UPDATE: PUBLIC Transport Victoria has admitted it failed commuters this morning as a wild storm paralysed the train network, causing major delays.

And commuters travelling home on the Cranbourne line are again facing major delays this afternoon following a train fault.

Public Transport Victoria is reporting 20-minute delays on the line, as well as 10-minute delays outbound on the Glen Waverley line and both directions on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines.

Nearly every metropolitan line was affected by delays of up to 40 minutes this morning as a huge electrical storm hit the city shortly after 2am.

A devastating combination of lightning strikes and power surges forced the closure of the City Loop and suspension of train lines.

GALLERY: INCREDIBLE PICS AS STORM HITS MELBOURNE

OCTOBER OUR WARMEST IN YEARS

PTV chief executive officer Mark Wild admitted Melbourne’s public transport network failed the early morning test, and aimed to do better in the future.

media_camera The storm hits Melbourne last night. Picture: Twitter @LooseBall00n / Nigel Killeen

“Firstly I would like to offer a sincere apology to all our customers who endured a difficult commute to work today,” he said.

“The storm overnight was very extensive and affected not only the transport system but the road system.

“Metro have worked tirelessly over the night to make the best we can of it and we’re doing our very best to get the situation back for this afternoon’s peak.

“It’s all been caused by lightning storms and some flooding on our lines, it’s quite unprecedented really to get such a combination together.”

media_camera Commuters battle for space at Flinders Street. Picture: Nicole Garmston

media_camera People line up for a tram outside Flinders Street station. Picture: Nicole Garmston

City bound trains stuck. I'm still walking pic.twitter.com/qp3YLiIYBA — Ahron Young (@AhronYoung) October 26, 2014

Mr Wild said Public Transport Victoria spent about $450 million a year on upgrading the rail network.

“We have plans to create a Metro style railway where railway lines are segregated from each other so a problem on one line doesn’t affect another,” he said.

“We also have plans with the Government to bring in high capacity signalling, particularly on the Cranbourne/Pakenham line.

“It’s testament to Metro Trains that after a very, very difficult morning peak, Andrew (Lezala) and his team are able to recover it and we would not be in that position several years ago.

“We clearly haven’t done our job this morning which was to get everybody to work on time, we’re working very hard tonight to make that happen.

“It’s clearly not acceptable what happened this morning but we’re trying our very best to get you home tonight.”

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Andrew Lezala, chief executive officer of Metro Trains, said the company lost a number of installations overnight through lightning strikes and power surges.

“The network is coming back and we expect to run a full service for the evening peak,” he said.

“We still have some flooding through a burst water main at Gardiner, we have a problem potentially on the Upfield line as we have blown all circuit breakers at Regent and we might have to do some cable changes as well.

“That could affect evening services on the Upfield line but everywhere else we should be running a full and proper service.

media_camera People line up for a tram outside Flinders Street Station. Picture: Nicole Garmston

“I would just like to apologise once more to our customers who had a pretty ropy ride to work today.”

Mr Lezala said nearly all services were hit by the severe storms.

“Almost all services were affected because we got so out of sequence that all of our drivers were out of position,” he said.

“Even on lines that weren’t too badly affected by the storms and power surges we had driver issues.”

Mr Lezala said Melbourne’s public transport system could cope with severe weather events but it could not account for external factors such as power surges.

“It can cope and it does cope well but we rely on electricity being fed into the network and if it becomes intermittent we have so many big inductants on the network we get power spikes,” he said.

“What that means is we get very high voltage going through the system and that blows equipment and signalling computer cards and the like.

“Can we make it more resilient, yes we can, and we’re working with PTV on that.

“There are proposals in place to try and make some of the signalling equipment less vulnerable but we can’t get rid of the power surges into the network.

“To a certain extent we can make it more resilient but we will continue to be vulnerable to external power surges.”

All Metro lines are now operating as normal except Pakenham, which is expecting delays of up to 10 minutes because of a faulty sign at Cardinia Rd.

A VicRoads traffic management spokesman said at 2pm that traffic congestion had eased as the wild weather cleared.

He said Melbourne’s arterial roads had all cleared except for some congestion around the Burnley Tunnel and several traffic lights were blacked out.

“But it’s all looking OK and will hopefully be OK at peak time,” he said.

“We are expecting more traffic this afternoon after this morning’s public transport issues.”

