Biggest rail maintenance program to disrupt Sydney

The review found a huge maintenance backlog had led to equipment failures causing major shut-downs – equipment that should have been inspected, repaired, refurbished or replaced but wasn’t because maintenance crews could not get anywhere near sufficient access to the track.

It said this was partly because of extreme weather events and industrial action, but mainly because a new timetable in 2017 pushed the network to its limits and severely restricted access to the tracks for maintenance.

It recommended an all-out assault on this backlog to repair the network, dramatically reduce equipment failures and restore reliability for passengers.

Sydney Trains has now mapped out a massive maintenance program to take place every weekend for the next year or more. It is designed to perform several years’ worth of normal maintenance works in that time by pouring huge resources and numbers of additional crews into the task.

Sydney Trains maintains more than 2000km of track and associated infrastructure.

The Rail Repair Plan at a glance:

• The works will cost an estimated $97 million funded out of existing unspent budgets, due to the lack of access for maintenance in recent years
• Around 3700 repairs, upgrades, and refurbishments
• Around 100 worksites and hundreds of workers every weekend
• On some weekends there will be around 300 additional worksites (double the usual number)
• Hundreds of workers will be deployed every weekend, and on some weeks thousands of workers
• More than 14,000 maintenance shifts across the network over the next 12 months
• Around 450km of rail repair, such as grinding, and electrical inspections
• Ballast trains deployed, servicing more than 900 tonnes of track ballast in a single session
• Regular maintenance completes 600 defect removals on average each year
• More than 1900 high priority defects will be repaired
• Around 600,000 weekend passengers will lose normal train services and need to use replacement buses over the next 12 months

“Millions of people depend on our trains. In recent times the service has become sub-standard due to system failures caused by the neglect of maintenance,” Haylen said.

“People have lost faith in the system. They’ve been burnt too many times.

“We have to fix our rail network and it’s going to take a massive effort.

“We simply must take this on and get it done. Continuing system failures and meltdowns are not an option.

“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.

“If you use trains on weekends, I’m sorry but you’re going to find yourself on buses – a lot.

“It’s a year or more of pain but it will deliver the huge, world-class train system Sydney needs and deserves.

“We will keep people constantly updated, every week, with reports on how this immense repair project is progressing.”

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union NSW & ACT (AWMU) welcomed the move, saying members who maintain the rail fleet and network had been advocating for much-eeded investment for years.

State secretary Cory Wright said they had seen firsthand the impact a decade of funding cuts and under-resourcing had
had on the rail network and along with their Combined Rail Union members, they “were ready to get to work”.

“It’s great to see a state government investing in our existing public infrastructure to make sure it works for everyone. Shiny new stations are meaningless if we can’t get the trains running safely and on time,” he said.

“The government appears to take the issues with the rail network seriously and is putting the appropriate resources towards fixing the problems.”