No replacement buses on the Werribee line right now.No part of the line is suspended. Live times and any delays are on the map.
View live on LiveDelays.com Opens the live map. Free, no sign-up.The stations on the branch - Seaholme, Altona and Westona - sit off the main line between Newport and Laverton. Of the 2732 services that run through that stretch, 884 already take the direct route and skip the branch entirely.
That is what makes the branch the part most often replaced by buses: it can be closed on its own. The direct route between Newport and Laverton stays open, and the rest of the line keeps running trains.
A closure on the main line is a different matter. Every service on this line calls at Newport - all 2771 of them - so a stretch that includes it cannot be worked around, and buses have to carry everyone.
Newport is the junction. Every service calls there, and it is where a train can be switched off the branch and onto the direct route.
That happens without a closure too. A service showing on the board at Newport may not be going to the branch at all, and one already running can be switched mid-trip - setting down anyone bound for Seaholme, Altona and Westona to wait for the next one.
When buses replace trains on the branch, Newport and Laverton are the two ends of the bussed stretch. The live status above names the exact segment and hours whenever one is running - that wording comes straight from PTV.
There is almost no overnight window to work in. Across the line the last booked service of the night runs until about 03:44 and the first of the morning starts about 03:55 - 11 minutes apart.
Track work needs longer than that, which is why a closure here is usually a whole weekend or a block of days rather than a few hours after midnight, and why replacement buses tend to run for the length of it.
A cancelled service and a closed line are different things. One cancellation removes a single train and the next one still comes; a closure stops trains along a stretch and puts buses on instead.
The status above covers the second. For the first - one service cancelled, or running late - the map has every train on the line right now, with the delay on each and what riders on board are reporting.