It’s going to be another chaotic day on the rail network across NSW as rail workers take a 6-hour strike.
The strike action will run between 10am and 4pm affecting the rail network in Newcastle and the Hunter and to the Central Coast and Sydney.
The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) met with the NSW Government again yesterday to try and resolve the long-running dispute over a new industrial agreement and safety issues on the inter city train fleet but no agreement was met.
RTBU Secretary Alex Classens said commuters do deserve an apology, but not from the rail workers.
“There’s no doubt that the commuters are owed an apology but that apology should be coming from Matt Kean and his ministers who are involved in this,” he said.
“This particular issue has been going on for six years, these trains were ordered from South Korea six years ago. We had a promise from the then Minister Andrew Constance, he stood there and did a press conference beside me and said we’re going to fix these trains, guards will be here to stay, we’re not going to operate these trains driver only, we’re going to modify these trains and get on with life. That was six years ago, he got re-elected at that election and promptly cancelled the contract variation.”
The trains on the Hunter line will be impact, nothing will be running for six hours.
“The trains from Sydney to Newcastle will be running as per the normal weekend timetable or as close as they can get to that provided all the trains stand up and there’s no failures. I understand though that the Hunter services will not run during the 10am and 4pm area because the only depot that can actually work those trains is the Hunter depot at the Newcastle interchange,”
“Because they’re on strike there’s nobody else that can go and drive those trains unfortunately but I have been told they’ve organised buses as best they can up there to try and supplement that,” said Alex Classens.
“What we’ve always tried to do is meet that commitment we made to the public which was we will always try and run a service so those people who have no other alternative but to use our system will still be able to use it albeit there will be some delays.”
“Certainly like I said, a weekend timetable is better than not trains at all but we would encourage everyone to check the timetables and give yourself plenty of time.”
More strike action is being planned for Thursday if an agreement can’t be made before then.
Image: RTBU Facebook page