Tens of thousands are left stranded across Sydney as the entire train network melts down after after a communication issue – and Uber responds by charging ‘$200 for a $20 fare’
- Entire Sydney Trains network stops running
- Communication issue blamed for chaos
Sydney’s entire train network has ground to a halt due to a ‘communication issue’ throwing the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of commuters into chaos.
All trains stopped just after 3pm on Wednesday – with the computer screens at Central Station in the city’s CBD, which usually show stops and next trains coming, completely blank.
Sydney Trains’ warnings for passengers to ‘expect delays’ early in the afternoon turned into blunt messages saying ‘trains are not running … please use alternate travel options when possible’.
‘Allow plenty of extra travel time due to a train communication issue,’ Sydney Trains warned.
‘Trains may stop on platforms or between stations for longer than normal while the issue is ongoing.
‘We expect this to continue through afternoon peak services.’
Transport NSW also warned that the issue would affect services throughout the afternoon and urged commuters to allow plenty of extra travel time.
The screens at Central Station were completely blank on Wednesday afternoon
There was similar chaos at Wynyard Station where travellers were turned away from the gates due to the network being down.
One station attendant at the station told a Herald reporter that the such an issue had ‘never happened before’.
One woman said on Twitter that her brother, who is a train driver, advised her that all communications were down and there was a major outage.
She said that he had gone to work ‘two hours ago’ to start his shift as a driver and was still stuck on the train waiting to get to his destination.
More buses are being organised to take train commuters.
The NSW Shadow Transport Minister, Jo Haylen, blasted the Perrottet government over the outage.
‘The Liberal government’s neglect of our existing train network has left old infrastructure that breaks down too often, and when it does, the entire network is disrupted leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded,’ she said in a statement.
‘Our existing rail network needs investment. It needs new rolling stock and new infrastructure. Instead the Liberals have neglected it and ran it down.’
‘Labor will invest in our train network so it gets passengers from A to B. The Liberals have neglected it and there’s a real risk that they would privatise it’
There was chaos at Wynyard Station (pictured) where travellers were turned away from the gates due to the network outage
Former political advisor Eamonn Fitzpatrick said the mass outage did not bode well for Dominic Perrottet, given the NSW state election is less than three weeks away.
‘This is the Dominic Perrottet’s worst fear,’ he said on Sky News.
‘State governments are about service delivery. With people all stuck together, it doesn’t take them long to start thinking about your performance.’
More to come.