The NSW transport minister is warning of "massive disruptions" every weekend for at least a year for already weary and long-suffering rail commuters across Sydney.
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Jo Haylen said on Sunday the state Labor government is launching a massive maintenance backlog blitz on the beleaguered system, with plans to cram several years' worth of work into the next 12 months.
Minister Haylen was at Croydon railway station in Sydney's inner west to inspect track-work already underway, and to announce details of the Minns government's Sydney Rail Repair Plan.
"We need to do this critical maintenance backlog of jobs, or things will just get worse. Anyone in Sydney will tell you the train network isn't working as it should," she told reporters.
She warned anyone who took trains on the weekend across Sydney will be using buses instead on Saturdays and Sundays for at least a year, probably more.
People living near train stations may want to buy earplugs.
"I want to be totally honest with everyone - for the next year or so we are going to massively disrupt the network on weekends while our crews get in and fix it.
"The work will be around the clock from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday," the minister said.
A new timetable introduced in 2017 was found to be responsible for the huge backlog on work and repairs, because it left very little time for workers to gain access to tracks.
The sped-up maintenance plan is in response to recent interim recommendations made by the Sydney Trains Review.
The review made 12 recommendations for restoring reliability to the network, which suffers severe meltdowns regularly.
The report found poor weather and industrial action also played a part in the failures of maintenance, but the 2017 timetable change was the main culprit.
Chief executive of Sydney Trains Matt Longland said clearing the maintenance backlog was the first recommendation to come from the review, and in his opinion, the most important.
"Signalling, overhead wiring, these will be among the priorities ... and the impact of the rain.
"This year is about spending the money," he said.
Minister Haylen said Sydney deserved a world-class rail network.
"People have lost faith in the system, they've been burnt too many times.
"It's a year or more of pain but it will deliver the huge, world-class train system Sydney needs and deserves," she said.
The $97 million plan is being described by the government as an "all-out assault" to repair the network, with about 600,000 people expected to be impacted every weekend.
The money will come from existing unspent maintenance budgets.
Some weekends will see about 300 worksites at train stations in Sydney which is double the usual number and requiring thousands of workers to fill 14,000 shifts across the network.
The T1, T2, T4 and City Circle lines have been identified as some of the worst and will be the first to see works begin.
Australian Associated Press
