Confidential Memo Says Industrial Action Has Increased Risk of “Failures” For Sydney Trains

Sydney Trains faces “an increased risk of engineering and asset failures” over the coming months due to prior industrial action, according to a confidential memo.

An email sent by Transport for NSW on 20 May to the office of the transport minister warned that prolonged industrial action had a “significant impact” on the Rail Repair Plan championed by former transport minister Jo Haylen.

The $97 million Sydney Rail Repair Plan sought to conduct several years’ worth of repairs in the length of just one, beginning in June 2023. Transport for NSW billed it as “the biggest co-ordinated program of rail maintenance ever undertaken in Sydney.” It has credited the scheme with improving reliability, despite the punctuality of train services falling in the tumultuous 2025 financial year.

Continued disruptions for Sydney Trains

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the email cited three days marred by “significant incidents” in early December as bearing the consequences of industrial action. Behind those incidents was infrastructure being “booked out” due to maintenance non-compliance.

Similar occurrences took place in mid-January. Industrial action had delayed the completion of scheduled works on signalling equipment at Homebush and Bondi Junction in Sydney and Gosford on the Central Coast, resulting in significant disruption to passengers.

Major disruption occurred on the day the email was sent, after a train became entangled in a catenary wire; industrial action was not to blame. A fare-free day subsequently announced as an apology to travellers saw more disruption, also unrelated to strikes.

Maintenance backlog reduced

According to Transport for NSW, no “outstanding safety-critical preventative work” remained, and the maintenance backlog had decreased by 92 per cent up to 9 June.

“A lot of work has already gone into improving Sydney Trains’ reliability,” a spokesperson told the Herald.

“The Rail Repair Plan, completed in June 2024, resulted in passengers spending 35 per cent less time in train delays caused by infrastructure failures.”

Toby Warnes, state secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, denied that protected industrial action had caused any “of the recent issues” on the rail network. He attributed responsibility to Transport for NSW for “decades of neglect of our transport system” and said that successive governments in New South Wales had “not prioritised” the railways.

Overall punctuality yet to improve

With a year having passed since the completion of expedited repair works and industrial action hoped to be in the past, the travelling public has yet to see an overall improvement in punctuality.

83.5 percent of Sydney Trains suburban services ran on time within five minutes in FY 2025, representing a drop of more than five percentage points from FY 2024. However, timetable and network changes following the closure of most of the Bankstown line for conversion to metro have reduced nominal wait times across Sydney.