Uber to refund Sydneysiders that paid $500 fares amid train network chaos

Uber has promised to refund Sydneysiders who were forced to pay up to $500 for fares home as prices surged after the city’s train network crashed.

Uber drivers are raking it in.

Frantic Sydneysiders who were charged hundreds of dollars in Uber fees for short journeys on Tuesday afternoon will be refunded, after the rideshare company issued an apology.

Commuters were charged ridiculous prices for short trips after they resorted to the platform amid chaos on the city’s train network.

Some commuters reported fees of up to $500 for a trip from the CBD to Mount Annan compared to the usual $40 fare.

A “train communication issue” wreaked havoc on Sydney’s train network ahead of the afternoon’s peak hour rush — with commuters shut-out of stations and told the “entire network is down”.

People leave Town Hall Station and wait for light rail in Sydney after the rail network closed on Wednesday afternoon. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Sydney’s rail network has suffered a “train communication issue” that is wreaking havoc ahead of the afternoon’s peak hour rush Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

One Twitter user wrote her friend was stuck in Sydney CBD and because of such a high demand Uber drivers were quoting her $310 for a 35-minute trip home.

A friend is stuck in Sydney CBD no trains running apparently due to a communications issue 🤔
Because of such high demand Uber drivers are quoting her $310 for a 35 min trip home.
Maybe we need to be watching for train issues in the next few days ?

— linda 🇦🇺 🇮🇹 (@linda84920254) March 8, 2023

A fare from Kippax St in Surry Hills, to Jowyn Place in Miranda was going for $250 dollars.

Legged it out of the office in an Uber while it was “only” surging double. Don’t even want to think about what it’ll be in an hour or two when peak hour really hits and the trains are still at a standstill. #sydneytrains

— Wenlei Ma (@WenleiMa) March 8, 2023

However Uber has since apologised for the price gouging and has promised customers who spent hundreds of dollars on fares that they’ll receive a refund.

“While in the past we have been alerted by Transport for NSW when there were Sydney-wide transport issues, in this instance we had no warning that there would be such a complete outage on the NSW trains network,” a spokesperson told Nine News.

“As soon as we became aware of what was happening, our teams immediately lowered surge that aimed to still incentivise those driver-partners who were helping Sydneysiders get home, while making rides more affordable for those stranded.

“For riders charged an additional amount above that surge cap they will be auto refunded within the next 48 hours.”

The train shutdown happened around 3pm, with services resuming after 4pm however significant delays lasted long into the evening.

Sydney Trains updated commuters on the issue, urging them to allow for plenty of extra travel time as services ground to a halt.

“Trains may stop on platforms or between stations for longer than normal while the issue is ongoing,” the official Twitter account posted.

“We expect this to continue through afternoon peak services.”

@Uber shame on you!!!! Sydney trains being down is not your excuse to do this pic.twitter.com/7iTXTI1LpI

— Lala (@Lala_Tweet28) March 8, 2023

TripView showed several services from Central to Circular Quay were delayed by almost an hour at 3:30pm. By 3:37pm, Strathfield station had wiped its services board clean.

Commuters were told over the loudspeaker at Central that “the whole network has stopped”, while others were being turned away before reaching their platform.

Video here from @nickbonyhady of staff turning people away at the turnstiles at Town Hall station. pic.twitter.com/tWMjD8VAC6

— Sarah Keoghan (@sarah_keoghan) March 8, 2023

“This is a big issue, we don’t know when trains will go. And will go into peak time,” commuters were told over the loudspeaker.

Footage posted to social media also showed commuters being turned away at the turnstiles at Town Hall station.

Sydney Trains advised commuters that the North Shore line and the Western line had recommenced services at 4:10pm.

Matthew Longland, Sydney Trains CEO, also apologised to commuters for Tuesday’s rail chaos, explaining a system-wide radio outage was to blame.

“That’s a critical communications link from trains back into our rail operations centre,” he said.

“The system should have cut over automatically so we wouldn‘t have experienced these issues.

“So we had trains waiting at platforms for about an hour leading into the PM peak period.

“The delays caused by that incident flowed through into the evening and created a really difficult trip home from work for a lot of our customers.”

Mr Longland said the system remains stable today and doesn’t believe commuters will face any further delays as a result of the issue.

“ The network is operating to a full time table again today.

“The system has been stabilised, services have been restored and we are running a normal timetable today.”

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