Sydney commuters are facing delays with trains arriving late, running slowly or constantly stopping and starting at red signals due to industrial action.
Some services were held at platforms for up to 15 minutes, with carriages quickly filling up.
At Strathfield, trains were at standing room only in both directions, with guards urging passengers to move to less-congested carriages.
Delays on morning commute
A train scheduled to leave Central at 7:20am and arrive at Parramatta at 7:49am took 1 hour 19 minutes.
This is the breakdown:
- Departed Central at 7:26am — six minutes late.
- Arrived Redfern at 7:29am — six minutes late.
- Slowed to crawl on approach to Strathfield then stopped outside Strathfield station at 7:42am.
- Arrived at Straithfield Station at 7.45am. Held at platform for 16 minutes. Departed at 8:02am.
- Stopped outside Burwood Station for several minutes.
- Stopped outside Homebush Station (not a scheduled stop). Held until 8:25am.
- Arrived at Lidcombe Station at 8:29am.
- Arrived at Parramatta Station at 8:39am — 50 minutes late.
There were other significant delays, as shown on the TripView app.
A 6:53am Blue Mountains train from Central to Katoomba was 51 minutes late.
A 8:13am Central to Wollongong service was 86 minutes late.
Train delays ‘a nightmare’
Passengers arriving at Parramatta Station shared their experiences of lengthy train delays.
Monica Craig said her journey took an extra 25 minutes.
“It’s just really frustrating,” she said.
“It’s been ongoing for the last few months and [I’m] just over it by now. I just want to get to work and just want to get on with life.”
One man said his train journey took one hour and 20 minutes.
“It was a nightmare that,” he said.
“There’s plenty of delays, there’s also signal issues as well.
“It’s ridiculous. Fair enough, they [workers] should be paid more. But I’m not happy with that. It’s certainly not good for us.”
Shannon Finn, who took a train from Mount Druitt, said he was also affected by industrial action.
“It’s really frustrating cause you got people who don’t drive and who need to rely on public transport to get to work and everything,” he said.
“And when they do industrial action, it’s just really frustrating.”
Lijo Joseph said he was “struggling at the moment”.
“The train’s are getting cancelled, there’s a transportation issue,” he said.
“I’m moving around with kids. It’s been a bit of a hassle for us at the moment.”
At Central Station, passengers experienced similar difficulties.
“It’s very hard for us to get train for work cause we start early in the morning,” one man said.
“This [is the] only transport for us to come to work.”
Another man, who came from Westmead, said his journey took an extra 40 minutes.
“I started at 5 o’clock, now it’s 6:30. I had to start job at 6 o’clock,” he said.
“Forty minutes, it’s more than one-and-a-half hours the journey today. It’s too late.”
Sydneysiders have been told to avoid any non-essential train travel as long-running industrial action continues.
From ABC
