Back in June 2023, Sydney Trains began work on a $97 million program to improve the transport network. Sounds good. What didn't sound so good: A whole lot of train line shutdowns to get the work done. And while we usually hear about construction and fixing taking longer than expected, this repair plan is actually ahead of schedule. Less than a year since they started, more than 29,000 defects have been repaired.
Sydney Trains’ Rail Repairs have hit a key target of repairing 1,916 high-priority defects (and 29,000 defects overall) three months earlier than anticipated. The aim was to bring the railway maintenance backlog under control to "acceptable levels” within 12 months, but since they’ve already met that aim, Sydney Trains have now cited a revised target of removing 2,116 high-priority defects before the end of June.
As anyone who’s found themselves on a rail replacement bus can attest, railway maintenance doesn’t come without its challenges, but the interrupted services you might have experienced over the past few months have come about for good reason.
This said, there's still a lot to do. Trackwork will continue to be carried out over weekends and during school holidays, when there are fewer travellers journeying across the city.
“While we have made exceptional progress, there is still much work to be done and I will not stop until we have the most reliable and resilient network possible for the passengers of New South Wales,” says Transport Minister Jo Haylen.
You can learn more and keep track (pun intended) of the progress over here.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.