{"id":221524,"date":"2025-05-22T13:24:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T03:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=221524"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:24:15","slug":"sydney-trains-commuters-told-avoid-travel-following-catastrophic-outage-review-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=221524","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Trains commuters told ‘avoid travel’ following ‘catastrophic’ outage, review announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commuters have been told that delays on Sydney’s rail network will ease on Thursday after another day of chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Widespread disruptions across Sydney’s train network continued through Wednesday, with NSW Premier Chris Minns announcing a review into the city’s transport system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commuters relying on the trouble-plagued network were warned to “avoid travel” after it struggled to recover from a train becoming entangled with live wires during Tuesday’s peak-hour rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said trains were expected to “run to a normal timetable” on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydney train delays<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mr Minns acknowledged his government was on “a very short leash” with commuters, who were “demanding answers”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I want to say from the get-go that rail performance for Sydney Trains in New South Wales has not been good enough,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For many people who rely on the public transport system, we’ve let them down.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blank train departure screens at Parramatta Station. (ABC News: Berge Breiland)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mr Minns said a “short and sharp” review of Sydney’s transport system would address the effectiveness of money being rolled-out for maintenance, punctuality on the network and communication from transport authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said efforts to stabilise the network were ongoing after months of industrial action from rail workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have seen improvements over the last couple of months since the industrial action has finalised,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But what we saw yesterday was clearly not good enough.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Longland said an “overhead wiring fault” was likely to blame for the incident and not the wild weather that has hit Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on Wednesday morning, Transport for NSW said major delays would continue to plague services throughout Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you need to travel on the network there will be limited shuttles operating,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If passengers must travel, plan ahead and allow extra travel time. We have trains running on all lines, but at a reduced frequency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buses ‘at full capacity’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Warnings were already being displayed early Wednesday morning at Central station regarding outages between Ashfield and Lidcombe.  (ABC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There will be 20 shuttle buses between Lidcombe and Ashfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As you can appreciate the bus network is at full capacity,” Transport for NSW executive director of rail operations Jas Tumber told the ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While we have buses in operation we won’t have enough to manage the demand in that area.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power has been restored to the affected area near Strathfield Station after workers spent the night attempting repairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crews worked through Tuesday afternoon and night to help people off the train carriage. (ABC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A 1,500-volt overhead cable came down on top of carriages near Strathfield station in Sydney’s west, with hundreds of commuters evacuated from the affected train and three other caught up in an associated outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Delays and disruptions are anticipated for all of Wednesday. (ABC News: Ursula Malone)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overnight crews worked in wet weather to assess the damage, with Transport Minister John Graham describing the rainy and dark conditions as “difficult”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the “very serious” and “catastrophic event” was brought under control on Tuesday night, Mr Graham said the impact would flow through to Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Thousands of passengers were left stranded with no idea when the next service would be. (ABC News: Ursula Malone)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Fare-free Monday <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mr Minns said commuters would travel for free next Monday after the chaos that has plagued the Sydney rail network over the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Minns said the network was “nowhere near good enough”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a little bit we can do to show we understand there’s been major disruptions,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydneysiders were advised to consider different transport options if possible, with the metro, light rail and local buses not impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stations have been jam-packed with frustrated commuters. (ABC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Passengers were being told to keep across the latest updates via Transport NSW’s information website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sydney Trains apologises to passengers for the inconvenience this has caused,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport for NSW’s coordinator general Howard Collins also apologised to impacted commuters, assuring the public that maintenance of the network’s live wires was likely not to blame for the incident, nor was the rainy weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re asking people to be very patient I know it’s very frustrating. We’ll find out why this incident occurred,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commuters have been told that delays on Sydney’s rail network will ease on Thursday after another day of chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":221527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,47,2695],"tags":[5026,2139,16829],"class_list":["post-221524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-rail-news","category-sydney-trains","tag-nsw","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-train-delays"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t