Sydneysiders who use the city’s rail network will have to find other ways to commute from early Friday to Sunday, as train services will come to a screeching halt due to industrial action.
Originally, the trains were meant to stop at 10pm on Thursday. However, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union has pushed back its industrial action until 4.15am on Friday. This is wonderful news for fans of Pearl Jam heading to their concert in Sydney Olympic Park on Thursday night as extra train services have been added to the timetable.
The Rail Tram and Bus Union handed an ultimatum to the NSW government to either run 24-hour rail services from Thursday to Sunday or face a shutdown.
Although the state government agreed to the 24-hour service last weekend, it said it could not be done this week. Instead, put forth a proposal of running an around-the-clock rail service from Hornsby to Strathfield.
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the union rejected the government’s offer and will strike, leading to major disruptions to Sydney’s rail network towards the end of the week.
Haylen claimed that the state government could not maintain a 24-hour service over the weekend as “it will eventually lead to the failure of the rail network”, per ABC News.
Following the union’s decision, Sydney Trains CEO Matthew Longland said: “At this point, we have to prepare for no train services.”
“I’m asking people to think about travelling well outside the peak, to make alternative arrangements, to plan well ahead,” he continued.
Longland shared that Sydney Trains is looking towards Sydney Metro for support during the strike, such as adding additional services for Thursday and Friday before it shuts down for weekend maintenance.
“That will be an additional factor as we look towards the weekend that we will not have Metro services to augment a stoppage at Sydney trains,” he said.
When asked about public transport surrounding major events — such as Pearl Jam’s upcoming concert in Olympic Park on Thursday and Saturday — the chief executive said it does not have major event buses “at this stage”.
The state’s Transport Secretary Matt Murray has urged travellers to “make alternate arrangements” and “to plan well ahead with any urgent appointments” from Thursday to Sunday. He also urged passengers to be “kind and patient to each other” as well as transport staff during the shutdown.
The deadlock is the latest in a series of disputes over a pay deal for which the RTBU has negotiated with the government for the past six months. Labor has offered the 14,000 rail workers across NSW wage increases of 3.5 per cent in the first year, three per cent in the second and three per cent in the third, lower than the union’s demand for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years.
At the time of writing, the union have not released a statement regarding the upcoming strike.
The post Sydney Train Strike To Be Pushed Back To Friday In Great News For Pearl Jam Concert-Goers appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
