Sydney train delays live updates: Passengers told to avoid travel amid chaos in aftermath of power outage

Taxi drivers have seen a surge in demand this morning as desperate commuters seek alternative transport.

Several passengers reported drivers taking “advantage” of the train chaos by refusing to accept card payments, asking for set fares or turning customers away.

CEO of the NSW Taxi Council Nick Abrahim says they haven’t been made aware of any complaints, but penalties for drivers committing these offences have been increased recently from $300 to $1,000.

He urged passengers to contact the Taxi Fare Hotline run by the NSW Transport Commissioner on 1800 500 410.

“I implore your viewers and listeners and readers to refer to that hotline because we want these drivers to be reported, they need to be found out and they need to be dealt with accordingly,” he told ABC News.

There are roughly 4,500 taxi drivers operating across the state.

From the get-go, the southern T4 line has been running normally amid disruption to other tracks yesterday.

However, some Radio Sydney listeners have said the line was experiencing cancellations this morning.

“That goes back to … train crew, what we’ve seen on the T4 line is operating as normal, there’s no incidents at the moment,” Mr Longland explained.

“A number of our train crew travel from different parts of Sydney to get to those train crew depots.

“What we’re likely seeing is there are some gaps with the crew that’s adding some cancelled services.”

702 ABC Radio Sydney Mornings host Hamish Macdonald said callers reported trains disappearing from sign boards,  difficulties accessing info and a lack of guards on platforms this morning.

“It has been challenging and that’s really been because we’ve been running off-timetable, so we’ve been running effectively special services,” Mr Longland replied.

The Sydney Trains chief executive said it was tricky to get info coded into the apps or onto station screens at the moment.

“As the afternoon progresses things will get a little bit clearer for passengers.

“What we’ll be doing today is to reset the network so then we can hopefully get back to a more standard timetable.”

Mr Longland is speaking from the Rail Operations Centre.

“The team are doing everything they can to keep trains moving and minimise inconvenience, but it’s going to be a challenging afternoon,” he said.

He said hopefully we can expect a more frequent service than this morning given the lines have reopened.

But without being able to commit to a detailed timetable, Sydney Trains is instead operating on a “shuttle-type service” today.

“The risk that we’re managing this afternoon is just around any of our train crew who might be displaced.

“We’ve had trains running off schedule … so that’s the work we’re doing at the moment.”

Matt Longland is speaking to ABC Radio Sydney right now.

You guessed it, they are “continuing to see delays” on the network.

The residual impacts from yesterday’s major incident are particularly affecting services coming from Western Sydney.

That’s the T1 Western Line, theT2 Inner West Line and the T3 Bankstown Line.

“Advice to passengers [is] please plan ahead if you don’t need to travel on the network in that part of Sydney, we will see delays continue for the remainder of the day,” Mr Longland said.

Strathfield was a welcome sight this morning, as trains began stopping at the station again after power issues.

Berge Breiland from the Sydney newsroom captured this from a train headed towards Parramatta.

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Chris Ross is a commuter from Campbelltown who gambled the trains to avoid tolls, eventually making it to Central Station this morning.

He told ABC News he faced a couple of cancellations before finally jumping on board, after a 4am wake up.

“It’s a bit of joke to be honest with you … it’s not good enough,” he said.

He’s lived interstate and said he has “never seen the trains [there] do this kind of stuff.”

Waiting on a platform for a delayed service? Battling for a shuttle bus or opting to work from home today?

Let us know how you’ve tracked this morning in our comment section.

The line at Lidcombe train station for replacement buses to Ashfield is ballooning in Sydney’s west.

This timelapse video taken by ABC Radio Sydney reporter Declan Bowring shows the line snaking all the way from the station, past a car park and all the way to a main road.

“Frustrating traffic here … [There have] been a dozens of orders for ride share,” he said.

“Some commuters said they were being charged as much as $20 more than the usual fare to Ashfield.”

Sydney Trains chief Matthew Longland says there will be impacts throughout the day due to backlogs and staff travel difficulties.

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As we’ve heard this morning, extensive rail repairs are completed on the network.

Transport for NSW has given more detail on what that’s looked like.

“The process of switching the power back on was completed at 7:20am,” a spokesperson said.

“The first train service went through those previously-closed lines at 8:05am.

“Services will now be able to progressively move through those sections of the track,” they said.

Despite the emphasis that the situation will “progressively recover”, passengers should expect residual delays for the remainder of the day.

Transport for NSW is urging people to seek alternate means of transportation such as cars, buses and the metro.

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“Passengers planning on travelling the rail network this morning are advised to avoid travel or use alternative transport if possible,” the travel app Opal said a short while ago.

“There will be limited shuttles operating. Plan ahead and allow extra travel time.”

Speaking to News Breakfast a short while ago, Sydney Trains boss Matt Longland said the train issues started with the rail pantograph.

He described it as the “part of the train that connects to the overhead wiring, the high voltage power”.

It was the pantograph that got twisted in the overhead wire, bringing some of it down onto the train roof.

Yesterday, Howard Collins from Transport for NSW described it as the Waratah train’s power connection device.

Premier Chris Minns has announced commuters will travel for free on Monday after the chaos that has plagued the Sydney rail network overnight.

Speaking this morning, the premier said the network was “nowhere near good enough”.

“In no way is that going to make up for the disruption of the last 24 hours, but hopefully it can go some way to alleviate the financial burden that families have had to deal with over the last day,” Mr Minns said on Nine Radio.

The Sydney Trains chief executive has turned his focus on the bright side.

“I do want to thank our teams who’ve been working through the night in the wet weather to get these repairs completed,” he said.

“The repairs are completed, the power is on and we’ll be doing everything we can to minimise impacts.”

He said people could use the metro, the light rail or the bus network to get around.

Mr Longland said the team was “doing everything we can” this morning.

“We’re looking to reset the rail network as best we can today.

“But I do want to be honest and open … there will be impacts for the remainder of today.”

He said quite a number of staff meant to be on duty were also impacted and “unable to travel”, causing gaps.

ABC News Breakfast asked Mr Longland if it was a freak event or human error.

He replied he didn’t want to speculate on the cause.

“It certainly isn’t something we see very often … [it] is something that is quite rare.

“Safety will always come first,” he said.

The cable crash yesterday caused two issues, Mr Longland explained.

Firstly, “it took some time to get passengers off that train” near Strathfield when it was safe to do so.

Additionally, the power through all six of the lines between Strathfield and Homebush had to be isolated.

“So that really created a significant impact for a lot of our passengers moving through Sydney,” Mr Longland said.

Mr Longland explained that at 3pm yesterday, said the part of the train that connects to high power voltage became twisted in the overhead wires.

“As a result, it brought down some of that wire,” he said.

“So we had a wire that was effectively on top of a train which is a very dangerous situation.

“Thankfully our trains are insulated so passengers were safe while they were in the train.”