It turns out the huge snafu in Sydney last night that saw trains stranded on the city circle and the Harbour Bridge and required the evacuation of trains stuck in tunnels was all thanks to *drum roll* a bracket.
At around 5 yesterday arvo (peak commute time, no less) a “power supply issue” at Wynyard Station caused massive power outages across the network, which saw a whole grip of Sydneysiders stuck in toiletless, air-conditioningless carriages when they could well have been at home, with their pants off, watching Netflix, like God intended all of us to do after we finish work.
It turns out the power supply issue was, in fact, some power lines that had fallen off their pole thanks to a faulty bracket, leaving the wires in contact with the top of a train. That same bracket had even been inspected that morning and found to be fine.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance, quite accurately, described the shutdown as “a bugger of a situation for everyone“:
“I know how frustrating and difficult the situation was for commuters. We are not sugar coating it.”
Chief executive of Sydney Trains, Howard Collins, was baffled:
“For some reason just one of those brackets broke, the wire dropped down, it was actually touching on the top of the train.“This particular bracket had been inspected according to the routine – it was all OK even in the morning.”
Collins said that anyone who got stuck on one of the trains can get their fare refunded by calling 1300 OPAL, but that refund did not extend to everyone, just “specifically those who were directly affected, caught on the trains.”
They reckon that the ridiculous heat might have had something to do with it:
“It is a rare occurrence. In hot conditions in the past the wires would sag because they expand, we’ve done a lot of work in that area. I think the last incident was in February this year when we had a problem with a dropper.”
“Droppers” being the adorable name they give to the brackets that hold up the power lines. Congratulations on learning a new train fact.
It was a huge inconvenience and, at best, people will only get a few dollars back but, hey, at least we got a few good tweets out of it.
Given the context the brand of water being handed out at Wynyard is just the best #sydneytrains pic.twitter.com/g5EzFDPb8M
— Eduardo Corrochio (@EdCorrochio) December 20, 2016
Source: SMH.
Photo: Twitter / @EliseJCooper.
