It seems to have been only sheer luck that the complete shutdown of Melbourne's rail network last Thursday night did not occur in peak hour.

Trains halted from 7:30pm for about 30 minutes, apparently due to a power issue that triggered an alarm and evacuation of Metro's control centre "Metrol".

Metro needs to explore new strategies to keep its trains on the rails. Credit:Darrian Traynor

As it was, thousands of passengers were delayed – but it could have been hundreds of thousands had it occurred two hours earlier.

Unfortunately, it is not the first time this has happened. In 2005 a water leak in the building caused a similar evacuation, stopping trains for about two hours in the middle of the day.