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For several weeks now, observers of NSW politics have detected a shift in the language Premier Chris Minns has used about public transport. Now we know why.
Minns has always been cautious about raising commuter hopes that his government would green-light major new rail projects, arguing the government has its hands full delivering the mammoth lines already under construction. A key reason why Minns can’t commit to major new rail projects is because Labor can’t afford them, and is opposed to the sort of privatisation that the former Coalition government used to pay for the first stages of the wildly successful, city-shaping Sydney Metro.
Old and crumbling: Sydney Trains has the highest number of “high-priority defects” on record. What can be done?Credit: Oscar Colman
Of late, though, the premier has offered up a new and even more valid excuse for not committing to grand new schemes: the need to spend much more energy and money on improving the existing heavily rail system.
A new report released on Tuesday shows just how hard that task will be. Minns warned us the report – which reviewed the calamitous May 2025 rail fail in which most of Sydney’s heavy rail system ground to a halt for two days – would make for “sobering reading”. He wasn’t wrong.
The Sydney Trains network supports more than 1.1 million passenger journeys each day. But the report, led by transport and infrastructure expert Kerry Schott, makes clear the 1790 kilometres of track and 1700 kilometres of overhead wiring are old, and the subject of outdated maintenance practices. Indeed, Schott’s review panel slams the use of binoculars to observe whether overhead wiring has any defects as “insufficient” for 2025. No kidding.
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But it gets worse. The report reveals Sydney Trains has been grappling with the highest number of “high-priority defects” on record, despite the government’s $70 million rail maintenance blitz. Sydney Trains has blamed a combination of protracted industrial action and severe weather events on the growing number of defects, which reached a record high of 4450 in late August.
Transport Minister John Graham again apologised to commuters on Tuesday for the May debacle, and said progress was being made on resolving the underlying problems. The report is also damning of how authorities responded to the May meltdown and has suggested a range of potential changes should the worst happen again. Some of the recommendation– such as making sure transport apps convey meaningful, real-time information about outages – are so obvious the Herald wonders why they aren’t already in place.
The government will inject an extra $458 million over four years to upgrade the network, with a focus on rail track signals and overhead wiring.
With a growing city and ageing infrastructure, the Herald remains of the view that the Minns government should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, by planning for new extensions and projects while also boosting maintenance and reliability on the existing network. If it can pull this off, voters will reward it handsomely at the ballot box come March 2027.
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