Significant Train Delays Felt Throughout Sydney Network

Significant Train Delays Felt Throughout Sydney Network
Image: Image: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

Continued industrial action has caused mass train delays in Sydney, with passengers being urged to cancel non-essential travel and work from home if possible.

Vital infrastructure maintenance was not completed overnight at Bondi and Homebush stations, thanks to a ban by the Electrical Trades Union.

Cancellations include services on the T1 North Shore and Western, T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra, T8 Airport and South lines, with a ripple affect being felt across the whole network.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW branch secretary Toby Warnes said this morning that commuters weren’t likely to feel substantial impacts.

“Trains will be operating at 23 kilometres [an hour] slower than the posted speed limit in areas over 80 kilometres an hour,” he said.

“Anywhere where trains run faster than 80 [km an hour], people will feel it, but trains will continue to run and they’ll get where they need to.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that as of 10:30am, 350 services had been cancelled.

Transport for NSW said cancellations and delays were expected to compound throughout the week.

Government provides offer to workers directly

The NSW government offered Sydney Trains employees a 13 per cent pay rise yesterday, with an additional 1 per cent rise in superannuation contributions and another 1 per cent rise with savings. Transport Minister Jo Haylen is encouraging workers to give it “serious consideration.”

The RBTU is asking for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years, a 35-hour work week, and an additional 1 per cent in superannuation contributions.

However, the government offer would involve merging Sydney Trains and NSW Trains over the course of the next enterprise agreement.

Warnes said that the union had not been provided with a draft enterprise agreement for members to consider, and forewarned that the additional one per cent increase would be made through job losses from combining the two organisations.

The merge would also see workers lose a “significant” safety protection put in place by the previous state government.

If a union’s delegate believe an offer is valuable, they inform the workforce and put it to members for a vote.

Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said that the government is allowing workers to appraise the offer today, but Warnes is advising members not to vote until the details of the deal were clear.

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