‘Make your own way home’: Commuters stuck at Southern Cross train stationBy Patrick HatchAn enormous queue is currently snaking through Southern Cross train station as commuters try to make their way home amid the ongoing V/Line outage.All train services will remain suspended tonight and into tomorrow morning.V/Line commuters are being told disruptions will continue into Thursday. Jason SouthV/Line customers at Southern Cross station have been told there are not enough replacement buses to get them home.“We’re suggesting all customers make their own way home,” an announcement on a loudspeaker just said.“It’s recommended you make your own way home with your own transport.”Customers have been told that they will be two to three hours if they choose to wait for a replacement bus.At 5pm, the line for replacement stretches from the coach departure bay to halfway though the station concourse.Latest Posts6.48pm on Jul 8, 2026That’s all for todayBy Thank you for reading our rolling coverage of the Telstra outage chaos today.We’ll end the live updates here, but you can keep up to date with the latest on travel delays here. You can also read about the cause of the outage here, and the issues with Telstra’s crisis management here. Telstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland speaks about the outage in Melbourne.AAP6.42pm on Jul 8, 2026Hundreds queue for replacement buses as outage halts evening trainsBy Isabel McMillanTwo women from Ballarat had been waiting in line for a replacement bus for over 30 minutes, but have praised station staff as they work to manage hundreds of displaced travellers.The pair, who said they didn’t want to waste their tickets to the theatre today, spent over an hour on the bus into the CBD this morning, but were surprised to see the issue was now delaying their journey home.Queues for people waiting for buses at Southern Cross Station this evening, with VLine trains still not operating due to Telstra blackout this morning.“It is frustrating, but what can we do,” one woman said. “We wanted to see the show, and it was worth it in the end.“We came [to Southern Cross] earlier and the line was much longer. We decided to have a coffee and wait it out. It’s a bit shorter now, but we’ll probably be waiting a while.”5.53pm on Jul 8, 2026Telstra downplays number of failed Triple Zero callsBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra has confirmed it had to check on 333 people whose Triple Zero calls failed.But chief financial officer Michael Ackland said some of those people were ultimately able to get through when their phones swapped to the Optus or TPG networks using emergency protocols.He also said some customers made unnecessary Triple Zero calls.Telstra has confirmed it had to check on 333 people whose Triple Zero calls failed.“We can also confirm that in some of these cases, the call was picked up appropriately by the TPG and Optus network, and they have confirmed that and was successfully connected as part of that,” Ackland said.“Now we expect these numbers are inflated due to a large number of people calling to test Triple Zero because they felt anxious around not being able to make calls.”5.50pm on Jul 8, 2026We let our customers down’: Telstra CFOBy Nick BonyhadyAustralia’s largest telecommunications company has apologised for letting its customers during the major outage on Wednesday morning that led to more than 300 people being unable to access Triple Zero services.“We let customers down today in their hour of need... we apologise for that deeply,” says Michael Ackland, Telstra’s chief financial officer.“There is absolutely no doubt we have created a level of anxiety for customers... today that is not acceptable.”5.47pm on Jul 8, 2026Absent Telstra boss won’t be back until FridayBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra chief executive Vicki Brady has not fronted the media today as she is overseas with her children on holidays.Ackland said she had cut her holiday short and is returning home but will not be back at work until Friday.Telstra boss Vicky Brady has cut her overseas holiday short.Oscar Colman“She’s making her way back now,” he says. “She has changed her flights to come back early from her holiday, and she’ll be back before the end of the week.”He said Brady had been in touch with her team in Australia during the crisis.He did not reveal exactly where she is.5.42pm on Jul 8, 2026Offshoring and job cuts didn’t cause outage: TelstraBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra’s chief financial officer Michael Ackland says that Telstra’s job cuts, which have totalled hundreds of roles over the last 12 months, did not cause the outage, rejecting union claims to the contrary.“I don’t see any link with this in any workforce issue that any workforce changes or workforce issues that have occurred over the last number of years,” Ackland says.“With Telstra, we feel very confident in our level of investment.“I have nothing that suggests that any change in staffing or expertise has led to this outage.”5.40pm on Jul 8, 2026Scammers taking advantage of Telstra outageBy David SwanAs the dust settles on today’s catastrophic network outage, opportunistic scammers are now attempting to exploit affected Telstra customers.Telstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland has warned that fraudsters are actively calling users and impersonating support staff to extract personal information.Opportunistic scammers are now attempting to exploit affected Telstra customers.Louise Kennerley“We have seen some reports of customers receiving calls from fraudsters trying to take advantage of this moment,” he told the Melbourne press conference.“Our advice to our customers is if you get a call from someone claiming to be from Telstra asking you for details in light of today’s outage, please hang up and call us directly.”5.36pm on Jul 8, 2026Six customers needed help after Triple Zero outageBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra has admitted that there were more Triple Zero calls that failed to get through than it expected.“The volume of these welfare checks was higher than we expected,” Telstra CFO Michael Ackland said.He said that six customers asked for help after the company conducted welfare checks with police.5.34pm on Jul 8, 2026Telstra refers 79 customers to police for welfare checksBy Nick BonyhadyIn this afternoon’s press conference, Telstra’s chief financial officer Michael Ackland said the telco conducted 333 welfare checks.The company did that via SMS at first. If calls were not answered, the company then called 130 customers.“There are 79 calls that we could not get in contact..., and through the calls of today in real time they were referred to police in various states and they are doing a physical welfare check,” Ackland says.5.27pm on Jul 8, 2026Telstra customers told to restart their devices as network recoversBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland says the network has entirely recovered from the outage earlier this morning.“We know it will take some time for devices on the network to reconnect correctly, and I encourage customers still facing issues to restart their device,” he said in his second press conference of the day.Michael Ackland, Telstra’s chief financial officer, apologised for the outage. Nine NewsTelstra is still working with enterprise customers, he said.Ackland said that the cause of the outage was a software defect, and further details will be provided after the company finishes an investigation.“I want to be clear, this was not the result of a cyber incident,” Ackland says.1 of 6