V/Line expects many of its regional trains will be back running by March 21, after wheel wear forced the cancellation of services. Credit:Pat Scala Ms Allan said she was first made aware of the recent boom gate issue on Friday evening. Axle counters will be installed on 29 level crossings so VLocity trains can run on the metropolitan network, she said. These devices detect the speed and direction in which trains are travelling, helping boom gates recognise the VLocity trains. Installing the devices will take three to six months at a cost of $23 million. Wheel wear has also affected V/Line services in recent days. On Tuesday almost 70 train services did not run due to the range of problems.

Ms Allen confirmed V/Line had not adequately implemented a maintenance regime for its services. "There are many, many more services being provided and trains are now travelling across many more kilometres of track," she said. The operator is carrying out additional maintenance and replacing wheels on affected trains. Many train services have been replaced by coaches. Ms Allan said offering free travel was a "small acknowledgement" of the inconvenience V/Line passengers had faced. She said there would be "minimal" disruption to the system by the end of next week.

Metro banned V/Line's VLocity carriages from suburban tracks because a boom gate failed to close properly when a VLocity train approached the Progress Street level crossing at Dandenong last Friday. However, rail authorities became aware of the issue when similar level crossing failures occurred in 2011 and 2012. A source said issues with the train involved in Friday night's incident had been long known. "These cars have had recurrent issues with failing to activate track circuits for some time," the source said. "[Train] unit 1147 is a repeat offender."

After the 2011 and 2012 level crossing failures, Metro introduced short-term fixes, including a monthly track cleaning program, which is referred to as track scrubbing, as well as installing track circuit assisters and upgrading existing ones across the network to help boom gates recognise VLocity trains. However, authorities failed to implement a permanent solution recommended in a report by Metro's top engineer in 2013, which would have involved putting axle counters on tracks shared by Metro and V/Line services. The axle counters have been installed on the Stony Point line, but not yet across the rest of the network. "They will be progressively rolled out to tracks shared by Metro and V/Line services," a Public Transport Victoria spokesman said.

The boom gate issue is the second problem to beset the regional operator in the past fortnight. V/Line was forced to pull many of its newest trains out of service because of a sudden and mysterious spate of wheel faults over fears they could cause a train to derail. The problem was confined to the operator's VLocity carriages, the newest in the fleet, which continue to roll out of the Bombardier factory in Dandenong at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. However, according to Rail, Tram and Bus union secretary Luba Grigorovitch, the wheel issue was separate to the boom gate problem.

"It's a coincidence that these issues have occurred at the same time," she said. Ms Grigorovitch said the boom gate issue arose from poor maintenance of the tracks - specifically the lack of track scrubbing - which was Metro's responsibility. "V/Line pays $20 million per year to use the Metro track and in return they don't even receive the basic maintenance to allow basic services to run," she said. "Metro have not hesitated here to point the finger at everyone but themselves. It is shocking to learn that they are so deeply complicit in the travel chaos they have forced onto regional commuters. "It's just not fair that regional passengers are made suffer while Metro fails to invest their millions in basic safety maintenance."

There has been a significant amount of testing of the VLocity fleet undertaken over the past few days, and engineers and safety experts are currently analysing the data gathered. Testing is ongoing and Public Transport Victoria anticipates that by the middle of the week Metro will have a clearer picture as to the actions required for VLocity trains to safely resume running. Shadow minister for public transport David Hodgett called on the Victorian government to release all reports and correspondence on the issue. Despite reports that similar level crossing failures occurred during 2011 and 2012, when a Coalition government was in power, he said no safety warning had been issued to the government at the time by Metro. "I'm aware of an incident in 2014 on the Stony Point line... Where an engineering solution was found. That was fixed very quickly with minimal disruption.

"Boomgates failing to close at level crossings is a major safety risk. "Daniel Andrews must release all the reports, engineers reports, information all the correspondence he's had about this 2015 warning. It's no good for him to bury them or hide them. "He must tell us what he knew and why he did not act on it." Do you know more? Email scoop@theage.com.au