Australia's rail safety watchdog is looking into allegations raised in parliament by a federal MP that Metro's track maintenance standards are so shoddy it is putting public safety at risk.
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Western Australian Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan alleged on Monday night that Melbourne's rail operator had let the city's railway tracks fall into such a dangerous state of disrepair a train could run off the rails.
She told parliament she had called on the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator to investigate, and had supplied the watchdog with images of degraded rails around the Melbourne network.
A spokeswoman for the regulator confirmed late on Monday it was investigating claims put to it by Ms MacTiernan, who was WA Transport Minister for eight years before being elected federal member for Perth last year.
Ms MacTiernan told parliament she had recently been approached by several veteran rail insiders concerned that Melbourne's tracks were in the worst state they had ever seen, with extensive cracking and an unprecedented number of emergency support plates attached to damaged tracks in need of immediate replacement.
"A wide range of people have given me reports about what they consider to be the very parlous state of the track in the Melbourne metropolitan rail system," she said.
"Certainly on the photographs that I have seen it would appear that there is a prima facie case that the state of the rail that we're seeing today is very similar to the state of the rail in Hatfield in the UK that in 2000 led to a derailment, with a loss of four lives."
Ms MacTiernan accused Metro of "sweating" the rail infrastructure to maximise its profits, rather than spending money for necessary maintenance. Metro has leased Melbourne's publicly owned railway network under a franchise agreement with the state and is responsible for its upkeep.
"There we have in Melbourne a classic case of a very poor privatisation which really very much allows an asset to be 'sweated' and safety compromised," Ms MacTiernan said.
Fairfax Media has also spoken separately to a range of sources concerned about rail safety in Melbourne, some of them long-serving Metro staff unable to speak publicly.
They allege maintenance standards had deteriorated since Metro took over the network five years ago, with hundreds of sections of damaged rail patched up with emergency "fishplates" instead of being replaced.
The watchdog said it had investigated the allegations raised by Ms MacTiernan and found there were no safety concerns. Investigators will on Wednesday inspect Melbourne's tracks over other safety allegations.
Metro says it has replaced a total of 134 kilometres of Melbourne's 830-kilometre rail network since it became operator in 2009.
Spokeswoman Larisa Tait said the company spent $75 million a year on average renewing and maintaining tracks.
She said Britain's fatal Hatfield train derailment happened with a train travelling at 185km/h on a section of track on a tight curve with continuous gauge corner cracking.
"There aren't any areas on our network where continuous gauge corner cracking has developed," Ms Tait said.
Emergency fishplates could be left in place "indefinitely", depending on the severity of the flaw, she said. Metro inspects faulty tracks every 28 days to see if the condition has deteriorated, replacing them when needed, Ms Tait said.
"Through our regular inspecting, testing and monitoring regime of the track, the chance of a derailment on the network will remain as low as reasonably practicable," she said.
The Public Transport Users Association said the claims raised by Ms MacTiernan demanded the attention of Victoria's Transport Minister.
"We want to know why the Minister for Transport has not given more attention to this situation that puts commuters at risk," Tony Morton, president of the PTUA, said.
"Do the minister and the Premier know that the tracks are in such poor condition that some experts are recommending that we not catch trains?"
Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder hit back at Ms MacTiernan, arguing the Coalition government was spending record sums maintaining the network.
"Our train network was infamously neglected by the former Labor government, we are pumping record amounts of money into improving it, which is why we are now at 30 months in a row of train punctuality above 90% on time," Mr Mulder said.
The government has budgeted $235 million this financial year for maintenance.
