Year of train pain for weekend commuters across Sydney begins

Sunday is the first day of a year-long, or potentially longer, rail repair campaign across one of the nation’s biggest train networks.

Weekend train commuters across Sydney are about to experience at least a year of delays after the state government unveiled their 12-month, $97 million campaign to undertake maintenance on the rail network.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen on Sunday announced the Sydney Rail Repair Plan, “an all-out assault” on the backlog of network maintenance to be tackled each and every weekend for the next year — or more.

The Rail Repair Plan will see repairs carried out “around the clock from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday,” for a year, or longer. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Simon Bullard

Ms Haylen said the $97m fast-tracked maintenance blitz will be carried out “around the clock from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday.”

“People have lost faith in the system. They’ve been burnt too many times,” Ms Haylen said.

“I want to be totally honest with everyone – for the next year or so we are going to massively disrupt the network on weekends while our crews get in and fix it.

“We have no choice. It’s the only way to get it fixed and have reliable trains again.”

The Plan comes off the back of the interim review from the Sydney Trains Review, which made 12 recommendations following major network crashes, which saw tens-of-thousands of commuters stranded for hours.

There were three major incidents in March alone.

The maintenance blitz is expected to impact about 600,000 weekend commuters. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Simon Bullard

“If you use trains on weekends, I’m sorry but you’re going to find yourself on buses – a lot,” Ms Haylen said.

“It’s a year or more of pain but it will deliver the huge, world-class train system Sydney needs and deserves.”

The Review found the problem is a major backlog of maintenance, largely caused by the 2017 timetable switch which restricted track access for repair crews.

Ms Haylen hinted at the maintenance blitz in a media conference last week.

NSW Minister for Transport Jo Haylen said weekend commuters will find themselves on buses “a lot” over the next year. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Speaking during that conference, Sydney Trains chief executive Matthew Longland said projects will be prioritised in terms of their impact on performance.

“It’s about making better use of the time we have available to access the network,” he said.

“This is about getting more staff on each of those trackwork weekends, making sure we’re planning in a way that brings all the teams together.”

Sunday is the first day of the repair campaign, which is expected to impact about 600,000 weekend commuters.