‘Had a shocker’: Premier Chris Minns concedes Sydney trains service not up to scratch

NSW Premier Chris Minns has acknowledged Sydney’s train system is not up to scratch after a two-day outage caused commuter chaos.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has conceded “we have got to do better” after Sydney trains were again disrupted and commuters were left to deal with lengthy delays.

Mr Minns acknowledged that consistent delays and outages to Sydney’s train network were not good enough after a train’s rooftop power connecter became tangled with overhead powerlines at Strathfield station at 2.30pm on Tuesday, bringing down an electrical cable and, subsequently, most of the metro service.

Commuters have faced long delays. Picture: Supplied

… and long queues. Picture: Supplied

After two days of chaos, trains were “running to a normal timetable” on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, Mr Minns promised that commuters would travel for free on Monday, May 26 as a concession for the inconvenience.

He also confirmed a “short and sharp” independent review of the train network would be conducted after the major disruptions and lack of communication.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said Sydney’s train disruptions were ‘not good enough’. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

On Thursday morning, Mr Minns conceded that “we’ve had a shocker” and acknowledged that the government had let down Sydney commuters.

“I think the commuting public has been sick of the service that hadn’t been provided,” he said in an interview on ABC.

“It’s a basic requirement of the state government to get people to and from work on time, and we haven’t been doing it. We’ve got to do better.”

It wasn’t easy getting home. Picture: Supplied

Mr Minns said two main issues that needed to be addressed were punctuality and communication.

“Sometimes there’s a major disruption to the network and it’s easier for families to organise their lives if the news comes through at 6pm rather than 6am,” he said.

“I know we’re on a short leash and we’ve got to do better.”

Originally published as ‘Had a shocker’: Premier Chris Minns concedes Sydney trains service not up to scratch