Brace for your worst commute ever- heres what Sydneysiders need to know ahead of the train network shutdown
Transport authorities are scrambling to cover as many gaps as possible in Sydneys rail network as the city braces for trains to come to a standstill over a pay dispute.
Transport authorities are scrambling to cover as many gaps as possible in Sydneys rail network as the city braces for trains to come to a standstill over a pay dispute.
The 36 hour strike from this Friday through to Sunday morning will be one of the NSWs biggest shutdowns of its rail network, causing travel chaos for millions of commuters.
Services have already being impacted due to operational issues and urgent track repairs after smaller industrial action cancelled or delayed more than 100 peak hour trains on Tuesday.
Wednesdays interruptions on intercity trains particularly impacted intercity service from Gosford and Newcastle.
Parts of the Blue Mountains line were also replaced with buses for three hours in the middle of the day.
Please be assured our teams are doing their very best to keep the system running reliably. It is a very challenging period as more and more of these industrial bans are put in place, Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said.
The disruptions came as Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) state secretary Toby Warnes sat down with NSW transport minister Jo Haylen and Premier Chris Minns on in a 11th hour attempt to resolve a dispute.
Mr Warnes said that negotiations remain at a stalemate but conceded that the premiers words had been encouraging ahead of another round of talks on Thursday.
The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has announced a work ban its members in NSW which will begin on early Friday and end early Sunday
Transport Minister Jo Haylen and premier Chris Minns (pictured) met with RTBU state secretary Toby Warnes at parliament to discuss the strike on Wednesday
A Transport for NSW notice said the Sydney Trains Intercity Network would continue to be affected through the weekend, due to protected industrial action.
At this stage the notified bans in place by the union will bring the heavy rail network to a shutdown on Friday, Saturday, and through to the morning of Sunday.
This will impact passengers including those travelling to and from Newcastle, The Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, and the Illawarra.
The union has agreed to reduce the length of its strike and push the walk-off to early Friday morning, as negotiations continued on Wednesday.
Originally the planned three-day strike was planned to start at 10pm on Thursday but trains will now stop at 4.15am on Friday in order to not interrupt services to and from Sydney Olympic Park where a Pearl Jam concert will be taking place.
Mr Minns has invited top union leaders back to parliament for another meeting on Thursday.
Were still at a stalemate, but we did have some good and positive discussions, Mr Warnes said outside parliament on Wednesday.
The premiers intervention is obviously welcome, and he invited us personally to come back tomorrow.
Millions of commuters will be disrupted by the strike which will happen at the same time as a planned maintenance on the citys driverless metro line
Mr Warnes intends to enforce an indefinite ban on any work by RTBU members unless the government runs full-day services on the citys rail networks on Thursdays and weekends and pay rises for union members.
[The premier] wants the disruptions on the weekend to not occur, and were hopeful that discussions tomorrow can achieve that, he said.
If these discussions fall apart Mr Warnes warned shutdowns of the suburban rail network will start in the early hours of Friday morning and last until early Sunday.
The Transport Minister previously called for the RTBU to avoid any strikes that would disrupt the suburban rail network and intercity trains.
Ms Haylen said the government would not rule out taking the dispute to the industrial umpire but would prefer resolving it with the unions directly.
She ruled out cancelling a planned closure of many of the citys driverless metro line which has also been scheduled for this weekend.
Ms Haylen said cancelling the planned maintenance between Chatswood and Sydenham would be a significant cost to taxpayers.
Jo Haylen had previously refused to rule out taking the matter to the industrial umpire but said she would rather work it out with Mr Warnes
Mr Warnes said his demands for a 24-hour train service and a 32 per cent pay rise for union members over four years are necessary in an earlier meeting on Tuesday.
The government had previously offered rail workers a wage increase of 9.5 per cent over three years but that was rejected by the union.
This rejection was followed by a grim update from the Transport Minister and key departmental staff on Wednesday afternoon.
Our operators will be scrambling to fill those gaps. We will do everything we can, but we cannot accommodate a million people a day switching to other modes of transport, Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray said.
We are in the early stages of urgent planning across all modes to give people options for this weekend, but the services will be limited and impacted and were really asking for patience.
Ms Haylen said they had been in some 50 bargaining meetings over the last six months and 28 meetings in the big bargaining room with about 90 union delegates.
