Sydney trains are facing a weekend shutdown as the rail union strikes over an ongoing wage dispute with the New South Wales government.
Here’s what you need to know.
Sydney train services will stop running early on Friday morning, when the Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s work ban begins. The strike will lift on Sunday morning but the NSW government has warned disruptions could extend throughout Sunday.
Some disruption is also expected on Thursday, though earlier fears that the shutdown would start on Thursday have been resolved after last-minute meetings between unions and government on Tuesday night saw the start time pushed to Friday.
All train services in the Sydney city network will be affected, although the light rail will continue to run.
There are already disruptions occurring across the network due to industrial action, with 100 services delayed or cancelled on Tuesday.
Cancellations and delays have also already hit intercity lines connecting Sydney to Newcastle, Gosford, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the south coast, due to a separate industrial action, Transport for NSW has said.
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The Metro will run as normal on Friday but will be closed for unrelated maintenance on Saturday and Sunday along the new half of the line, running between Tallawong and Chatswood but not running between Chatswood and Sydenham via the CBD.
The shutdowns will affect a number of special events around the city from Friday.
Pearl Jam are due to perform in Sydney on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday’s concert at Sydney Olympic Park will be serviced by the previously planned 86 special event services.
Saturday’s concert is expected to have no train services, as is the A-League’s Unite Round, which involves six double-headers across Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the men’s and women’s competitions, at Allianz Stadium at Moore Park and Jubilee Stadium in Kogarah. That includes the men’s derby between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night at Allianz.
The A-League will run shuttle buses between Allianz and Jubilee and buses to Sydney from Newcastle and the Central Coast as planned, but no additional services to cover the shutdown have been announced.
Buses, light rail and ferries will run as normal. The government is hoping to provide additional services on other public transport options including buses and potentially ferries, but a Transport for NSW spokesperson has warned numbers will be limited.
“Across Friday and Saturday there will be some replacement bus services but we are expecting major disruption and we’re asking people to make other arrangements,” the transport minister, Jo Haylen, said on Wednesday.
An estimated one million people use the rail network each day, so roads, buses and other forms of transport are expected to suffer as commuters take alternative options.
Rideshare services Didi and Uber have told the government they will limit surge pricing.
The rail unions have taken hundreds of industrial actions since September as they negotiate with the government over pay and conditions for about 14,000 train workers.
The RTBU has demanded a 32% pay rise over four years, or 8% a year, while the government has offered a three-year agreement totalling 9.5% plus super.
Both the RTBU and the government have said a deal is close and that they hope to reach agreement by Christmas.
The union threatened to stop all work on the train lines unless the government runs trains overnight. Sydney trains typically stop running services between about midnight and 4am.
Both sides have acknowledged the call for round-the-clock services is a bargaining chip in the wider pay dispute.
“We want to see 24-hour services or we want to see the deal done,” the RTBU NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, said on Wednesday.
Haylen has said the network could not sustain an extended timetable on top of the union’s other industrial actions, which she said had seen increasing delays and was “degrading” the network.
“If we continue to try and run 24-hour services over the weekend, the fact is it will eventually lead [to] the failure of our rail network,” she said on Tuesday.
The government had agreed to run 24-hour trains and avoided a shutdown after the union made the same demand last week, but Haylen said the extended timetable made repairs difficult and stretched the operator past its limit.
Warnes said the union had offered a “clear pathway” to resolve maintenance concerns and run extra services, knocking back the government counter-offer.
The government has opted not to force the unions to end their dispute by taking them to court, with Haylen saying the government would keep its options open but would prefer to resolve the issue cooperatively.
The 24-hours strike threat has been notified indefinitely, meaning that weekend shutdown scares could arise every week until a deal is reached.
