NewsBite

UPDATED

Sydney train chaos caused by staff member calling in sick

NSW’s transport boss says Thursday’s train outage could have lasted up to eight hours after a staffer called in sick.

The cause of a major disruption on Sydney’s train network has been revealed as a signaller who called in sick, with the staffing issue leaving commuters stranded at train stations across the city for more than an hour.

Two train services were unable to run for about 90 minutes from 2.24pm to 3.37pm on Thursday afternoon, with the brief outage causing a major impact across the entire network.

Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) acting secretary Howard Collins compared signallers to “air traffic controllers” and said they were highly trained to oversee specific parts of the network.

“It’s a specialist job. It’s not as if someone could just walk in and press a few buttons. It would be unwise and very dangerous,” he said, adding that Thursday’s staffing blip was compounded by team members taking leave during the school holidays and staff taking sick leave due to cold and flu.

“While it was one person who phoned in sick, four or five others involved in asking for support trying to find people qualified led to us reducing this delay which could have been eight hours into 90 minutes.”

Crowds began to swell at Parramatta station on Thursday afternoon. Picture: Twitter / Dave McPherson
Crowds began to swell at Parramatta station on Thursday afternoon. Picture: Twitter / Dave McPherson
Staff reportedly struggled to control crowds at Parramatta as they started queuing for buses. Picture: Twitter / Meredith Gay
Staff reportedly struggled to control crowds at Parramatta as they started queuing for buses. Picture: Twitter / Meredith Gay

He confirmed the matter would be investigated by TfNSW, which would be closely examining rosters in “minute detail” to avoid a repeat of the event. The incident will also be referred to a large-scale review of Sydney’s train network, which is being conducted by National Transport Commission chair Carolyn Walsh.

Across NSW, Mr Collins said there were about 340 signallers, with about 30 signallers in training. The government is also looking to hire an additional 30 signallers in the coming year and another 30 for 2024.

“I really believe the short-term focus of understanding how rostering takes place, understanding the impact of this particular incident … will give us a better change to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Mr Collins said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward has called on the government to issue a fare-free day on Monday as an apology to commuters.

“In the past week we have seen the Premier and Transport Minister on leave with looming industrial action hanging over the state, the transport system grind to a halt and no one from the government bothering to front up and provide answers on what they plan to do about it,” Ms Ward said.

“The Transport Minister launched a review promising to ‘fix’ Sydney trains, yet all we have seen is commuters inconvenienced and now the train system is unable to function as a result of a single person phoning in sick.”

Commuters, who normally use trains, scramble for replacement bus services. Picture: Nine News.
Commuters, who normally use trains, scramble for replacement bus services. Picture: Nine News.

Acting Transport Minister John Graham immediately declined the notion of a fare-free day. Instead he apologised to commuters and said the government’s priority would now be to “get to the bottom of this”.

“The first priority yesterday was to effectively communicate with people so they knew there was a problem, and secondly, to make sure that this problem didn’t affect (peak-hour commuters),” he said.

During Thursday’s stoppage, T1 Western and T5 Cumberland lines were stopped in both directions and commuters were forced to use an alternative bus service.

The T1 North Shore and the T2 Inner West and Leppington lines were also affected

“A limited number of buses are replacing trains between Parramatta and St Marys, and between Parramatta and Richmond on the T1 Western Line, the T5 Cumberland Line and the Blue Mountains Line due to a staff resourcing issue,” a Transport NSW spokesperson said.

“Sydney Trains apologises for the inconvenience and thanks our passengers for their patience.”

Huge queues could also be seen at Parramatta and St Marys stations on Thursday afternoon amid the chaos. Picture: Nine News.
Huge queues could also be seen at Parramatta and St Marys stations on Thursday afternoon amid the chaos. Picture: Nine News.

“Allow up to 60 minutes extra travel time due to a staff resourcing issue,” Sydney Trains posted on Twitter.

“There may be larger than normal gaps in service, trips may take longer than usual and stops may change at short notice.”

T4 lines, including Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra, were also affected, but to a lesser degree, with commuters warned to account for an extra 10 minutes travel time.

The Northern Line, T9, was also affected.

Originally published as Sydney train chaos caused by staff member calling in sick

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/take-the-bus-staff-resourcing-causing-sydney-train-chaos/news-story/c3cb75150a1e45548bebdc8017dfb519