Thousands of inconvenienced Sydneysiders will be offered half-price peak-hour fares and free weekend travel on the city’s rail system as compensation after chaos ensued when the entire network was shut down.
A bitter fight between the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the NSW government left thousands of commuters stranded on Monday at a moment’s notice after the snap decision to halt all services across Sydney.
Commuters in Australia’s biggest city will now be offered compensated fares for the next month as an apology for being left in the dark by the shutdown.
The NSW government has come under fire over the network-wide closure.
Transport Minister David Elliott is expected to make the announcement on Thursday, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
It is not known what the cost to the government of the subsidies will be, but the compensation is believed to have been approved by the expenditure review committee of cabinet.
The blame game over the shutdown is ongoing, with Mr Elliott insisting he was not made aware of the plans to close the entire network until 4am on Monday.
However, his chief of staff was made aware at 1.30am, more than two hours earlier.
In a desperate bid to repair damaged relations, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet called a meeting with the Transport Minister and Transport for NSW secretary Rob Sharp on Wednesday.
Mr Sharp claimed he had no choice but to cancel all services, with the industrial action making the system “unsafe”.
Chaos quickly ensued, with 22km-long traffic jams on the M2 Motorway and slow-moving traffic elsewhere in Sydney.
Mr Perrottet said he was “furious” that he was kept in the dark about the shutdown and only found out about the closure when he woke up at 5.30am on Monday.
He has since ordered his ministers to be available 24 hours a day after Mr Elliott said he was sleeping when he got the phone call at 12.43am.
Trains are still running at a limited capacity on Thursday, with most services coming every 30 minutes.
“Services may be less frequent and trips may take longer than usual,” Sydney Trains tweeted on Thursday morning.
“A limited amount of buses have also been arranged. Please limit travel where possible and use alternative modes of transport.”
The limited services will be running for at least the next week, with the government withdrawing its legal action against railxjmtzyw workers.
