Sydney train network plagued by almost 40,000 defects – and delays ‘likely to worsen’

A review commissioned by NSW Labor recommends a ‘maintenance blitz’ over the next 12 months to improve the poor performance of Sydney’s train network. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The number of active defects across Sydney’s train network has soared to almost 40,000, as a scathing review finds the performance of the transport system has been hit by recent outages and delays is “likely to worsen”.

Defects related to infrastructure such as tracks and electrical circuiting – but not the train fleet itself – have increased from about 23,000 in December 2018 to about 37,000 in April this year. This has coincided with plunging on-time performance and spiralling service cancellations.