As far as I could tell there was signal failure at Camberwell, causing extensive congestion, However, the driver wasn’t talking, so I guess it was a secret ;-).

At Upper Ferntree Gully, the 7:39 train started from Upper Ferntree Gully instead of Belgrave. This in turn meant the 7:39 Belgrave train was delayed (the automatic announcement said by one hour but this was not true).

We passed four stopping all stations trains between (just before East Camberwell station) and Camberwell station, including the one stuck on the Alamein line (just before it merges).

At Camberwell station, I think they were (repeatedly) telling passengers that the train on platform 2 (my train) was an express to Richmond (hard to hear properly), which created the expectation that passengers would be able to board the train. In actual fact, the only reason we stopped was because the signal at the end of the platform was showing danger. The doors did not open. We tripped through this signal and stopped again.

After getting though this signal, they were no further delays.

Anyway, the 7:47am from Upper Ferntree Gully arrived at Melbourne Central at about 8:50am - could have been worse I guess…