2 days Ago By Blair Jackson
Sydney’s planned rail strike will be delayed for a day as Transport for NSW reaches an agreement for services to run as normal on Thursday. More than a million commuters will be stranded as Sydney trains stop running for more than 48 hours, beginning Friday morning. The Rail, Tram and Bus Union has pushed back its industrial action until Friday with drivers now staying off the job until mid-morning Sunday.
“This will cause significant disruption to people’s lives and to the operation of our city,” NSW Minister for Transport Jo Haylen said. “You can’t simply click your fingers and change the way a very big system works.” The union pushed back the start of the strike, amid pay negotiations with the government, so 86 extra trains can run to a Pearl Jam concert Thursday night.
But the American rock giants are playing a second show on Saturday too. NSW Transport is looking to fill as many gaps as it can with extra buses and ferries, though the department secretary also says options are limited. About 700,000 people take a train in Sydney every day.
A University of Sydney transport management senior lecturer told the ABC some emergency services workers will likely simply be unable to get to work. Fewer shoppers will be able to make use of the retail-frenzy “Black Friday” sales as well. The union is calling for a pay rise of up to 32 per cent over four years, and reduced weekly working hours.
Also, the union says it will call off the strike if the state government runs trains 24 hours a day. The government says this 24-hour term would undermine necessary trackwork, but the union argues around-the-clock services are better for commuters. The Transport Minister told 2GB despite the strike being pushed back a day, “we know that’s going to have a massive impact on millions of people who rely on these train services”.
“We want the union to lift this industrial action that they still have planned for Friday and Saturday,” Ms Haylen said. “We want to keep our city moving. No one wants this.
Passengers don’t want this. I don’t want this. The government doesn’t want this.
But the only way to keep trains running and to get people where they need to go is for the union to lift its industrial action.” The strike affects passengers travelling to and from Newcastle, The Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, and the Illawarra as well as Sydney city. Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary Toby Warnes said: “The reason we won’t lift the bans at this stage is ongoing frustrations with the government for not sitting at the negotiating table”.
The state government made all rail travel free amid a strike in September, however there is no word if that allowance will be made this weekend..
