Commuter chaos as ALL Sydney trains cancelled: 'A MESS'
There is transport chaos across Sydney with all trains cancelled on Monday morning.
Transport for NSW on Sunday warned the public in a series of tweets that trains would be disrupted by protected industrial action, advising them to allow extra travel time.
It will affect services across Sydney and some NSW TrainLink intercity trains which provide transport between areas including Newcastle and Kiama.
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland told 2GB radio “it’s going to be a very difficult day”.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also told 2GB "this is not how this should be done".
“There are people this morning who are going to have an overpriced Uber, or they’re not going to be able to get to work,” he said.
Transport for NSW Secretary Rob Sharp said buses will replace some trains.
“We are doing everything possible to minimise the impact to commuters and sincerely apologise to everyone inconvenienced by this industrial action,” Mr Sharp said.
“These actions will impact hundreds of thousands of commuters and come at a time when people just want to get back to work, back to school and back to university – it's not what our community needs at this time.”
The cancellation of train services is the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between the government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union over safety guarantees, hygiene and privatisation concerns.
"The NSW Government filed an application with the Fair Work Commission seeking to cancel our industrial action," said the RTBU NSW Branch in a statement posted on social media on Saturday, adding the government "backed down".
"We have a government that is willing to try anything to screw us over, no matter what the cost to taxpayers," it said.
The parties met late on Sunday but could not come to an agreement. It was deemed unsafe to run trains on Monday.
New South Wales Secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union Alex Claassens told the ABC on Monday morning workers are not on strike.
"All of the people behind me, all the people sitting in the meal rooms, all across the network are ready to work at a minute's notice. We're all there, ready to do the work," he told the ABC.
Nonetheless, commuters are less than happy with the news. Many only found out about the cancelled services on arriving at the station.
A woman looking to travel from Lindfield to Chatswood tweeted news of cancelled trains was the “worst thing to wake up to on a Monday morning”.
One man called it “a mess” and “an absolute joke” while another woman looking to travel from Newtown to Wynyard Station tweeted Monday “is going to be chaos”.
with AAP
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