![The Spilt Milk music festival, which was held at Exhibition Park on Saturday. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong The Spilt Milk music festival, which was held at Exhibition Park on Saturday. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/c8801f57-76aa-4deb-97eb-023bfb7ac3c1.jpg/r0_339_5088_3211_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Transport Minister Chris Steel has defended the capacity of Canberra's transport network to cope with large crowds heading home after events.
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Light rail and bus services were briefly suspended on Saturday night after the Spilt Milk music festival while organisers and police moved a crowd of people walking on the tracks and light rail alignment.
"When you have large events like this, mass transit like light rail does play an important role. It carried thousands of people on Saturday in addition to buses," Mr Steel told Legislative Assembly question time on Tuesday.
"There's always things the festival organisers can learn, particularly around crowd management. I appreciate some of the people in those crowds didn't want to wait, but the lines weren't that long. People who did wait got on a light rail and got on a bus and got to their destination."
The Canberra Times had earlier asked Mr Steel's office what work the government had done to consider the transport network's surge capacity to cope with major public events, including sporting fixtures and concerts, and whether improvements were required.
An ACT government spokesman did not address the broader questions about transport network surge capacity.
The spokesman said Q-City operated 50 buses for the music festival on Saturday between Exhibition Park and the city interchange. There were 125 bus loads of passengers taken to the city from the venue.
"Transport Canberra also provided additional bus services from the city interchange to Woden and Tuggeranong after the regular timetable ended to ensure event patrons made it safely to their destination," the spokesman said.
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The spokesman said light rail and bus services were suspended for about 20 minutes while crowds were moved off the track.
"Services were reinstated at approximately 11.45pm. All passengers waiting in the queue for light rail at the EPIC and Racecourse stop were cleared by approximately 12.20am, and light rail services continued to operate until 1.00am as scheduled," the spokesman said.
More than 2800 travelled by light rail from Exhibition Park to the city after 11.45pm.
Mr Steel told the Assembly Spilt Milk had been a "very successful event" and it was unfortunate some people who were leaving the venue had ignored barriers and the presence of security and police to walk onto the light rail corridor.
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