Brace Yourselves, Melbourne – Train Strikes Are Coming


You thought the tram strikes from last Thursday were bad enough? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Thanks to the ongoing industrial dispute between Melbourne’s Public Transport Drivers and their operating companies over pay and working conditions, the Victorian capital is set to be thrown into absolute chaos for the second consecutive week – and this time on a much larger scale.
Whilst last week’s tram shutdown brought the city to a standstill, and effected a few inner-city suburbs that are largely reliant on tram transport to a standstill, the fact remains that Melbourne’s tram network only services a reasonably small percentage of commuters.
The train network, however, reaches just about everywhere.
So the news today that efforts to avoid industrial action being taken by Metro Trains staff has failed is certainly pretty grim.
The train strike is set to take place both tomorrow and Friday, with service shutdowns effecting services in peak times.
Tomorrow morning the work shutdown will occur between 3am and 4am, the hour when trains are usually prepped for service. This will have severe knock-on effects, and Metro estimates that there will be a large number of early morning service cancellations across all networks from 4:30am until around 7am. The full list of cancelled services can be found here.
Following on from that, the entire train network will shut down on Friday from 10am until 2pm – however, services will be disrupted from around 8:30am until 3:30pm at the latest, as trains return to depots and sidings in preparation for the strike.
Whilst there will be *some* replacement bus services helping to ease the strain, it’s still gonna be a hell of a day trying to get around. Unless you’re an Uber driver, in which case you should probably search out a bigger wallet, because you’re about to make bank.
At least it won’t be raining this time.
Well, y’know. Much.
Photo: Paul Jeffers via Getty Images.

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