Another Sydney trains timetable debacle: Nearly 100 services will be slashed from next week - so what does this mean for you?
- From Monday 94 services will be cut from the Sydney Trains timetable
- Driver recruitment will be accelerated to help deal with demand
- Cuts will be made to services with limited patronage with peak times untouched
- Labor shadow minister Jodi McKay said government should be transparent
Sydney Trains boss Howard Collins said less popular services would be cut
Sydney Trains is making 'tweaks' to its timetables with 94 train services being taken off the schedule as of Monday, March 12.
The T1 Northern Line will have early and late services between Horsnby and Berowra cancelled while the T3 Bankstown line will have five services after 8pm cancelled.
The T5 Cumberland line will mostly only run weekend services between Liverpool and Quakers Hill and on the T6 Carlingford line services will be every 45 minutes instead of every half hour.
Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said the services that would first be cut were the ones that ran late at night or early in the day and had limited patronage.
The changes come after a report recommended cutting services to improve recovery times from any incidents that could cause rail delays,The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The changes will affect less than 1 per cent of the total services provided across Sydney, mostly from the Bankstown, Carlingford, Northern and North Shore lines.
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These changes are in part a response to the chaos that took place after a network meltdown earlier this year which also highlighted the staff shortages
However Redfern will receive more services to help with commuter demand.
'We are re-using the train resources and the driver resources. We don't want to run trains when people are not using them,' he said.
While speaking with 7 News Mr Collins said the tweaks would be minor in scope.
'This is a very minor tweak, some of these services are carrying very very few people and we are making those adjustments,' he said.
He said they didn't want to keep running services that people weren't using.
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Opal card data is able to show Sydney Trains the rates at which commuter are using any one service.
These changes are in part a response to the chaos that took place after a network meltdown earlier this year which also highlighted the staff shortages.
Shadow Transport Minister Jodi McKay has been vocal on the way the timetable and train services have been handled by the State Government.
'The government has tried to establish a new normal ‘get used to the chaos, get used to the confusion because it’s going to continue’, that’s not good enough,' she said.
'The government has tried to establish a new normal ‘get used to the chaos, get used to the confusion because it’s going to continue’, that’s not good enough,' Shadow Transport Minister Jodi McKay (pictured) said
'The minster needs to say how many services will be cut.'
Ms McKay called it a 'dog' of a timetable when speaking with 7 News.
On February 16 Ms McKay said she knew the government were already 'softening up' commuters for the train service cuts after a January report confirmed staff shortages.
'It’s up to the Premier and the Minister to fix the mess,' she said.
'They were warned not to press go on this new timetable because there weren’t enough drivers but they did it anyway.'
Labor and rail unions both said that the introduction of a new timetable in November last year had reduced the ability of Sydney Trains to manage and bounce back fro timetable and rail line disruptions.
Part of the new plan is to cut low patron services while at the same time hiring more drivers.
Part of the new plan is to cut low patron services while at the same time hiring more drivers
As of the publishing of the 2016/17 Sydney Trains Annual Report about 10,000 staff were on the payroll.
Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said many external factors have an impact on the ability for Sydney Trains to provide the services at their peak ability.
'Our rail network is complex and tangled, which means when things go wrong, flow on effects can be crippling,' he said.
A February report into the Sydney Trains services and networks included ways to limit disruptions.
Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said many external factors have an impact on the ability for Sydney Trains to provide the services at their peak ability
Mr Staples said the report recommends priority actions.
'To ensure when multiple disruptions happen, we are able to get the trains moving again sooner for our customers,' he said.
Accelerating the hiring of new drivers and making changes to the timetables across the service network.
'With unprecedented growth in train patronage meaning we need to carry more and more people every year, this is the timetable that Sydney needs,' he said.
Mr Staples said the government was investing $1.5 billion into the rail network through the More Trains, More Services program.
'Including infrastructure upgrades and 24 new Waratah-style trains that will start rolling out this year to replace our aging S-sets,' he said.
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