‘It’s a year of pain’: Grim warning for train commuters in Sydney

The blitz was prompted by a serious assessment into the system, which discovered an enormous upkeep backlog led to tools failures inflicting main shutdowns.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen stated the most important coordinated program of rail upkeep ever undertaken in Sydney was going to “take a massive effort”.

“People have lost faith in the system. They’ve been burnt too many times. We simply must take this on and get it done. Continuing system failures and meltdowns are not an option.”

The community has been plagued with a sequence of failures over the previous a number of years, together with three in March this 12 months alone.

The Sydney Rail Repair Plan will see work accomplished across the clock for the following 12 months, from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday.

“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,” Haylen stated.

“We have no choice. It’s the only way to get it fixed and have reliable trains again. If you use trains on weekends, I’m sorry but you’re going to find yourself on buses – a lot.

“We will maintain folks continuously up to date, each week, with studies on how this immense restore mission is progressing.”