Hundreds of V/Line passengers have been stranded for the second time in a week after trains on the Geelong line were stopped due to a signal fault.

Services were halted around 12.20pm after a V/Line control room detected a signal fault on the tracks between Werribee and Little River — the same section of track where a fault was detected last Tuesday.

The fault is unlikely to be repaired before today’s peak hour, and buses have been called in to ferry passengers to and from Geelong while engineers and mechanics frantically work on the fault.

V/Line spokeswoman Clare Steele said it will take passengers an extra half an hour to get home on buses.

She said that 60 buses would arrive at Southern Cross station to replace the trains.

She said 200 passengers and six trains had already been affected but these figures were likely to increase.