Sydneysiders are being warned to expect a year or more of massive disruption in the train network with the city’s biggest coordinated program of rail maintenance starting this weekend.
Announcing the Sydney Rail Repair Plan, Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen said the Plan was in response to the Sydney Trains Review which found the rail service to be plagued by a backlog of almost 40,000 defects.
Ms Haylen said the Review made 12 recommendations for restoring reliability to the network after a series of disastrous failures that left thousands of passengers stranded without trains.
She said the huge maintenance backlog had led to equipment failures causing major shut-downs – “equipment that should have been inspected, repaired, refurbished or replaced but wasn’t because maintenance crews could not get anywhere near sufficient access to the track.”
“The Review found this was partly because of extreme weather events and industrial action, but mainly because a new timetable in 2017 pushed the network to its limits and severely restricted access to the tracks for maintenance,” Ms Haylen said.
“It recommended an all-out assault on this backlog to repair the network, dramatically reduce equipment failures and restore reliability for passengers,” she said.
“Sydney Trains has now mapped out a massive maintenance program to take place every weekend for the next year or more.”
Ms Haylen said the Plan was designed to perform several years’ worth of normal maintenance works in that time with around 3,700 repairs, upgrades, and refurbishments to equipment, including tracks and signalling, at a cost of about $97 million – impacting about 600,000 passengers.
She said that in recent times the city’s train service had become sub-standard due to system failures caused by the neglect of maintenance.
“We have to fix our rail network and it’s going to take a massive effort,” the Minister said.
“Continuing system failures and meltdowns are not an option,” she said.
“I want to be totally honest with everyone – for the next year or so we are going to massively disrupt the network on weekends while our crews get in and fix it.”
Ms Haylen said the maintenance would be around the clock from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday.
She said that was the only way to get the system fixed and have reliable trains again.
“If you use trains on weekends, I’m sorry but you’re going to find yourself on buses – a lot,” the Minister said.
“It’s a year or more of pain but it will deliver the huge, world-class train system Sydney needs and deserves,” she said.
