Sydney rail chaos shelved as free fares get union tick

Commuters could be spared widespread transport chaos over a busy weekend of football finals in Sydney after the rail union paused planned industrial action on vital train services. or signup to continue reading After failing to reach a breakthrough in emergency talks with the NSW government, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union launched work bans that included refusing to staff the extra services needed for a marquee weekend of sport. Late on Thursday, the government announced weekend train trips would be free - meeting a key union demand of 50-cent fares.

Unions NSW assistant secretary and lead negotiator Thomas Costa said trains could run as needed while the free-travel offer was in place. "If you're offering free fares over the weekend, we're happy to run the trains as normal," he told ABC Radio on Friday. "Whether the trains run as normal or not will be up for management and their ability to manage the timetables.



" The rail union's opposition to the conversion of a stretch of the Bankstown line to metro train is running in parallel to an enterprise agreement claim for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years and a 35-hour work week. Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said there would still be interruptions over the weekend as officials worked through last-minute schedule changes. "We're putting those special event services into the timetable and we'll provide more information about what the regularity of those will be because it's last minute," he said.

Sydney will host NRL and AFL finals - including the Swans' sold-out game against Port Adelaide at the SCG - and the Bledisloe Cup rugby union fixture from Friday night through the weekend. The free rail services will run across the whole rail network, including the metro, on Saturday and Sunday. People heading to Moore Park for NRL and AFL final matches on Friday had already paid for public transport with their ticket and will travel for free.

Business Sydney forecast the weekend's events were worth $21 million to the city's economy. "Such major public transport inconvenience could not come at a more critical time," executive director Paul Nicolaou said. "This boost for struggling businesses will be severely dampened if footy fans are impacted by this industrial action.

" The union is also threatening to shut down the entire T3 train line - from Liverpool in Sydney's southwest to the city centre - if the government pushes ahead with plans to convert part of it to driverless metro standards. The conversion requires closing the Sydenham-Bankstown section from September 30, but the government has warned union work bans could delay the construction altogether at a cost to taxpayers of $100 million a month. The rail union said the conversion was unsafe and represented a different beast to newly constructed metro lines elsewhere in Sydney.

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