Constance 'confident' NSW trains will run

The NSW transport minister says he is confident rail workers will arrive for work on Monday after strike action was postponed last week.

Andrew Constance

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is confident train workers will turn up for work on Monday. (AAP)

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is "pretty confident" Sydney's trains will run smoothly on Monday after a 24-hour strike was called off.

Sydney's trains are scheduled to run on a standard weekday schedule on Monday after the Fair Work Commission last week ordered unions to call off planned strike action.

Asked if he was concerned disgruntled train drivers may call in sick on Monday, Mr Constance said he was fairly confident trains would run on time.

"We're heads down, tails up making sure this network settles down and people can catch their trains ... I'm fairly confident that's going to happen given the fairly strong words of (Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary) Alex Claassens.

"I'm not going to speculate ... you had the union leader saying that they would abide by the findings of Fair Work."

However, train services will be closed an hour or two early on Sunday night, according to Marg Prendergast of Transport NSW.

Ms Prendergast said services were being shut down at around 10pm on Sunday in a bid to "untangle" the network after a sporadic scheduling period.

"What this means is we actually have to wind up some of the train services a little bit earlier than normal," Ms Prendergast said.

"We are confident the train services will be back to normal tomorrow morning."

Ms Prendergast said about 15 buses would be on hand to replace train services on Sunday night.

She added Transport NSW has buses available on Monday morning if rail workers called in sick.

Mr Constance said he understood the union leadership would meet on Monday to discuss the current deal on the table from the state government.

Asked if Sydney Trains were calling drivers out of retirement due to understaffing, Mr Constance said it "would make sense" but did not confirm whether it was occurring.

"It would make sense to see if some of the drivers do want to return because they don't need to go through 12 months of training," he said.

"All those issues will have to be questioned of (Sydney Trains chief executive) Howard Collins but again, getting people back to work, given that you don't have to train them for 12 months is the key point."

Mr Constance said 165 people were currently being trained as train drivers, with 18 due to start next month.


Share

3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world