
Passengers that touched on in the metropolitan train network between 3pm and 7pm were reimbursed for the cost of their two-hour fare. Both myki Money and myki Pass passengers travelling on a full fare were reimbursed $4.10 and concession travellers received $2.05.
According to the ABC those payments added up to $627,000 to refund a total of 175,000 passengers affected on the day.
Public Transport Victoria did not respond to ARN’s request for comment at the time of writing.
On 13 July, around 4PM, many services halted and information screens across the network were left devoid of timetable information, which continued well into the peak hour commuter rush
The computer glitch that caused the problems was fixed after an hour and a half and an investigation was launched following the issue.
