Sydney commuters have been told to avoid train travel after the entire rail network was halted due to a communications system fault.
Transport for NSW has confirmed the radio system on the network failed at about 2.45pm on Wednesday and the network was shut down for safety reasons.
The chief executive of Sydney Trains, Matthew Longland, said services were gradually resuming.
Longland apologised to commuters and said the cause of the communications fault was being investigated.
“At around 4pm this afternoon, trains have progressively recommenced operations across the Sydney Trains network,” Longland said.
“Whilst trains are running again, we will see significant delays for the remainder of the peak period.
“Customers are advised to avoid travel until we can bring trains fully back into service.”
He said the fault was not believed to be a cyber-attack or a result of a software update conducted over the weekend.
Services to Newcastle, Wollongong and the Blue Mountains have also been impacted.
Trains were initially stuck between stations after the 2.45pm communication failure, but were later moved to stations and passengers allowed to disembark.
“At 2.45 pm we were notified the Digital Train Radio System (DTRS) had failed on the Sydney Trains network,” a department spokesperson said.
“This is the digital radio system that connects the train crew with the signaller and our rail operations centre.
“As a result for safety reasons we have had to halt trains at platforms until we can reboot the system.”
The spokesperson said air conditioning and public announcement systems were still working during the shutdown.
“We are advising people to avoid train travel now and we will update when the system is back up and running.”
Sydney Trains has told passengers to allow “plenty of extra travel time”.
“Trains may stop on platforms or between stations for longer than normal while the issue is ongoing,” a tweet from the rail operator read.
“We expect this to continue through afternoon peak services.”
A commuter told Guardian Australia they were at the Milsons Point station for 40 minutes this afternoon before being alerted to the network outage.
