Sydney’s rail network: Commuters are stranded

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of commuters were stranded due to a major malfunction on Sydney’s rail network.

The entire system shut down for over an hour during the evening peak, which NSW Transport Minister David Elliott said was likely linked to an internal problem, but also raised the possibility of foul play.

The shutdown comes after a year of industrial disputes disrupting services, and Sydney Trains was quick to shut down speculation over the delay being linked to a cyberattack.

The NSW opposition blamed the state government for the transport chaos and demanded an explanation.

The failure of the digital train radio system halted all services at 2:45 pm, leaving major stations flooded with commuters.

The rail shutdown had a ripple effect across Sydney’s transit system, piling pressure on buses and light rail services and leading to heavily congested motorways and roads.

Commuters were warned to avoid the train network altogether for the remainder of Wednesday’s evening peak.

Sydney Trains’ digital train radio system, which connects trains to a rail operations centre, failed at about 2:45 pm.

Engineers were unable to reset the system, so they switched it across to a backup site at about 3:30 pm.

Sydney Trains’ chief executive, Matt Longland, said the “root cause” of the network-wide failure of the five-year-old digital train radio system would be fully investigated.

Longland confirmed that a systems update occurred last weekend, but early advice was that it was unrelated to the critical digital train radio system failing.

The malfunction also halted intercity trains between Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, and the Blue Mountains.