The New South Wales premier has called for an independent review as hundreds of thousands of Sydney commuters continue to face severe disruptions after a high-voltage wire collapsed on to a train on Tuesday afternoon, crippling the city’s rail network.
Chris Minns also announced a fare-free day for Monday to compensate commuters who faced chaotic train platforms, long bus queues and Uber surge pricing as westbound trains were halted due to the incident at Strathfield that triggered a network-wide power outage, affecting all but one heavy rail line.
The state government apologised to commuters and said that extensive repairs on overhead wiring at Homebush had been completed on Wednesday morning. It said services would gradually return to normal over the course of the day, but passengers should expect “residual delays”.
At 10am, there were still confused passengers crowding on to trains at Sydney’s Central station for services that had been cancelled.
Travellers would be compensated with a fare-free day on Monday, the government said.
Chris Minns said it was considering an independent review into the maintenance and punctuality of Sydney trains after the incident.
“We’ve got to get better, this is nowhere near good enough, and it’s certainly not on par with international standards,” he told 2GB on Wednesday morning.
“I need an independent review into this. We are looking at bringing someone in from the airline sector … A fresh set of eyes that can look at three things: the maintenance program that we’ve undertaken, the punctuality of trains on the Sydney trains network, and also communication,” he said.
“I don’t think that we are clear enough about what the immediate and longer-term impacts will be.”
after newsletter promotion
Passengers planning to use the rail network on Wednesday were advised to delay travel or use alternative transport. There would be reduced services on all lines, and trains would not run to the timetable, the government said.
“Sydney Trains teams worked hard overnight in tough rainy conditions to remove a defective train and repair the overhead wiring that caused major disruption on the rail network yesterday. The work was then inspected and certified, and the 1,500 volt power switched back on,” Transport for NSW said in a statement.
“We acknowledge how frustrating this has been for passengers and apologise for the disruption.”
The Sydney Metro was unaffected by the outage but was still overcrowded on Wednesday morning, with rail users looking for alternative ways to get to work.
Transport for NSW activated its agreement with Uber to protect customers from unreasonable surge pricing on Tuesday, but the measure is understood to take effect only after the usual fare doubles.
