Sydney Trains has worst performance yet, train punctuality plummets under Minns government

New Transport for NSW data reveals Sydney’s train network consistently failed to meet its punctuality targets every month of the last financial year.

Train were delayed in May this year due to a train hitting powerlines. Picture Thomas Lisson

New Transport for NSW data reveals Sydneysiders have experienced the worst train punctuality in years. The data reveals that the train network consistently failed to meet its punctuality targets every month of the last financial year.

Updated Transport for NSW performance reports paint a dismal picture of the state of Sydney’s rail network, which has been plagued by industrial action and critical maintenance failures.

The new figures reveal Sydney Trains and the NSW TrainLink intercity network had the worst performance in the 2024/25 financial year than any year since the inception of the public dataset in 2019.

A massive 16 per cent of trains did not run on time in the last financial year, well below TfNSW’s target of 92 per cent of suburban services arriving at stations within five minutes of their scheduled time.

Between 2018/19 and 2021/22, more than 90 per cent of the train network ran on time. Yet in all years following 2022/23 that number dropped down to more than 80 per cent on time running. During the tenure of the Minns government, Sydney Trains has faced its worst performance yet.

The new data reveals that the train network consistently failed to meet its punctuality targets every month of the last financial year. Picture Thomas Lisson

Western Sydney commuters faced the brunt of frustration over the last year with 20 per cent of services running late on the T1 Western and North Shore line. The T9 Northern line also only had less than 80 per cent of trains run on time.

The annual performance averages show that every single train line failed to meet performance targets in the last year. The most punctual train line was the T8 Airport and South line, which still had about ten per cent of trains running late.

The worst month for suburban train punctuality since 2019 was still March 2022, at 71 per cent on time running, after the former Coalition government faced disruption due to industrial action from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. Yet even though the Labor opposition at the time dubbed 2022 ‘the year of the strike’, services were still more punctual than in 2024/25. In 2021/22 more than 92 per cent of trains were on time, while in 2022/23 more than 85 per cent of trains were on time.

Intercity travellers were the worst victims of an unreliable network, with a staggering 29.5 per cent of services running late across the network in the last year. Intercity train performances have disintegrated since 2022/23, consistently getting worse year by year.

Commuters on the Newcastle and Central Coast line had 31 per cent of their services run late in the last year, a major increase from 23 per cent late in 2022/23.

The abysmal figures come after a shocking year for commuters, who saw chaos across the network after repeated days of industrial action before the government and the rail union agreed to a new wage deal last month. The network also came to a standstill in May when a high-voltage wire collapsed on top of a train.

The Daily Telegraph spoke with Western commuters who were still angry about the failure of services over the last year and felt the network was no longer a quality one.

Campbelltown resident Belen Alvarado, 23 said over the last year she had been late multiple times to her Parramatta job because of the delayed and cancelled trains.

Belen Alvarado at Parramatta station. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“There’s been lots of times where (the train has) just been cancelled,” she said.

University students Tahlia Whelan, 18 and Bryce Jones, 18 said they believed the quality of train services had severely diminished having missed multiple university classes at Parramatta.

“I’ve had to email my teacher when the trains were down like, hey, I can’t make it. And a lot of students had that problem” Ms Whelan said.

Tahlia Whelan, 18, and Bryce Jones, 18, at Parramatta station. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Transport Minister John Graham pointed the finger at the former Liberal government, who missed their on time targets in ten of their last 12 months in office.

“Settling the rail agreement means all energy can now be focused on reliability. We have got that message loud and clear,” he said.

“It was a much simpler task for government running a train network when it was also asking the population to stay behind a locked front door during the pandemic.”

Opposition leader Mark Speakman said it was time the Labor government started taking responsibility for the state of the rail network, saying he had more than two years in office and three state budgets to improve the figures.

“he blames everyone else for delays and chaos. After a while, people stop listening,” he said.

Originally published as Sydney Trains has worst performance yet, train punctuality plummets under Minns government