Good morning and welcome to the shit show that is Sydney’s train network, which thankfully is back on right now albeit at reduced capacity.
If you commute at all in this godforsaken city you probably experienced the abject chaos of yesterday’s transport shutdown. NSW government cancelled all trains despite drivers showing up to work — and then blamed it on a union strike that didn’t exist.
There’s a lot of he-said she-said going around, but it certainly looks like our state government concocted commuter chaos to demonise union workers.
Transport Minister David Elliot even went as far as to compare this false strike to “terrorist-like” activity. He called it an “attack” on the city and “un-Australian.” Which is ironic since it looks like it’s the government that did it.
Just a normal day in Australian politics, huh???
Summary of the sydney trains “strike” #sydneytrains #auspol #nswgovernment pic.twitter.com/s22HTCSJ4E
— Tegan Jones (@Tegan_Writes) February 20, 2022
Union representatives are now meeting the state government at NSW parliament in the hopes of coming to some sort of agreement, though they’re obviously pissed off that the government threw them under the bus (no pun intended) and then gaslit them.
In some good news though, transport is back on — but at reduced capacity.
There should now be trains at least every 30 minutes, with some lucky commuters potentially getting a service every 15 minutes.
Since there’s so little trains, there will also be 150 rail replacement buses that’ll operate along major train lines, but Elliot is stressing that if you can avoid public transport, please do.
Though I imagine no one is willingly catching public transport in this weather. Manifesting low Uber fares for all you poor commuters.
Sydney trains are so funnyy, were sardines yall😉#SydneyTransport #sydney #transport pic.twitter.com/VypFQSBBTN
— stVn buNo (@StevenBuno) February 21, 2022
“Sydney Trains encourage commuters who typically rely on the rail network to find alternative travel options, if possible,” Elliott said.
“These limited services are there to support essential workers and commuters who have no other options to get to where they need to go.”
Since a single raindrop is usually enough to derail an entire train line and it’s currently apocalyptically storming outside, I would also recommend a back-up plan.
