Almost 100 Sydney train services to be cut to tackle delays

Sydney Trains has confirmed it is removing 94 services from its timetable from Monday to help prevent crippling delays.

Pictured is a file image of commuters stand on a platform at Strathfield train station in Sydney. Source: AAP

Almost 100 services will be cut from Sydney's train network starting next week as the state government tries to avoid another system meltdown.

Management confirmed on Thursday it will be making some "tweaks" to the timetable introduced in November 2017, but is promising minimal impact.

Most of the 94 services to be axed are off-peak trains running between 7pm and 6am on weekdays, and a small number on weekends.

They make up less than one per cent of the thousands of services run each week, affecting mostly the Northern, North Shore, Bankstown, Inner West, Cumberland and Carlingford lines.

"This timetable has proven itself during normal operation and routine incidents, but we recognise that we need to be smarter about how we use our crew so we're better placed to keep customers moving during bigger disruptions," Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said in a statement.

The changes will free up more drivers and give greater capacity to deal with delays when incidents occur, he said.

It follows a high-level review into the rail network's ability to recover from major incidents after passengers endured two days of delays and cancellations in early January.

The report, released in February, acknowledged the city's "tangled" and "complex" network made it vulnerable to disruption and underlying issues with crew availability.

It made eight recommendations, including minor adjustments to scheduled off-peak services that are used by very few people, to provide extra capacity when incidents hit the peak periods.

Mr Collins noted the last timetable was changed three times in the first year and nine times overall.