I believe there is a package on the table the union can consider, she said.
The only way to keep our network running and to make sure people can get where they need to go is for the union to withdraw their industrial actions. ... that remains our ask of the unions, she said.
Sydney Trains hope it can operate a normal train timetable across its passenger network on the weekend, plus freight trains.
Mr Warnes said Wednesdays discussions had been productive but that discussions were still at a stalemate
Services were already interrupted on Wednesday due to operational issues and urgent track repairs and smaller industrial action cancelled or delayed more than 100 trains on Tuesday
But the concession did not elevate the tone of a grim update from the Transport Minister and key departmental staff on Wednesday afternoon.
Our operators will be scrambling to fill those gaps. We will do everything we can, but we cannot accommodate a million people a day switching to other modes of transport, Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray said.
We are in the early stages of urgent planning across all modes to give people options for this weekend, but the services will be limited and impacted and were really asking for patience.
Ms Haylen said they had been in some 50 bargaining meetings over the last six months and 28 meetings in the big bargaining room with about 90 union delegates.
I believe there is a package on the table the union can consider, she said.
The only way to keep our network running and to make sure people can get where they need to go is for the union to withdraw their industrial actions. ... that remains our ask of the unions, she said.
Sydney Trains hope it can operate a normal train timetable across its passenger network on the weekend, plus freight trains.
The Transport Minister says extensive meetings have failed to find a resolution
If these bans remain in place, the RTBU are saying their members will not operate services on Friday, or Saturday and into Sunday morning. Thats not just train drivers. Thats people who work at stations, thats people that work at the (Rail Operations Centre), thats people that keep the network running, Mr Longland said.
The government has offered a 24-hour line from Strathfield to Hornsby on the weekend - a nod to the unions demand for 24-hour services - but the Strathfield to Hornsby offer is only on the table if the union backs down on the strike, Mr Longland said.
Our teams are doing their very best and we ask passengers to be respectful of our staff ... Please remember theyre just doing their job.
The Transport for NSW Secretary has apologised to travellers in advance.
Mr Murray was pleased the strike was pushed so 40,000 Pearl Jam fans could get home Thursday night.
But ticket data showed many of the Pearl Jam concertgoers for Saturday live on NSW Central Coast and in Newcastle.
Premier Chris Minns will meet union delegates alongside key Ministers and public servants on Wednesday
Were asking those people, please pay attention to the ongoing news update in terms of where transport will be provided and make alternative arrangements ... we cant yet rely on having a clear path to Sydney Olympic Park or to home again if you are coming from out of Sydney.
Parking at Sydney Olympic Park is almost sold out with department is looking for more parking space around the stadium.
Our operators will be scrambling to fill those gaps ... were really asking for patience.
The planned rail strike was delayed for a day after the union reached an agreement for services to run as normal on Thursday.
More than a million commuters will be stranded as Sydney trains stop running for more than 48 hours, beginning Friday morning.
The RTBU has pushed back its industrial action until Friday with drivers now staying off the job until mid-morning Sunday.
This will cause significant disruption to peoples lives and to the operation of our city, Ms Haylen said earlier.
You cant simply click your fingers and change the way a very big system works.
A Pearl Jam concert on Saturday, two A League matches and pre-Christmas shopping will be directly affected by the strikes
NSW Transport is looking to fill as many gaps as it can with extra buses and ferries, though the department secretary also says options are limited. About 700,000 people take a train in Sydney every day.
A University of Sydney transport management senior lecturer told the ABC some emergency services workers will likely simply be unable to get to work.
Fewer shoppers will be able to make use of the retail-frenzy Black Friday sales as well.
The union is calling for a pay rise of up to 32 per cent over four years, and reduced weekly working hours. Also, the union says it will call off the strike if the state government runs trains 24 hours a day.
The government says this 24-hour term would undermine necessary trackwork, but the union argues around-the-clock services are better for commuters.
We want the union to lift this industrial action that they still have planned for Friday and Saturday, Ms Haylen said.
We want to keep our city moving. No one wants this. Passengers dont want this. I dont want this. The government doesnt want this. But the only way to keep trains running and to get people where they need to go is for the union to lift its industrial action.
The state government made all rail travel free amid a strike in September, however there is no word if that allowance will be made this weekend.
