Sydney commuters have been thrown into chaos with all lines on the Sydney Trains network experiencing significant delays and disruptions.
A radio system failure brought trains to a standstill Wednesday afternoon, leaving thousands of commuters stuck on platforms or forced to cram onto buses. The glitch will be fully investigated, officials say.
All trains were stopped at platforms for about an hour until services began running again about 4pm. Major delays to the network will continue to impact evening services.
Watch the latest news and stream for free on 7plus >>
Sydney Trains operates about 3000 services a day and authorities said it would take some time to return to normal scheduling. Commuters have been asked to avoid non-essential transport or find an alternative route.
“Trains may stop on platforms or between stations for longer than normal while the issue is ongoing,” TrainsInfo said.
“We expect this to continue through afternoon peak services.”
At the Town Hall Station, staff had closed off the area behind the turnstiles and asked commuters to head to the ground level, but many lingered.
Greg Jacques said the delay made a terrible day worse as he was heading to St George Hospital in Kogarah to see his dying uncle.
“I’m stressed out, man. I’ve got to go say goodbye to my uncle because he’s passing away,” he said.
Joanna Dunbar-Poole, 79, said she was headed home to Cabrammata when the shutdown hit and getting a bus home wasn’t an option for her.
“I’m going to Central and will sit around there and if it goes on all night I’m going to stay in a youth hostel or something,” she said.
Trains are expected to return to normal service for Thursday’s morning’s peak.
TrainsInfo confirmed services have started to run again on all lines as of 4.10pm, but commuters are asked to allow for extra travel time.
“Stops and platforms may change at short notice,” it said.
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland recommended delaying travel by 60 to 90 minutes for a “less challenging journey home”.
Longland said the chaos was caused by a network failure of the critical digital radio system at 2.45pm, which meant train crews were not able to communicate with the operations centre.
“For safety reasons that meant we had to bring trains back to platforms so customers could safely come off those trains,” he told reporters.
Engineers could not reset the system, and it was switched to a backup, allowing trains to slowly recommence operations.
“While trains are now running again, we will see significant delays for the remainder of the PM peak period,” he said.
“We’re asking customers to avoid travel particularly during this peak period until we can bring trains fully back into service.”
Longland apologised for the interruption to services, adding customer safety was the priority.
The early indication was that it was system-related and not any kind of cybersecurity issue.
“We’ll fully investigate the root cause of the incident to ensure that doesn’t happen again,” Longland said.
“We apologise to customers for the interruption to services this afternoon.”
Social media has been flooded with posts of lengthy lines for bus services and complaints of rideshare price surging as commuters seek alternate routes during peak traffic.
“Sydney trains this afternoon are at a standstill. Uber fares however, are not. Uber fare usually $20. Currently $216,” one person tweeted.
“Buses overloaded and hundreds walking into city. Peak hour is going to suck for millions,” another said.
Train delays Sydney. Are you affected?
Affected train lines include:
- T1: North Shore and Western Line
- T2: Inner West and Leppington Line
- T3: Bankstown Line
- T4: Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line
- T5: Cumberland Line
- T7: Olympic Park Line
- T8: Airport and South Line
- T9: Northern Line
- TrainLink Central Coast and Newcastle Line, Hunter Line, North West and North Coast Regions
- TrainLink Blue Mountains Line and Western Region
- TrainLink South Coast Line, Southern Highlands Line and Southern Region
If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your .
To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiYGh0dHBzOi8vN25ld3MuY29tLmF1L25ld3MvbnN3L2NvbW11dGVyLWNoYW9zLWFzLWVudGlyZS1zeWRuZXktdHJhaW5zLW5ldHdvcmstc3VzcGVuZGVkLWMtOTk3NjkzNtIBAA?oc=5
2023-03-08 08:57:00Z
1827477835
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Sydney Trains network in chaos with significant delays and disruptions on all lines, commuters asked to find alternate routes - 7NEWS"
Post a Comment