Passengers on Sydney trains will be able to access 24-hour transport from Thursday to Sunday, at the same time as they are being warned to expect delays due to industrial action on New South Wales’ rail networks.
Escalating industrial action between government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union had looked to spill over with a shutdown of the rail network threatened from Thursday.
But a late call to cede to the union’s demand of trialling around-the-clock transport services this weekend has avoided that action as pay talks between the parties continue.
The transport minister, Jo Haylen, said there could be major delays but the current plan was for a normal timetable to run across Sydney on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and, in the evening, in particular between midnight and 4am when there wouldn’t normally be trains operating, there will be a train every 30 minutes.
“We want people to understand that there will be delays and cancellations, and they need to plan ahead,” Haylen said.
“They need to check their travel apps. They need to look at transport info to understand that, from Thursday, there will be impacts on our train network.”
Planned industrial action on light rail services, which will see limited services run on Friday and Saturday, are still set to continue.
The union wants a 32% pay rise over four years and a 35-hour working week, and has accused the government of “dragging its heels” on an improved offer.
But the RTBU NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, said commuters should not pay the price for that and would instead benefit from the “novel” industrial action.
“Our protected industrial action is always about causing a headache for the government, so they actually listen to the needs of their workforce; it’s never about disrupting the travelling public,” he said.
“Our call for 24-hour transport has the benefit of being a pain for management and the government, while also resulting in improved services for commuters.”
Previous industrial action was avoided when the government agreed to a union demand to have 50c fares for a weekend.
A separate piece of the union’s industrial action will see them limit the distance train crews travel on a shift, which Haylen said would gradually wear down the system.
“They’re like a boa constrictor on our train network, they are strangling and making it harder and harder, and will eventually squeeze the life out of the network,” she said.
“It will make it harder and harder to run services, and therefore more difficult for people to get where they need to go.”
The industrial action is listed to continue every weekend but Sydney Trains said it was not feasible long term due to the impact on essential trackwork.
Light rail network operator Transdev claimed the RTBU had not met with them this week as it attempted to avoid the industrial action.
“This action has made demands about fares and hours of operations which we don’t control,” the Transdev managing director, Arsene Durand-Raucher, said.
“Our pay offer was recently voted down by the RTBU, which included an 18% wage increase over four years.”
The Business Sydney executive director, Paul Nicolaou, said the government should treat the 24-hour trains as a “proper trial” as it could boost the city’s night-time economy.
