Residents from Sydenham to Bankstown being held hostage by union’s opposition to Metro

Works to convert Sydney’s T3 heavy rail line to a metro service are back on track after NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen agreed to put extra staff on the driverless services.

Works to convert Sydney’s T3 heavy rail line to a metro service are back on track after NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen agreed to put extra staff on the driverless services.

The Telegraph can reveal that a deal has been struck which will lift the Rail, Tram and Bus union’s work bans, which were due to delay the Sydenham to Bankstown metro line.

Work will now proceed as normal from next weekend.

Ms Haylen thanked the union for its “cooperation” in reaching a deal, which will involve a period of “intensive” bargaining.

“Following today’s discussions, we have agreed to additional staffing on the Southwest Metro,” she said.

“Just like the current operation of the City Metro section, Southwest Metro will have a Metro Trains Sydney staff member present on every train and every platform once operational.

The deal means, thrashed out in closed-door talks between Ms Haylen and RTBU bosses including secretary Toby Warnes, spares almost 180,000 commuters in Sydney’s southwest will be spared delays to a $3.6 billion Metro conversion years in the making.

The union had threatened to stop the government beginning work to convert the T3 heavy rail line to a new Metro servicing suburbs including Marrickville, Campsie, Punchbowl and Bankstown.

When completed, passengers can expect to get from Bankstown to Central is expected in 28 minutes, Hurlstone Park to Macquarie University in 40 minutes, and Campsie to Victoria Cross in 27 minutes.

Jo Haylen was locked in talks on Friday.

Converting part of the Bankstown line to a Metro service is set to be delayed by the union.

Ahead of the deal, business and industry leaders accused the union of trying to make commuters’ lives harder by delaying the inevitable.

“Anything that is disrupting the final works on this Metro is just disrupting the lives of people on that corridor,” Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger said.

“Workers have got a right to negotiate and bargain in good faith, absolutely, but you can’t turn back time,” he said.

The Metro will eventually connect Tallawong to Bankstown. Picture: NewsWire

“There’s no turning back from this now and anything to delay (it) is probably costly to the taxpayer, but it’s a pain in the arse for people that live on that line,” he said.

Urban Taskforce CEO said the union attempts to stop the Metro have come “too late,” accusing the RTBU of “annoying the hell out of everyone”.

The RTBU had argued that it is not opposed to the Metro itself, but has “serious safety concerns” about converting the old heavy rail track.

Trains will continue to run as normal until the union action ends, allowing conversion of the rail line to begin. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Those concerns centre around the southwest Metro running on a converted rail line rather than in specialised tunnels.

“Driving a train outside has a lot of other risks that you don’t have in tunnels … and train drivers who drive on trains in an outdoor environment are trained and specialised in managing those risks,” negotiator Thomas Costa told ABC Radio.

“These types of measures haven’t been implemented for the Southwest Metro operating model.”

Premier Chris Minns on Friday said he was happy to negotiate, but would not cancel the project.

“We’ll listen to the union, we’ll listen to stakeholders. We want to make sure that we’ve got a world class public transport option, a brand new Metro for Sydney. The only thing we can’t agree to is cancelling the project,” he said.

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Originally published as Residents from Sydenham to Bankstown being held hostage by union’s opposition to Metro