Sydney Trains chaos: Government was warned about driver shortage
TRANSPORT Minister Andrew Constance admits he’s worried about how the city’s rail system will cope next week with two big issues expecting to cause more train chaos for Sydney commuters.
NSW
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THE NSW government knew it would face a driver shortage and warned of 18 peak hour cancellations due to “excess leave approvals” ahead of Sydney’s train chaos, the public transport union claims.
The revelation by Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary Robert Hayden comes after the system melted down this week leaving thousands of frustrated passengers stranded on platforms across the city.
Rail bosses blamed driver sickness and lightning strikes for the problems which peaked on Tuesday.
But in a letter to Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins, Mr Hayden on Monday said the government was aware it would face issues and had shared its concerns with union representatives on Friday.
“We were specifically told: That owing to a driver shortage brought about by ‘excess leave approvals’ there will be service impacts on Monday 8th, Tuesday 9th and Monday 15th of January,” the union boss wrote.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance admits he’s worried about how the system will cope next week.
“We have one tough day next Monday,” he told 2GB Radio this morning, citing annual leave issues and the new Hornsby junction scheduled to come into operation.
Mr Constance promised to “stare down” a potential train strike as workers argue for a 24 per cent payrise while the rail network grinds to a halt for the third consecutive day.
Mr Constance told 2GB radio this morning that he had no evidence linking the high number of drivers calling in sick with the pay dispute.
“I have no evidence but one thing would say to the union is this … we want to put more trains in and the union should have the same aspiration. If they’ve got concerns around staffing, well give us the exact numbers,” he said.
When asked if he suspected the train chaos was the result of industrial action, he said:
“Well I haven’t seen any evidence yet, but I tell you what … this week they’re voting for a 24 per cent pay rise.
“There’s a lot of media being done, there’s not enough meetings.
“Quite frankly, yesterday they spent the day negotiating the enterprise agreement … if this ballot comes in as a yes to strike action for a 24 per cent pay rise … I will stare them down.”
The comments come after another day of train delays frustrated commuters trying to get to work.
The bumbling bureaucracy of the state government was laid bare yesterday as it scrambled to deal with the trains meltdown — but couldn’t even get it together to schedule an afternoon meeting.
When he fronted the media for the first time since Sydney’s rail system descended into chaos, Mr Constance yesterday boasted that the government was tackling the crisis head-on, with Sydney Trains chief Howard Collins set to meet Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens that afternoon.
“We want to work with people to get this fixed,” Mr Constance said.
“We want to work with Alex Claassens ... Alex Claassens is the first meeting that Howard will have this afternoon to listen what exactly his solution is to the challenge.”
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But The Daily Telegraph can reveal the meeting never happened due to a “scheduling issue”.
While Mr Constance was blaming the transport chaos on staffing issues, lightning and even God, the union and Labor were again pointing the finger at his new timetable introduced six weeks ago.
“It’s an act of God when you have three lightning strikes take out substations, train routes and signalling,” Mr Constance said.
“Coupled with the fact that we’ve had to put more trains and more services on to cater for Sydney’s growth, I’m not shying away from apologising for what happened in the last 48 hours but the train timetable has operated well for the past month-and-a-half.”
He said there were 70 staff off sick on Monday and 73 on Tuesday, when just 40 were expected. Figures obtained from Transport for NSW for the same time last year show 47 people sick on the corresponding Monday and 62 on Tuesday.
Mr Constance has refused to refund passengers caught up in the chaos, saying “every dollar” was needed to run the transport system.
He said he had given Mr Collins and Transport Secretary Rodd Staples two weeks to report on how they could stop similar “messes” in future. Mr Constance also said he hoped staff would not go on strike. They are asking for a 24 per cent pay rise over four years.
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The RTBU finished voting yesterday on whether it would consider industrial action over pay and working conditions but the results are not expected until tomorrow.
Mr Claassens told The Daily Telegraph that he was “hopeful” the government would come to the table on a wage agreement — but that it was “completely separate” to the timetable chaos.
He attacked Transport for NSW for continuing to blame service cancellations on sick workers.
“To suggest that a few people falling ill would cause large number of services to be cancelled is ridiculous,” he said. Responding to rumours that angry staff would refuse to work overtime next week, Mr Claassens said: “Transport workers are just as frustrated as commuters, who have to bear the brunt of a poorly managed timetable. Our members are angry about being blamed, but we have no control over what individual members may or may not do.”
Opposition Leader Luke Foley blasted the delays as “Third World” and said the government should suspend the new timetable, which had returned non-airconditioned 1970s trains to the tracks.
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“(There were) thousands of people jammed in like sardines, held back by staff and barriers, held back by police with announcements begging people to leave the station and find another way home,” Mr Foley said.
And while politicians were busy playing the blame game yesterday, Sydney commuters were hit with delays and cancellations for the third day in a row.
The North Shore Line was the worst affected, with five services cancelled outright by 8.30am as well as extensive delays to other trains.
The Western Line, Airport/South Line and Inner West and Leppington lines all had services cancelled while the Cumberland line was also experiencing delays.
Lindsey Hayden from Bondi said this week it has taken her an hour longer each day to get home from work in St Leonards. Yesterday morning, she left home an hour early hoping to dodge the crowds.
“I have never seen anything like it in the three years I have lived in Sydney,” she said.
“It was absolutely packed, completely claustrophobic — there were people shouting to let other people get in but there was no more room. There has got to be more efficient ways to do it.”