Two people have died and several others are injured after a Sydney-to-Melbourne train carrying passengers derailed in Victoria injuring several passengers.

The driver who died when his train derailed north of Melbourne has been described as a passionate and very experienced worker.

The driver, named by Nine newspapers as Canberra resident John Kennedy, 54, died along with a 49-year-old pilot from Victoria who was also travelling in the driver’s carriage.

Commuters were left trapped in the Sydney-to-Melbourne XPT when the diesel locomotive and five carriages derailed near Wallan station, 45 kilometres north of Melbourne, on the North East line about 7:45pm on Thursday.

Emergency services worked late into Thursday night and rail lines between Melbourne and Sydney have been closed.

Police confirmed early Friday morning two had died, including the male driver. The two deceased were travelling in the driver’s carriage.

“I imagine as a first responder who turned up it would have been looking like a horrific scene,” Victoria Police Acting Inspector Peter Fusinato said.

“I’m very surprised there weren’t more serious injuries … quite a miracle really.”

There are reports one man was injured while trying to save the driver, and Insp Fusinato said he expected further stories of bravery would emerge.

Transport for NSW secretary Rod Staples said Mr Kennedy had worked in different parts of the business for several years.

“His passion as a train driver, it’s the thing he loved to do,” Mr Staples told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

“He was a very, very experienced driver and was very well regarded.” Mr Staples extended his thoughts to Mr Kennedy’s family, friends and colleagues who were facing an “exceptionally difficult” time.

About 20 people remain unaccounted for and police have asked people who left the scene without speaking to emergency services, or who bought tickets but didn’t board the train, to get in touch.

In a media conference on Friday morning, Inspector Peter Koda said police had conducted “an extensive search of the train and all of the area around the train” and “we can confirm that there is no other persons on the train or in the vicinity of the tracks”.

“So we are reaching out to the media, to contact everyone that was on the train — (if they) haven’t had contact with emergency services at the time of the collision, if they can contact the Seymour Police Station or Crime Stoppers and let them know of their whereabouts,” he said.

Insp Koda said the investigation of the “crime scene” would “probably take at least 24 hours or longer” and the line would be closed during that time. “As you can understand, it’s a quite complex investigation,” he said.

The Seymour Line had a history of delays and cancellations due to an “ongoing rail equipment fault” near Wallan, according to V/Line’s Twitter feed.

The alerts show there were at least 20 warnings about delays relating to equipment faults near Wallan in recent days.

“Due to an investigation with NSW Train Link service near Wallan, all Seymour, Shepparton and Albury train services will be replaced by road coaches until further notice,” V/Line said on Friday.

“Customers travelling between Donnybrook and Southern Cross may consider using Metropolitan services between Craigieburn and Southern Cross to complete their journey.”

The line was in such disrepair that drivers refused to traverse that section, the ABC reports.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic accident that has taken the life of two rail workers and unnecessarily injured many more”.

“The Sydney to Melbourne XPT train derailment near Wallan Station last night occurred over a section of track over which was awaiting maintenance,” state secretary Luba Grigorovitch said in a statement.

“Conditions were altered and V/Line drivers rightly refused to traverse this section over the past week.”

President of the Rail Futures Institute, John Hearsch, said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau would be looking “very closely” at the signalling problems.

At least three helicopters were deployed to a scene the CFA described as “very chaotic”.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed 160 passengers and crew were on-board the train and some had been injured.

A man in his 60s was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition with an upper-body injury while 11 others were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries.

The ATSB will release a preliminary report after 30 days.

“The speed limit will be examined and the evidence gathered and examined over the next week or so,” ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood told reporters.

“Everyone wants answers now, but really we’re beginning our work this morning.”

Asked whether he was comfortable the Australian Rail Track Corporation had been doing enough to keep the track in good condition, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said “no authority in Australia would allow a train to travel on an unsafe track”.

“That just wouldn’t happen,” he said.

“I know the ARTC monitors these things closely and regularly. Public safety, when it comes to public transport, is first and foremost, whether it is state or whether it is federal.”

Addressing the comments by the union, Mr McCormack said “that will be a matter for the investigators”. “I welcome the unions to partake in those investigations,” he said.

“I invite the unions to put all those matters to the proper authorities so that we can fully investigate what has taken place beforehand and of course, what took place last night.”

