A single staff member calling in sick has been blamed for delays across multiple Sydney train lines, causing public transport chaos on Thursday.
T1 Western Line trains between Parramatta and St Marys, along with the T5 Cumberland Line from Blacktown to Richmond, were suspended between 2.24pm and 3.37pm initially, eventually rippling out to cause major disruptions across most of the network.
Trains on the T1 North Shore and Western, T2 Inner West and Leppington, T5 Cumberland and T9 Northern lines were all affected from about 3.30pm.
The flow-on effects spread across the city, with staff at some stations having to manage overcrowded platforms.
Some passengers were forced to wait up to an hour on trains that were halfway through their journeys.
The crucial staff member that called in sick is a signaller, which is an important role that involves telling train drivers when a path is clear, similar to an air traffic controller.
Guardian Australia understands the staff member had called in sick at the last minute, with little time for Sydney Trains to find a replacement.
Sydney Trains apologised for the disruptions, saying in a statement that “typical backup” that would be deployed in this scenario were “not available”.
“Sydney Trains had late notice of resourcing issues at the Rail Operations Centre and the typical backup resources that would be deployed in this scenario were not available,” it said.
It said the staff member was replaced “just before 4pm”, but did not address how such widespread disruption could occur due to one employee being sick.
“The staffing issue was rectified just before 4pm when the workforce management team mobilised a replacement to perform this operationally critical role.
“Sydney Trains apologises to those impacted and we are working to avoid a repeat of this issue in the future.”
They said replacement buses were arranged for passengers and ran until 1am.
The New South Wales roads minister, John Graham, also apologised to commuters and said work has been done on the rostering system to prevent another similar situation occurring.
“That roster work has been ongoing, which means we’re now more confident that this won’t be repeated,” he said.
Graham said the delays put a “spotlight” on recruitment challenges in the industry.
“These are highly skilled jobs. It takes some time to recruit and train signallers. But the government recognises that is a challenge. There are plans to address what has been a workforce shortage in that particular area.
“And we do realise that along with the maintenance challenge is part of the challenge that the incoming government faces.”
The acting secretary for Transport for NSW, Howard Collins, told reporters it takes more than a year to train signallers. He also said it was a combination of factors that led to the delays.
“It’s a specialist job. It’s not as if someone can just walk in and it would be unwise and very dangerous,” Collins said.
“Sometimes it’s a combination of events, which we saw yesterday, including late notice, school holidays, the three or four options available to us are not being available, so we closed the desk.
“I’ve asked the Sydney Trains team to examine the rosters in minute detail and just ensure we’ve got as enough coverage to ensure this does not happen again.
Collins said there are 30 signaller trainees, but they are not yet ready to “get their hands on the controls”.
“We are working through how we can fill these gaps quickly, to get some staff trained on this critical desk earlier than anticipated to ensure staff resourcing,” he said.
The state opposition’s health spokesperson, Matt Kean, said commuters should get a fare-free day following the delays given, that was the standard Labor wanted when it was in opposition.
“Jo Haylen said when she was the opposition transport spokesperson [that] the role of the government is to run a reliable train network. And by her own standard, she has failed,” he said.
“When she was in opposition she called for a fare-free day when a similar event occurred, so by her own standard, that’s exactly what we expect to see.”
