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Rail network will be hundreds of drivers short on New Year’s Eve

By Michael McGowan

The Sydney rail system will be 200 drivers short on New Year’s Eve if workers proceed with planned industrial action as continuing disruptions caused dozens more services to be cancelled across the network on Sunday.

Analysis by Transport for NSW predicts the impact of industrial action by rail workers will leave the system well short of the surge in staff needed to move hundreds of thousands of people in and out of Sydney’s CBD.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen is struggling to resolve a dispute with the rail union before a planned shutdown on Friday.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen is struggling to resolve a dispute with the rail union before a planned shutdown on Friday.Credit: Illustration: Monique Westermann

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union has instituted restrictions on the distance each driver or guard can travel as part of its increasingly fraught wage dispute with the Minns government.

Those restrictions are already causing significant chaos. More than 500 services were cancelled on Saturday and some lines were replaced with bus services due to wait times of up to two hours.

Another 65 services were expected to be cancelled amid ongoing disruption on Sunday.

Government sources, speaking anonymously to discuss internal matters, said analysis by Transport for NSW showed the impact would be most keenly felt on New Year’s Eve. That’s when staffing on the network surges by about 40 per cent to move hundreds of thousands of people in and out of the city, and services from the northern beaches to the CBD run every five minutes following the fireworks.

No risk: RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes.

No risk: RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The RTBU dismissed the Transport for NSW analysis, saying the government was “continuing its scaremongering campaign with claims of staff shortages”.

“The Minns government should put more effort into negotiating with the RTBU to come to a resolution, rather than feeding the hysteria with unquantifiable figures,” a spokeswoman for the union said.

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The impact of the rolling industrial action on New Year’s Eve has become a major flashpoint in the dispute.

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The government has said major train delays on New Year’s Eve risk causing deadly crowd crushes and a spike in antisocial behaviour among large numbers of revellers frustrated by disrupted services.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Friday said she had “grave concerns” for Sydneysiders’ safety and that she might recommend fireworks be cancelled if the industrial action continues.

But RTBU secretary Toby Warnes accused the government of lying about the extent of the disruption to the rail network, and gave an undertaking the industrial action would not result in “any form of safety risk” on New Year’s Eve.

Last week, the Federal Court threw out an interim injunction blocking the union’s industrial action. On Friday, the NSW government unsuccessfully sought an urgent hearing of Fair Work for the action to be suspended due to significant harm to large hoteliers and other businesses.

That case will be heard on Christmas Eve along with the government’s separate application for the action to be terminated or suspended on economic harm or public safety grounds.

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Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/rail-network-will-be-hundreds-of-drivers-short-on-new-year-s-eve-20241222-p5l08y.html