NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says that industrial action by the state's rail union "ends today" as commuters face another day of pain with both train and bus drivers on strike
Train drivers are striking for 24 hours until midnight by refusing to operate all overseas-made trains.
It means just a quarter of Sydney's rail fleet will be in operation today, with commuters facing longer journey times and less frequent services.
The latest round of industrial action comes as the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) and the government remained locked in negotiations for a new enterprise agreement (EA).
Mr Perrottet called today’s strike "absolutely disgraceful", and warned that any further industrial action would see the government 'terminate" the EA.
"Today, I have instructed the minister for transport to finalise all negotiations with the RTBU.
"That will then go to a vote.
"If there is any other industrial action, until that EA has been voted on, we will immediately seek to terminate the current agreement and we will remove the inner city fleet from that agreement."
It has seemed negotiations were progressing when the government last week agreed to make alterations to the new inner city fleet, as demanded by the RTBU.
Mr Perrottet said the government was now ready to take the union to the Fair Work Commission.
"This ends today. I will not have our city grind to a halt, our people inconvenienced anymore."
RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said the union would pause major industrial action for two weeks while a deal is brokered.
"If there's any way at all a deal can be struck that makes everybody happy, absolutely we will do that," he said.
"They have got a two-week window in which to seriously listen to our concerns, seriously act on those concerns and then maybe we can stand up here and say to the good people of NSW 'guess what folks, you've got your railways system working the way it should be'."
Mr Claassens lashed out at government ministers who had been publicly critical of the union's negotiations.
"We've been at the table negotiating in good faith from day one," he said.
"I'm very angry with all politicians who have been treating us like mugs."
Sydney Trains chief executive Matthew Longland said commuters should avoid all non-essential travel and work from home where possible.
"We're running about a 25 per cent time table," he said.
"We've spread the available trains that we've got to run very thinly across the rest of the network," he said.
"Trains will be running on a 30-minute headway, so 30 minutes between trains, they'll be taking much longer to get to their destination because they'll be stopping at all stations."
All trains have been cancelled on the T5 Cumberland line but customers can change at Granville to complete their journey.
Buses will replace trains on the T3 Bankstown line between Lidcombe and Bankstown and the T7 Olympic Park line between Lidcombe and Olympic Park.
Parents are being warned to make alternative arrangements for their children with school services also affected by the industrial action.
The impact of the train strike will be compounded for commuters with bus drivers in parts of Sydney also taking industrial action.
Drivers from two unions working in "region 6" which covers parts of the inner west, CBD and south east are taking action between 4am and 7am and 2:30pm and 5:30pm today.
Richard Olsen from the Transport Workers Union said drivers were demanding better pay and safer conditions from the private operator Transit Systems.
He said the company is rostering drivers on 13-hour shifts, which drivers claim has led to safety concerns and contributed to accidents and fatalities.
"It's about safety, it's about managing fatigue," he said.
"We think that it's unsafe, it leads to deaths on our roads, we've had nine deaths with Transit Systems over the past few years and what we need to do is make a change and we're making a stance today."
In a statement, Transit Systems strongly denied Mr Olsen's claims over its safety record, calling them "false and misleading".
"Transit Systems is appalled by Richard Olsen's statement and the abandonment of fact in his claims."
Mr Olsen told ABC Radio Sydney today's strike was not intentionally planned to coincide with the train strike.
"The train are not part of our union and we don't have any say or anything to do with what goes on with the trains," he said.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union will return to the negotiating table with the state government today, and Transport Minister David Elliott is expected to take part.
