Sydney Metro northwest: Rail union demands investigation into ‘violent shaking’
The rail union has demanded the NSW Government conduct an urgent review into ‘violent shaking’ on Sydney Metro northwest carriages, as Transport for NSW reveal what will be done to fix it.
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Union leaders are demanding the State Government launch a full-scale investigation after NewsLocal revealed commuters on the Sydney Metro northwest network were raising concerns over violent shaking of carriages.
Rail, Tram and Bus Union NW secretary Alex Claassens called on the State Government to conduct an “urgent investigation” into Sydney’s driverless metro system.
It comes despite the Transport Department stressing the issue is not safety related and would be fixed by standard maintenance.
“It’s not good enough to just tell passengers not to worry,” Mr Claassens said. “Violent shaking certainly doesn’t sound like a train running safely.
“This is just one of the many reasons why we need train crew on our trains — if this system had train crew on board they would not only be able to indicate immediately whether there was an issue, but they’d be there to assist in the event that something does go wrong.”
Mr Claassens said commuters deserved a world-class, safe system on the Metro.
“Driverless trains are a disaster waiting to happen,” he said. We’re putting passengers inside a big metal container and sending them off down a track with no one in charge and no one to assist in the event of an emergency.”
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman reassured passengers the issue “is not safety related”.
“Sydney Metro has instructed Metro Trains Sydney (MTS) to urgently address this issue,” she said.
“MTS has been fully aware of this issue and is in the process of carrying out work to re-profile Metro train wheels, which is a standard part of operating and maintaining a rail line.”
The spokeswoman said the wheels on all trains require re-profiling over time: “a grinding process to restore wheels back to their original wheel profile as a result of steel-on-steel contact”.
“The Sydney Metro is a new rail line using new technology and systems but this issue applies to all railways,” she said.
“Rolling stock on railway lines around the world are subject to regular wheel re-profiling.”