‘We haven’t got the drivers’: Bus replacement for 12-month rail closure to cause chaos

Sydney does not have enough bus drivers or buses to run the additional 1400 services needed every weekday to replace trains when a busy suburban rail line is shut for a year, a member of the government’s industry taskforce has warned.

Amid a chronic shortage of drivers and fears of worsening road congestion, replacement buses will have to carry up to 60,000 passengers each weekday during the 12-month shutdown of the rail line between Bankstown and Sydenham from as early as July to allow it to be converted to handle driverless metro trains.

Bankstown line commuters will be forced into the nightmare of catching replacement buses along gridlocked roads.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary David Babineau said the T3 Bankstown line’s closure was “poorly considered and ill timed”, warning that it would create a greater shortage of drivers in Sydney, which already needed up to 300 recruits to plug vacancies.

“We haven’t got drivers, and we haven’t got enough buses,” he said.

Babineau, who is a member of the state government’s bus industry taskforce, said the extra drivers and buses needed during the line’s closure would put pressure on a labour market that was already “as tight as hell”, and would have far-reaching consequences for Sydney’s transport services.

“At the moment, operators by and large are failing to meet existing timetable requirements because there are not enough drivers,” he said.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the line’s closure would be disruptive and inconvenient for passengers, but the government’s temporary transport plan would deliver a range of options, including bus, train and metro services to get passengers to their destinations.

“There will never be an ideal time to do the Sydenham to Bankstown conversion,” the spokesman said. “We’re working to minimise the disruption as much as possible.”

The Bankstown line’s conversion has been the most troubled part of the $21.6 billion Metro City and Southwest project, which extends from Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour and the CBD to Sydenham and onto Bankstown.

A new train timetable will also be introduced in the middle of the year to incorporate the main section of the Metro City and Southwest line into the broader rail network, and support the Bankstown line’s 12-month closure.

Canterbury-Bankstown independent councillor Barbara Coorey, who has long opposed the conversion of the line, said disruption to commuters from its closure would ripple across Sydney’s transport network.

“They don’t have the buses, and they don’t have the bus drivers,” she said. “The idea of shutting one of the busiest lines in Sydney makes no sense.

“It is already chock-a-block during morning and evening peak hour. There are going to be a lot of angry commuters. It will be a nightmare.”

The 13-kilometre stretch of the Bankstown line to be converted cuts through Haylen’s Summer Hill electorate, as well as Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis’ seat of Canterbury and Customer Service Minister Jihad Dib’s electorate of Bankstown.

Ahead of the 12-month shutdown, the rail line is being closed for a month – from December 27 to January 25 – as well as for two weeks from April 13 to 28.

As part of plans for the shutdown, trains running between Liverpool and the CBD via Bankstown will instead travel via Regents Park and Lidcombe.

Regents Park will become the main interchange point for passengers switching between the two Bankstown line branches.

Commuters using Erskineville and St Peters stations will continue to get direct services to the CBD via the T8 Airport and South line.

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