Motorists are advised to take caution and be patient, to drive slowly through affected intersections and give way to the right.

media_camera Traffic gridlock on the Eastern Freeway. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Stranded.. These two cars are waiting for a tow truck.. @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/4mSMgulgX4 — Kristy Mayr (@KristyMayr7) October 26, 2014

Slow moving at Melbourne Airport. Closed due to weather. Flight to Hobart almost 2 hours delayed pic.twitter.com/aj3PRep0BO — Christopher Hampton (@ChrisInMelb) October 26, 2014

Parts of inner Melbourne were hit with flash flooding, causing havoc on roads.

One of four drivers stuck in floodwaters in Dudley St in Docklands said the water began swirling around her feet after her Ford Focus stopped.

“There was a lot of cars driving through it, we thought we could make it, but we couldn’t,” she said.

The drivers were assisted to higher ground.

Weather Channel senior meteorologist Tom Saunders said about 80,000 strikes were recorded in Victoria and South Australia overnight.

Rain and thunder continued over Melbourne until about 10.30am.

Melbourne’s CBD received 29mm of rain since the storms began about 2am, with 10 to 20mm falling across the rest of the metropolitan area.

Conditions are expected to calm down this afternoon with a forecast top of 19C.

GOT PHOTOS OR VIDEO OF THE STORM? Tweet @theheraldsun or email photosvictoria@news.com.au

media_camera Bolts of lightning above Coburg. Picture: Jason Edwards

media_camera The storm hit the city about 2am, waking many residents. Picture: Jason Edwards

media_camera The bureau said unstable weather was to be expected at this time of the year. Picture: Jason Edwards

media_camera Ian Ranson took this incredible photo of the storm over Docklands.

A family of five was lucky to escape after a lightning strike started a fire at their Prahran home during the storm.

Jillian Staton, her three children and mother-in-law were woken by thunder and lightning about 2am. They gathered in a bedroom when they heard a loud crash before smelling smoke.

They saw flames and then fled their A’Beckett St home, which had caught fire when a nearby tree was struck with lightning.

The fire spread to an attic room in the roof and went on to destroy most of the house, causing an estimated damage bill of $850,000.

It also threatened several neighbouring homes, forcing the evacuation of four houses.

MFB spokesman Trevor Woodward said it took 35 firefighters almost two hours to bring the fire under control.

media_camera The family after the fire destroyed their house. Picture: Nicole Garmston

media_camera Imogen Whittaker is overjoyed after a fireman returns a handbag he found at the property belonging to her mum Jillian Staton. Nicole Garmston

media_camera Jillian Staton and her family had a lucky escape. Picture: Nicole Garmston media_camera The roof of the destroyed house in Prahran. Picture: Nicole Garmston

As the weather moved towards the east of the state in the afternoon, widespread power outages swept Wodonga and Mallacoota.

About 4000 homes in Wodonga were without power for an hour from 1.40pm while 950 homes in Mallacoota were in the dark in the late afternoon.

Ausnet Services, which covers Melbourne’s outer northern and eastern suburbs, had 1300 houses without power at 3pm, impacting Mallacoota, Bright and Genoa.

Spokesman Jonathon Geddes said power would hopefully be restored by early evening, “weather permitting”.

But overall, state-wide power outages have eased after almost 16,000 Victorian homes were without electricity at 9.30am.

Powercor, which covers western Victoria, had ​about ​20​00 customers without power at ​2pm​ — ​down from 8000​ ​and dropping regularly.

About 1400 homes on the CitiPower grid in inner Melbourne ​also remained in the dark, ​a decrease from ​3200.

​​United Energy was reporting ​214 outages ​in Doncaster, Endeavour Hills and Rowville, down from ​​​3680 ​across Melbourne’s east​​ ​earlier in the morning.

In the western and north-western suburbs, Jemena had ​72 outages in Alphington at ​2pm.

Despite the severity of the storm emergency services have reported little damage, with the SES receiving less than 10 calls for assistance overnight.

Bureau duty forecaster Steven McGibbony said the storm originated in south and south-eastern South Australia yesterday afternoon before moving over Victoria to hit most of the state’s west and central areas.

The east had so far been spared the storm’s severity, he said.

“As it moved across the Latrobe Valley, the lightning activity eased and there was more showers and rain,” he said.

“It may hold its intensity as it continues to move east.”

Mr McGibbony said storm activity was common at this time of year, with the atmosphere at its most unstable.

It’s forecast to be cloudy in Melbourne tomorrow, with a 40 per cent chance of showers in the afternoon and a top of 19C.

media_camera City workers battle miserable conditions on their way to work. Picture: Andrew Batsch

samantha.landy@news.com.au