A tangle of live power lines drops onto a train with passengers aboard at a critical part of a major city’s commuter rail network, triggering widespread shutdowns. It sounds like a freak accident or a training drill scenario.

But NSW Premier Chris Minns knows it is much more than that. The incident that shut a section of the lines from Sydney’s west at Strathfield at about 2.30pm on Tuesday and ricocheted right through the city’s transport channels was all too real.