Transport agency planned to cut Sydney’s peak-hour train services

NSW’s transport agency floated a plan to cut train services in Sydney during peak periods in a bid to save money and reconfigure the rail network after the pandemic altered travel patterns.

An internal document shows that the state’s transport agency had planned to cut a total of 20 train services a day during peak periods on the North Shore and Western, Inner West and Leppington, Bankstown and Airport and South lines.

Internal documents show Transport for NSW considered cutting peak-hour train services.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The sensitive material – dated March 31 this year – outlined challenges facing the railways including a “need to reduce expenditure where possible” due to the “economic response to COVID” and the pandemic denting commuter demand.

Transport Minister David Elliott baulked at the plans, which would have been introduced less than six months out from the state election.

Elliott said he made the “swift decision” to reject any proposal by Transport for NSW to reduce train services because it was not in line with commuter expectations or the government’s commitment to commuter services.

“If anything, I expect services during peak periods to be increased as commuter demand rises,” he said.

The document had also flagged the agency’s plans to reduce frequencies on key bus routes in the Hills District, inner west, north shore, northern beaches and the south-west.

Under those plans, some bus routes would have been altered from a service every four to five minutes to one every six to eight minutes. A “small number” of bus routes which duplicated high-frequency corridors would have been dropped.

The agency had planned to make the changes to train and bus services in late October following a “customer readiness campaign”.

The Transport for NSW document said the “conservative and financially sustainable service adjustments” would have helped to “free up resources” to reinvest in the public transport network.

It couched the now-scuttled changes as a way to “right-size rail and bus services” to create a simpler and more resilient and reliable network.

Commuters face further disruptions to train services this week from escalating industrial action.Credit: Brook Mitchell

Transport for NSW said in a statement that a brief was prepared earlier this year to identify potential options to reallocate services from areas of Sydney where there was excess capacity to boost services in other areas.

However, a decision had been made “not to reallocate services at this time” and the agency would continue to monitor network performance and patronage.

“Current settings are considered appropriate given the ongoing dynamic nature of travel patterns, which continue to be heavily influenced by post-pandemic travel behaviour and ongoing industrial action,” it said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said it was clear the government had a plan to slash train services across Sydney during peak travel times.

“They wanted to change their policy from ‘more trains, more services’ to ‘fewer trains, fewer services’, and the only reason they have shelved it is because they knew it would be political poison,” she said.

“The Premier was encouraging workers to return to the CBD while at the same time his government was planning to cut train services from western Sydney to the CBD.”

The Herald has previously revealed that Transport for NSW has been working on an internal strategy known as Project Phoenix, which assumes that patronage will return to pre-pandemic levels by 2026. The project was set up to provide long-term modelling to inform investment and infrastructure decisions.

Sydney’s commuters face further disruption to train services this week from escalating industrial action by rail workers, who are locked in a standoff with the government over the state’s mothballed intercity train fleet and a new pay deal.

A planned six-hour stoppage on Tuesday will disrupt the T1 North Shore and Western and the T9 Northern lines, as well as both the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast and Newcastle lines. It will be followed by stoppages on Thursday that will disrupt the City Circle line.

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