Commuters have copped a fair bit of chaos recently, due to ongoing rail strikes. However, because misery loves company, both Sydney's trains and buses will be down on the same day on Wednesday, August 31 due to unrelated industrial action.
Over 70 per cent of Sydney’s train fleet will be out of action for 24 hours on Wednesday, August 31 on the final day of what has been a sustained three-week-long industrial action led by the rail union.
Sydneysiders have been urged to “stay home” by Sydney Trains CEO Matt Longland, with it now officially confirmed that two-thirds of Sydney’s trains will be out of service for 24 hours on Wednesday, August 31 – the final day of what has been a sustained three-week-long industrial action led by the rail union. This move comes from the union’s continued battle with the state government over a failure to meet pay requests and continued safety concerns with the government’s brand new $2.8 billion InterCity fleet.
Major disruptions can be expected throughout Greater Sydney, with train services reduced to running every 30 minutes across the board, while all trains on the T5 Cumberland line and T7 Olympic Park line will not be running at all. It is reported that there will be some replacement buses running, but with only 30% of the train fleet running, travellers should expect journeys to take considerably longer than normal.
Adding to this grim transport news, buses will also be down all day on Wednesday, August 31 due to a strike led by the Transport Workers Union, with up to 1100 bus drivers off duty for six hours. This strike is over a completely different issue to that of the rail union's industrial action, with bus drivers striking over pay and working conditions.
The bus strike will impact ‘region six’, an area that includes the Inner West – including the suburbs of Burwood, Ashfield, Campsie and Leichhardt, as well as some CBD services, Sydney Olympic Park and Rockdale. This region also stretches out to a collection of northern and southern suburbs, with Taronga Zoo, Chatswood, Hurstville, Westfield, Eastgardens, Bondi Junction and Miranda services all also likely affected.
These bus services will be down from 4-7am, and then again from 2.30-5.30pm on Wednesday.