TWO DEAD IN TRAIN DERAILMENT NEAR WALLAN Emergency services have confirmed two people have died in a train derailment... Posted by North Central Review on Thursday, February 20, 2020

TRAIN RUNNING LATE

The train, which had left Central Station in Sydney at 7:40am, had been due to arrive at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne at 6:30pm.

It was running more than two hours late at the time of the crash and passengers said the driver had been trying to make up time.

Passenger Rob Jennings told The Sydney Morning Herald passengers were tossed around during the minute-long derailment.

“It just veered off, and all the carriages smashed into one another,” he said.

“People were tossing around … there was some screaming — everyone was just grasping on, some in the brace position, preparing for the possibility of something worse.”

All passengers who were able to walk from the train were taken to the Wallan McDonald’s and BP Truckstore area, which was being used as a triage centre.

Photos posted on Twitter showed passengers standing next to the crumpled train with their luggage.

One passenger described the chaos as the train “suddenly slid into a fast stop”.

“Carriage at an angle stuff flying everywhere. Tray tables went flying,” Dr Scott Rickard said on Twitter.

“Stuff flew everywhere. Carriages crumpled at edges. We walked out. Most people able to walk out.

“We’re in a bit of shock, but OK. Drinking cuppas now.

“Fortunately only a few people injured in our carriage,” she added.

Canberra man James Ashburner, 69, estimated the train had been travelling at 100-odd km/h when “things went strange”.

“There was a lot of noise and suddenly there was dust, the train was swaying a lot,” he said.

It’s odd. I didn’t realise until we stopped. But fellow nearby knew immediately the noise started. — James Ashburner (@EurekaJames) February 20, 2020

“A couple of people had been standing in the aisle and they really went flying … For some minutes we were just milling about seeing who needed assistance and what sort of assistance.”

At the triage centre, a Sydney couple who had taken the train to visit their son in Melbourne told AAP the tragedy had been terrifying.

“You just hang on for grim death. You’re being thrown around, the things going along tilting over and all you can look out the window and just see dirt and debris and stuff flying up past the windows and the track itself is just twisted and bent,” the man said.

“It probably went about 150 metres before it stopped, there were carriages going sideways – pretty horrifying.”

The man revealed train staff had handed out complaint cards to passengers moments before the derailment, after lengthy delays caused by ongoing problems with signals on the line.

‘DECADES LONG NEGLECT’

The V/Line Seymour Line had warned of long delays due to several faults at Wallan, including “an ongoing rail equipment fault” and “track fault”. Alerts from as far back as February 9 showed there was an issue.

Melbourne City councillor Rohan Leppert said it was the second derailment on the Albury line in three weeks.

The 12.05 Southern Cross - Albury is approximately 70 minutes delayed. The expected time of arrival into Albury is 17.06. This is due to a signalling issue near Wallan. pic.twitter.com/mzI4aavq4f — V/Line Seymour Line (@vline_seymour) February 11, 2020

The 12:45 Albury - Southern Cross is expected to be delayed 80 minutes due to a ongoing rail equipment fault near Wallan. pic.twitter.com/UGOXfMRWcQ — V/Line Seymour Line (@vline_seymour) February 11, 2020

The 06:35 Albury to Southern Cross train is currently delayed by approximately 65 minutes due to a track fault at Wallan. pic.twitter.com/qsqyNsCdqL — V/Line Seymour Line (@vline_seymour) February 15, 2020

UPDATE: The 17:20 Albury - Southern Cross is currently delayed by 104 minutes due to an ongoing rail equipment fault at Wallan. pic.twitter.com/YiB7XPlpjM — V/Line Seymour Line (@vline_seymour) February 17, 2020

The 12:05 Southern Cross - Albury is currently delayed by 45 minutes due to an ongoing rail equipment fault at Wallan. pic.twitter.com/sv6UyMIkZ5 — V/Line Seymour Line (@vline_seymour) February 19, 2020

A train derails at Wallan after days of @vline_seymour tweeting about “ongoing rail equipment faults” at Wallan pic.twitter.com/Rbj91MvOl2 — Jeffrey Simpson (@FadAstra) February 20, 2020

“The decades long neglect of this regional rail route is criminal,” Mr Leppert said.

In January, a northbound freight train derailed near Wodonga in northeast Victoria. A V/Line Albury-to-Melbourne passenger train then collided with a wagon.

The ARTC is in charge of rail maintenance while the train was managed by Transport for NSW. “We are working hard to support emergency services, NSW TrainLink and investigators to respond to this tragic accident,” ARTC said in a statement on Thursday night.

– with wires