Less than a month after Central Coast commuters heaved a sigh of relief with suspension of union action on the rail network until July 1, trains were thrown into chaos again on Friday, March 14.
This time it was nothing to do with industrial action, but due to a signal failure.
As the system struggled to recover from signal issues at Ashfield station on Friday morning, major delays plagued the entire Sydney Trains network, with some Central Coast passengers reporting journey times of more than four hours.
Sydney Trains warned delays could be expected throughout the night, with both incoming and outgoing Central Coast services affected.
And so it proved, with one CCN reader reporting her nephew and his wife left Gosford on the 9.30pm train and didn’t arrive home at Waverton until 1.30am the following morning.
One correspondent was stuck on a train at Sydney’s domestic airport for an hour without any information or affordable alternative transport mode to the Central Coast
Uber and taxis quoted over $200 for the trip.
Eventually, he took two buses, a long walk, a metro trip and then a further delayed train trip.
His total travel time back to the Central Coast was four hours and 30 minutes.
Stranded train passengers flooded social media with complaints throughout the afternoon and evening, with many blaming poor system maintenance..
Sydney Trains put on buses between Hornsby and Berowra, saying there had been “a cascading and compounding impact on the network which has resulted in a displacement of trains against the timetable”.
Thank you for reporting another rail fiasco on March 14th. It took me three hours to travel from Parramatta to Woy Woy. After sitting on a train at Parramatta for 30 mins the announcement came that there is a backlog of trains & uncertainty when trains would arrive at their destinations. I opted for the bus to Epping (as bad as trains as overcrowded & stuck in traffic). Left work at 17:00 got home at 20:00. I wonder how countries like Japan & Germany, Sweden, China all can run their systems on time and not have a total melt down when signals fail.
Love my job but very tired of commuting.
I travelled thousands of sky miles in 4 hours to get to Sydney.
I had the misfortune to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle line on 22nd March 5 hours. Why no staff member could assist, no track work! Too much confusion and frustration. They want more money. Shame on you all.
I had the same experience on 14 March 25 as Uli.After waiting for 1 hour in Liverpool in a very hot weather for the train to Strathfield without information when we can expect train to arrive. It was such a relief that train arrived but we only made it to Granville & the announcement came that it’s a complete network meltdown & it’s out of their hands.Nobody knew when the train will going.After 30min wait in a horrible hot conditions with masses of people everywhere I had to take a taxi from Granville to Hornsby.I was home after 7pm.Left work 4pm.There is not enough coverage on TV & newspapers on what the commuters going through.We pay big money for the tickets & we never know if we will make it to the destination
Commuters should be uniting & suing the rail & electrical Union for the stress & cost of our our jorneys.
There is no information when trains are delayed & nobody care of the safety of customers when the platforms & trains are full.This is happening too often & we are paying for this as well.I’m surprised that nobody is doing something to improve this situation & stop allowing the Union tormenting passengers.
There should be always coverage on TV
when something goes wrong with Signals or delays.We have to make everyone aware what is going on & what crap service they provide.
Very dissapoined
And they are asking for higher pay.
Yes. It’s a story we have documented extensively – see some of the stories here – https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/?s=rail+strike
I landed at Sydney airport at 4pm after leaving home in Mackay at 7.30am. i sat on the train. from domestic airport for 90mins and wvtually walked from green square to Redfern. A train to Central then Metro to Epping where I waited until 11.30pm for an announcement that there would be no trains on the Newcastle Line
After my 16 hour commute luckily I had friends at Normanhurst who collected me to sleep on their sofa. I caught the train from Hornsby to Central Coast at 8am the next morning. I am very tired of the problems with Sydney trains.