After 250,000 commuters affected by the shutdown, investigations are underway
Commuters experienced minor delays on Thursday morning after the rail network closed during Wednesday’s afternoon rush hour when at least 250,000 passengers were delayed, prompting an investigation into the network.
Sydneysiders were left stranded when the rail network was brought to a standstill for about an hour by a failed component in the communications system linking all radios on the trains, causing long delays into the night.
Transport NSW Managing Director Howard Collins spoke to Ben Fordham on Nine’s 2GB on Thursday morning and said engineers were examining the system to understand why the component was not working.
“It was repaired just after 4pm but it meant every single train had to be placed on the platform and awaited instructions because obviously that’s a bit like the air traffic control radio. Without them, you can’t get emergency messages back and forth,” he said.
“We have never had this failure; it usually had automatic switching from one channel to another, but for some reason we found the component was not working as it should.”
Later at a press conference, Collins said he spoke to NSW Transport Secretary David Elliott about three minutes after the incident.
Commuters attempt to board trains at Parramatta Station during delays across the network yesterday.Credit:Walter Peeters
“We’re in caretaker mode so we have to be very careful so you know what ministers are and aren’t doing… I spoke to them [the minister] directly and also the team makes sure that they receive information and confirm the decisions we made at the time,” he said.
Collins also encouraged commuters who were particularly hard hit by the shutdown to speak to service operators.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/investigation-under-way-after-250-000-commuters-affected-by-train-shutdown-20230309-p5cqm9.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_national_nsw After 250,000 commuters affected by the shutdown, investigations are underway
