‘Stuffed it up’: Karl lashes rail strikes as trains cancelled, delayed in pay dispute with NSW government and rail union
Commuters in Sydney face another day of cancellations and delays as the powerful rail union continues its campaign for massive pay rises.
The NSW government has confirmed they have launched fresh legal action against rail unions as ongoing industrial action cripples Sydney’s transport network.
Premier Chris Minns announced on Thursday morning that the government had lodged a new application with the Fair Work Commission, saying it was not a call made lightly.
“We will ask for (a) decision to be expedited and made urgently by the commission, and we are hopeful that the commission can step in at this point and end widescale industrial action that is affecting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
More than 100 trains have been cancelled as a powerful union has just hours to make a decision following a pay offer from the NSW government amid a bitter dispute.
Dozens of trains were again cancelled and delayed amid industrial action from the Electrical Trades Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union on Thursday after hundreds of services were cancelled on Wednesday.
Transport for NSW said on Wednesday afternoon that only 16 per cent of morning peak-hour services departed on-time or within five minutes of their scheduled departure, meaning more than 80 per cent were either late or cancelled, as the effect of the more than 350 work bans spread across the network.
More than 100 peak-hour services were cancelled on Wednesday morning out of the 393 that had been scheduled, or about 25 per cent, with delays on the T4 line connecting Sydney’s CBD to the eastern suburbs and Sutherland Shire reporting delays of up to nearly five hours.
There are 350 ongoing industrial bans, with the RTBU launching 10 fresh actions on Wednesday in a push for a 32 per cent pay rise across four years for its members.
The RTBU has called for the state government to go back to the bargaining table after a 15 per cent pay rise was offered, as well as a one per cent super increase.
The RTBU was given until Thursday to respond to the offer, however it’s understood this does not mean feedback on the offer couldn’t be raised past Thursday.
RTBU secretary Toby Warnes called on the government to come to the bargaining table to “figure out what that magic number is” before Karl Stefanovic unleashed on him.
“Toby, I’m telling you that people do support people going into negotiations, but it’s got to the point now where you’ve lost the people, you’ve lost the support, and they just want resolution and it’s not happening,” Stefanovic said on Today.
“They’re now blaming you. There’s no resolution in sight, and their lives are being badly affected and they’ve had enough.
“So you have to roll over, don’t you?”
Mr Warnes replied he did not think so, and that members were “in this fight for the long term”.
“Unfortunately, it has gotten ugly when things like what happened yesterday happen,” Mr Warnes said.
“It is easy to use the union as a scapegoat. I understand that people are angry. We hope we can get things back on track.”
He said the union weren’t “holding the people of Sydney to ransom” and emphasised incomplete maintenance work was to blame for Wednesday’s major delays and cancellations.
“Our ban of driving the trains a little bit slower does not cause the sort of disruption we saw yesterday, and hopefully today runs a lot better than yesterday,” he said.
Stefanovic asked Mr Warnes how it felt to have “lost the people”.
“Yeah, look. Not great,” Mr Warnes said.
“Yesterday was a hard day. I think it was a hard day for everybody. The facts of what happened yesterday aren’t as straightforward as what’s been put out, unfortunately.”
Mr Warnes said it was more complicated than “just a union strike” and explained much of Wednesday’s chaos was caused by critical maintenance work that wasn’t completed between Bondi Junction and Homebush on Tuesday night.
ETU members were believed to have abided by a ban on the maintenance of the signal system, leaving signallers to manually navigate trains through the affected areas.
Stefanovic told Mr Warnes he had “stuffed it up”.
“Whether or not you messed up the communications, the messaging was wrong,” Stefanovic said.
“At the end of the day, people just want to go to work. They want to be able to go about their lives.
“Now it’s tipped over, now people are angry, now people want resolution.
“And now you’ve lost the support of people out there. You’ve stuffed it up.”
Commuters in for similar delays as maintenance work still incomplete
A Transport for NSW (TfNSW) spokesperson earlier explained the points guide trains from one track to another, and without being certified as safe, signallers needed to manually move trains through red signals, resulting in a build-up of trains.
“Delays then flow through that line, then onto the broader network as our lines are all interconnected,” the spokesperson said.
A TfNSW spokeswoman confirmed while work was completed at Bondi on Wednesday night, commuters were in for similar cancellations and delays on Thursday as there was outstanding work at Homebush and fresh maintenance not completed in Gosford.
The Central Coast and Newcastle lines in particular were set to be affected by the maintenance work.
Transport for NSW Rail Operations executive director Jas Tumber urged people to stay home if they were able to.
“If you can avoid non-essential travel would be the key message,” he told 2GB on Thursday morning.
“If you do really need to travel … then please allow plenty of extra travel time and use the apps to try and get as much information as possible before you do travel.”
Sydney Trains urged commuters to allow extra time for travel on Thursday.
“Lengthy delays, service cancellations and very large service gaps on the rail network are expected to continue tomorrow due to ongoing protected industrial action,” Sydney Trains said in a post to X Wednesday night.
“Please delay non-essential travel, allow extra travel time, and consider all your transport options.”
Wild weather in Sydney appeared to exacerbate the disruptions as fallen trees sparked power outages at Lidcombe and Cabramatta.
However it’s understood issues caused by the weather have been resolved as of Thursday morning.
The disruptions are expected to get worse through Friday as workers are set to refuse to manually override the system controlling signals, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Surcharge joke sparked major backlash
Many took to social media on Wednesday to air their grievances with the cancellations and delays.
Chippendale cafe Hatch stirred controversy after they shared a photo of a sign that read “15% surcharge for all Sydney Trains employees. F. U” to TikTok on Wednesday.
Owner Hassan Saleh, who goes by Sam, told NewsWire what was meant to be a joke between him and his loyal Sydney Trains customers quickly spiralled out of control, with many flocking to give the cafe negative reviews on Google.
“Many of my customer base is Sydney Trains, they were there at the shop at the time and we were having a laugh,” Mr Saleh said.
“They are my backbone, I support them (and) what they’re doing. They’re hard workers.
“People started commenting … they started going online putting one-star reviews without knowing what we were doing.
“You can’t please everyone, and everyone doesn’t see the way we intended it to be.”
Mr Saleh said workers deserved a pay rise as the cost of everything has gone up.
“You have to get what you deserve … they earned it, in any industry, not just Sydney Trains people,” he said.
“People are doing it tough, everything’s gone up.
“Half the guys here bring their families to our shops and we understand it, it’s not easy right now.”
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