A spokesman for the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator said it was investigating the "engineering issue associated with the original failure as well as the emergency response procedures of the operator".

Passengers who were stranded on the Werribee train for three hours. Credit:Teegan Dolling @tdolling, via Twitter Public Transport Minister Melissa Horne said she has ordered a separate, independent investigation into the incident. "I’d like to apologise to those people and what I have done is ask for an independent investigation to have a look at a few things," she said. "We need to know how we can improve passenger communication, what’s gone on safety-wise, and how we can improve things going forward."

Stranded commuters queuing for replacement buses after a train on the Werribee line hit overhead cables on Monday. Credit:@HussainRa1995 via Twitter Public Transport Victoria will ask an engineering firm to conduct the review, with the initial findings to be presented to the minister within a fornight. Passengers stranded for hours, peak-hour chaos It took three hours for Metro Trains to rescue passengers stuck in the train after it hit overhead cables and lost power about 4pm on Monday near Laverton. About 100 passengers climbed out of the train and onto the tracks within metres of live electrical cables carrying 1500 volts.

A photo showing the live cables hanging over the train. Credit:Teegan Dolling @tdolling, via Twitter It created peak-hour chaos for thousands of other commuters on the Werribee line, with passengers enduring significant delays as they lined up for replacement buses. There were 60 replacement buses to ferry thousands of stranded passengers between Newport and Werribee stations. Metro still does not know how the collision with the electrical wires occurred and it may take authorities days to find out. The train lost power when it hit the overhead wires, meaning the driver could not make announcements to passengers.

Authorised officers and other drivers boarded the train 20 to 25 minutes after the incident happened to keep passengers informed, Mr O'Flaherty said. But some passengers had already taken matters into their own hands and climbed out of the train, he said. One passenger on the train told The Age people jumped out of the train because no one came to their rescue, describing it as "a nightmare for me, the way cables started smashing our windows".

It is understood the track was live and is shared with V/Line and freight trains, and there was a risk of passengers being struck. Ms Horne urged passengers to avoid getting off a train unless it had safely stopped at a station. "While I understand how frustrating that must have been for people to be stuck on a train, being on that train was the safest place to be," she said. "There were three substations in the area we needed to isolate the power ... if people were going down onto a live environment that hadn't been secured by emergency services, that's a dangerous thing to do." Services resumed on two of the three tracks on the Werribee line on Tuesday morning, but were briefly suspended again in the early afternoon for urgent repair works.

Commuters trying to get onto a replacement bus. Credit:@ClintMasters_ via Twitter 'Perfect example of why we need conductors' The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) plans to ramp up its campaign for conductors to be put back on all Metro services. "In critical incidents it is imperative that there is a trained safety and customer service staff member to assist passengers and ensure information is disseminated and procedures can be followed," union secretary Luba Grigorovitch said. "We can’t stress the potential risks in having passengers getting off a train sitting in a live section of track.

"Typically during an incident, drivers will communicate with passengers while response crews arrive, however without power, passengers were left to take the matter into their own hands. This is a perfect example of why an on-train staff member/conductor would have been able to assist." Metro apologised to commuters on Tuesday morning. "This was a very serious and unfortunate incident, and we sincerely apologise to Werribee line passengers for the disruptions to their service," a spokeswoman said. "Overhead crews worked through the night to repair the damaged infrastructure, and a full investigation into the incident is under way." But Liberal MP David Davis, member for the Southern Metropolitan Region, has slammed the delays on Twitter, saying they were a result of incompetence.