‘Big red warning’: Premier announces review into Sydney train network, further delays expected

Premier Chris Minns has apologised for the significant train delays that rocked Sydney commuters for two days, with reduced services to continue throughout the day.

Despite the train schedule “progressively” returning to normal, Transport NSW warned commuters that “residual delays” should be expected “for the remainder of the day”.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Premier said the regular train schedule is expected “to be in place in tomorrow’s peak, but this afternoon will still be disruptive”.

“I regret to inform everyone that we’re expecting shuttle services for the rest of the day,” he said.

“We will not be returning to the normal timetable for trains in New South Wales in the afternoon peak.”

He also confirmed a “short and sharp” independent review of the train network would be conducted after the major disruptions and lack of communication sent the city into chaos.

“I want to say from the get-go that rail performance for Sydney Trains in New South Wales has not been good enough,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“People who rely on the public transport system, we’ve let them down … and we need to make sure that people have got confidence that if they go to the train station to get to and from work, they can get to work and home from work in a reasonable time.

“That’s not happening.”

The Premier acknowledged the delays were a “big, red warning” to the government, which he said was on a “tight leash” with commuters, who are “demanding answers”.

“The consistency in the network is not there, punctuality is not there,” he said.

Mr Minns confirmed the mechanical fault was “not part of the industrial action” taken place earlier this year.“We’re not blaming the unions for this,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “(The government is) taking full responsibility.”

Sydney Trains chief exewcutive Matt Longland said there were improvements to the train network following the industrial action, but acknowledged more needed to be done.

“We have seen improvements over the last couple of months since the industrial action has finalised,” he said.

NSW Transport Minister John Graham said the train’s wiring had previously passed its routine check last month, and was “confident” the issue had been resolved.

“There hadn’t been a problem at that point but there clearly has been a major problem since,” he told reporters.

However, he added the industrial action would have slowed down the network’s maintenance schedule, which has taken “some time to catch up on”.

“I do want to be upfront that routine maintenance on the system was of course impacted by industrial action,” he said.

“It’s taken some time to catch up on that, we estimate we’re about half of the way through the catch-up ... it’s one of the things that slowed us down.”

Hundreds of commuters have been forced to stand in the cold as they wait for replacement buses, as Sydney’s train network slowly restarts following a total meltdown on Tuesday afternoon.

Trains were brought to a grinding halt about 2.30pm after part of a train’s rooftop power connecter became tangled with overhead powerlines at Strathfield, in the city’s west, which were brought onto the track.

On early Wednesday morning, enormous crowds began pooling at stations across the city, with chaotic scenes at Lidcombe as replacement buses worked to transport the commuters.

A sea of up to 300 people were in line at Lidcombe station, Today reported, stretching hundreds of metres as buses replace trains, with some commuters reportedly shouting at train staff.

Premier Chris Minns apologised for the chaos and said public transport fees would be waived on Monday to accommodate the chaos.

“We’ve let the travelling public down,” he told 2GB on Wednesday morning.

“This is nowhere near good enough, and it’s certainly not on par with international cities around the world.”

He told Ben Fordham the NSW government would conduct an independent review into the train network, spanning the punctuality of trains and communications during incidents, delays and disrupted services.

He confirmed all transport fees would be waived on Monday following the chaos.

“In no way is that going to make up for the disruption of the last 24 hours, but hopefully it can go some way to alleviate the financial burden that families have had to deal with over the last day,” he told the station.

About 7am, power was restored between Lidcombe and Ashfield, allowing the six lines to operate as normal, NSW Transport Minister John Graham told Today.

“(It will) take us a little bit of time to get those trains through,” he said.

“But that will mean the bussing operation that’s currently in place between Lidcombe and Ashfield will no longer be required in the way it has over recent hours.”

However, Mr Graham warned trains won’t return to “anything close to timetabled services” until later in the afternoon.

“Now that power has been restored, trains will start to move through this Strathfield area (and this) will allow us to get the network moving again,” he said.

Crews were on the scene overnight working to restore the power issue, and have removed a “defective train” and repaired the overhead wiring.

“Teams are completing the final inspections before we reinstate the power later this morning to allow all six tracks from the west through Homebush to operate services,” a Transport NSW spokesman told NewsWire.

“Sydney Trains apologises again to passengers for the inconvenience of the continuing disruption.”

Mr Graham told Today the crews worked “through the night in wet conditions, dark conditions, with 1500 volt power lines right beside them”.

The affected lines include the T1, T2, T3, T5, T6, T8, T9 and BMT lines, with commuters urged to seek alternative travel arrangements until the power supply issues are completed.

Most trains will continue to be delayed on Wednesday morning, Transport NSW confirmed, with the Strathfield lines are expected to re-open early on Wednesday morning, though delays and gaps in services are still expected throughout the morning period.

According to Sky News as of 6am, 15 per cent of all T1 lines are running on time, 25 per cent of T3 and 88 per cent of the T4 lines are operating as normal, whereas only five per cent of the Airport lines are on time and zero per cent are running on the T5 lines.

“Repair crews have worked throughout the night, and we expect all lines at Strathfield to be open again around 6:30am," a Transport NSW statement read.

“Trains will continue to operate on all lines but will not run to timetable and the frequency of service will be reduced.

“You may also need to change trains to continue your journey.”

Limited replacement buses will replace trains between Lidcombe and Ashfield.

As wild weather rips through Sydney and on The Central Coast, with flooding at Cockle Creek causing massive delays between the Newcastle Interchange and Fassifern on The Central Coast and Newcastle line, with buses replacing trains.

Trains at the Hunter Line are also not running due to flooding at Sandgate.

While limited buses are replacing trains, they are unable to access some stations due to the flooding.