Free fares on Sydney’s light rail network in bid to end industrial standoff

Trips on Sydney’s light rail network will be free for four days next week after the NSW government intervened in a bid to avoid service disruptions and resolve a protracted pay dispute between tram workers and private operator Transdev.

The move comes as the government faces an escalating dispute with rail staff who have threatened major work stoppages from late next week if trains do not run around the clock on Fridays and weekends. Such industrial action would risk crippling Sydney’s train network.

Light rail services will be free for four days from Monday.Credit: Ben Symons

In an effort to avoid major disruptions to light rail passengers, the government will switch off Opal ticket readers for four days from Monday, which Transport for NSW said would allow the union and Transdev to “work out their differences”.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) had previously notified Transdev that drivers would reduce tram speeds to 10km/h an hour from Monday for a week unless the government cut fares to 50¢ a trip.

Transport for NSW has contingency plans for extra buses next week if the two sides cannot resolve their differences.

Complicating matters, the light rail lines between Circular Quay and Randwick and Kingsford – referred to as the L2 and L3 lines – are scheduled to be shut down for heavy maintenance this weekend.

Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said the free travel concession was made to enable the union and Transdev to negotiate an end to the dispute, which had been under way for more than a year.

“We are asking the parties to continue that discussion in good faith and not to put passengers and the good running of the city’s transport on Monday morning at risk,” Murray said.

In a separate dispute, the union has notified the state’s rail operators of a ban on any work by its members from next Thursday unless trains operate 24 hours a day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said 24-hour services were “extremely complex” and had consequences for keeping trains to timetable and maintaining the rail network. “That’s not something that we’ve done in the past, other than things like New Year’s Eve,” he said of 24-hour services.

The rail operator was forced late on Friday to call off after-hours maintenance planned for the Airport Line next weekend because of the escalating dispute.

The union has said the protected industrial action is intended to force the government to “properly engage with” and finalise bargaining claims for a new enterprise agreement.

Further negotiations between the two sides are scheduled for Wednesday.

The government has offered rail workers wage rises of 3.5 per cent in the first year, 3 per cent in the second and 3 per cent in the third. They would also receive one-off payments of $1000 for each year and super increases this year and next.

But it falls well short of a 32 per cent pay rise over four years that the RTBU and five other unions have sought.

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