TRAIN passengers on the South Coast and Illawarra lines are experiencing significant delays today (Wednesday, 15 January) with major service reductions and cancellations due to the impact of union bans.

Passengers have experienced delays, service cancellations and large service gaps, particularly on the T1 North Shore and Western, T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra, T8 Airport and South lines. These impacts will have a flow-on effect across the network and are expected to worsen during the afternoon when commuters head home from work.

A spokesperson for Sydney Trains said support from the Combined Rail Unions was requested to complete critical overnight maintenance at Bondi and Homebush, which was not provided, resulting in essential infrastructure ‘booked out of use’, creating significant delays.

In addition, work bans at the Rail Operations Centre (ROC) may make managing the impacts challenging, and cancellations and delays are expected to compound throughout this week.

The industrial action by the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) follows failed negotiations with the NSW government over a pay dispute, during three days of talks at the Fair Work Commission. The RTBU is demanding a 32 per cent pay increase over four years on behalf of rail workers.

Buses will support train services on some lines in the off peak where possible, and Metro will operate on an increased four-minute frequency.

Passengers are urged to delay non-essential travel, leave plenty of additional travel time, and plan ahead by checking the latest updates on transportnsw.info and live travel apps.

Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink has apologised to passengers for the disruption.

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