Fears train chaos could continue unless critical maintenance is completed as hundreds of trains were cancelled in NSW rail dispute

Major train delays could continue through the week after hundreds of trains were cancelled when a union allegedly refused to carry out critical maintenance in line with industrial action bans. The T1-9, Blue Mountains Line, Central Coast and Newcastle Line, South Coast Line, Southern Highlands Line and Hunter Line were all affected by rail strikes on Wednesday morning, with services hit by cancellations and major delays. Commuters returning home are expected to be hit with more delays as the chaos continues well into the evening. Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said the T1, T4 and T8 lines were hit the hardest by “major delays” because of the pay dispute between the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the NSW government. Sydney’s rail network has been plunged into chaos with dozens of trains already cancelled and others delayed amid a bitter ongoing pay dispute. He advised Sydneysiders to avoid travel and work from home if possible. “If you’re able to work from home, or if you’re able to travel on another mode, that would be what I’d be doing today,” he said. He said there were more than 50 replacement buses in service as of Wednesday morning to help support travel. Crews vowed to slow trains by 23km/h less in areas of track that were 80km/h or higher from Wednesday as the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RBTU) demanded a 32 per cent pay rise across four years for its members. However, Mr Longland said the delays were a result of critical maintenance work not carried out by the Electrical Trades Union overnight and not the go-slow enforced by RTBU members. It’s understood critical safety maintenance between Bondi Junction and Homebush was not completed overnight, with ETU members believed to have abided by a ban on the maintenance of the signal system. This has forced lights for trains to be turned red, leaving signallers to manually navigate trains through the affected areas. It’s understood if the critical maintenance is not completed on Wednesday night, commuters could be in for similar cancellations and delays on Thursday. Do you agree with the train strikes? ‘Strangling our train network’ NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the network was being hit with widespread disruptions. “Despite the union saying that they had minimal action or that there would be minimal disruption today we are instead seeing major service reductions and cancellations across the network but particularly on the T4, T1 and the T8,” Ms Haylen told 2GB. “This is the boa constrictor the union boasts about, that they’ve actually put on their stickers, it’s strangling our train network, and unfortunately it’s what we’ve always warned would happen if you try to run a train network with more than 350 industrial bans in place.” Transport for NSW earlier confirmed there would be “increasing service reductions and cancellations on the rail network” from Wednesday due to the impact of the more than 350 ongoing and new industrial bans, with 10 fresh bans coming into effect on Wednesday. Commuters were warned information regarding services “may be incorrect on Transport apps, information screens and automated announcements” due to the industrial action, and were urged to allow extra travel time. Transport NSW also said people may need to change services and warned of the potential for “increased crowding”. “Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink apologise for the disruption, and thank commuters for their understanding as staff work to minimise the impacts of this industrial action,” an alert stated. Frustrated commuters have taken to social media to slam the delays. “Sydney trains ready to f*** over everyone’s day yet again,” one wrote in a post to X. “These Sydney Trains strikes are making it REALLY hard for me to be pro union right now,” another commented. More people aired their grievances over Facebook. “This needs sorting ASAP,” one wrote. Ms Haylen apologised to commuters for the delays. ‘Taking the piss’ 2GB’s James Willis slammed the industrial action while speaking with RTBU president Craig Turner on Wednesday morning. “I’m sorry to say this, you’re taking the piss,” Willis said. Mr Turner told Willis he agreed that workers shouldn’t be paid while engaging in strike action; however, he claimed members hadn’t taken action yet. “We haven’t taken any strike action yet, we’ve done part-time stuff,” Mr Turner said. “If it looks like a duck, Craig … that’s what’s happened this morning, mate, you stuffed people around,” Willis replied. Mr Turner claimed there were 18 trains cancelled out of Campbelltown and Leppington yards on Wednesday morning before crews had arrived. “They were cancelled by management for no reason, and now I’m getting lots more text messages to say that,” he said. “We can’t understand what’s happening.” When asked why workers deserved a 32 per cent pay rise, Mr Turner said rail workers “do everything pretty well”. He said there were a combination of problems on the rail network, including maintenance and old trains, and members deserved a good raise. “There’s a cost-of-living crisis, we believe our members deserve it, it’s an opportunity to get a good pay rise, whether it’s 8 per cent per year, that’s where negotiations come in,” he said. “The government have just stonewalled everything, they don’t meet with us.” Mr Turner added the union didn’t force members to do anything when urged by Willis to take the government’s latest 15 per cent offer. RTBU secretary Toby Warnes said there appeared to be a “long way to go” with negotiations despite the government’s recent offer. Mr Warnes said the union wanted to discuss a three or four year enterprise agreement, but claimed it had been 42 days since the last bargaining meeting with the government. “In order to get to a position where we can confidently go to our members and the government can go to its employees and say ‘Here is a deal we think you can accept, here’s a deal to get things back on track’, we need to sit around the table and actually brush up the issues rather than outsourcing negotiations and operations to private law forms to run industrial strategies,” Mr Warnes said. “Come back to the table and talk through the issues, and let’s get to a deal.” The chaos comes after Transport Minister Jo Haylen on Tuesday revealed the state government was offering a 15 per cent pay rise – including a 1 per cent increase in super – over four years in the latest offer to the union. Ms Haylen said the pay offer, which also includes an additional one per cent pay rise from mutual gains bargaining, was made possible due to an agreement to merge Sydney and NSW Trains over the next four years. Workers have had their pay docked as a result of the industrial action, with Ms Haylen and Mr Longland earlier defending the decision. “What we’re talking about here are partial work bans, so staff that do part of their job, but not the other part … Our approach is that we will no longer accept partial work from our staff,” Mr Longland said. “For staff that are coming to work, we expect them to undertake their normal duties, or they won’t be coming to work and they won’t be paid.” Data released by Transport for NSW revealed an average of 77 per cent of trains arrived on time while punctuality hadn’t tipped past the target of 92 per cent since January 2024, according to The Daily Telegraph.