Sydney trains in chaos as industrial action sparks delays

Sydney trains have been thrown into chaos again as electricians walk off the job.

Industrial action has affected maintenance of infrastructure at Redfern, sparking delays in the inner city.

Commuters have been urged to allow extra time for travel, according to the Transport for NSW website.

“Stops may change at short notice and there may be longer than normal gaps between services,” the website states.

“Please listen for announcements and check information screens before getting on trains.”

The Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Newcastle, North Shore, Northern and Western lines have all been affected.

Sydney Trains chief executive officer Matt Longland told 2GB there were issues with critical maintenance on equipment around the Redfern area on Wednesday night as a result of bans in place by the Electrical Trades Union.

“That maintenance didn’t happen, and as a result we’re having some impacts particularly in routing trains into Sydney terminals,” Mr Longland said.

He said intercity and regional services have been affected, as well as some western services through to the north shore.

“So delays of about five to ten minutes at the moment but we’re watching it carefully,” he said.

“At the moment we’re seeing delays as I said mainly through Redfern into Sydney terminals but it does depend on any of the other inspections that aren’t taking place.

“So these are the sorts of impacts that can be quite volatile and difficult to predict.

“We’ll keep passengers updated as we learn more in the coming hours and days.”

It follows a spate of industrial action across public transport in Sydney, with Mr Longland confirming there are five unions in negotiations at the moment.

“It’s a pretty complex process and it’s a matter of doing our best,” he said.

“We’ve had action in place for a number of months and this particular ETU action, very difficult to predict when it’s going to impact.

“Depends on the crews that are doing the maintenance as to whether they’re applying the bans or not.

“Thankfully we’ve managed to work our way through it to this point but we are seeing some impacts today.”

Mr Longland said meetings with unions are continuing.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll get a positive outcome and we want to minimise this impact for customers.”