NSW’s new intercity train fleet delayed until 2024 as rail chief departs

SMH  -  Matt O'Sullivan  June 21, 2023

The rollout of NSW’s new intercity passenger trains has been delayed until 2024, which means commuters will have waited more than four years longer than originally planned for the multibillion-dollar fleet to enter service.

The latest delays come as the chief executive of one of NSW’s two state-run passenger rail operators departs the top job amid plans to place the troubled intercity train fleet under the control of a sister agency.

NSW TrainLink chief executive Pete Allaway last week exited the role he has held for the past four years overseeing intercity and regional rail operations.

One of the mothballed intercity trains at Kangy Angy on the Central Coast

His departure comes weeks after an interim review into repeated failures across Sydney’s rail network recommended the government consider shifting responsibility for the intercity trains from NSW TrainLink to Sydney Trains.

Transport for NSW acknowledged that the new intercity trains would not enter service until 2024, saying it was working with the main rail union and the safety regulator to implement an operating model that would allow the fleet to be rolled out next year.

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“This includes changes to the trackside infrastructure and surveying has begun across the network to determine the scope of work required for infrastructure modifications,” the agency said.

It has not previously given an updated timeframe for the trains to start services.

The new Korean-built fleet was at the centre of a protracted dispute last year between the Coalition government and the Rail Tram and Bus Union. The standoff was settled last November when the government agreed to union demands to modify the trains to allow guards to monitor passengers getting on and off at stations.

Despite the deal seven months ago, modifications to guard cabins have yet to be made to the new trains.

Transport for NSW said it was “working closely” with the train manufacturer and the union to progress the modification work on the fleet as “quickly as possible”.

Almost a quarter of NSW’s passenger trains are more than 30 years old.

The new fleet had undergone testing on several rail lines to examine mechanical and electrical systems, and preliminary testing of crew doors was now taking place. “These tests are needed to inform the detailed design of the modifications,” the agency said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said the previous government invested billions of dollars to deliver the new intercity fleet and now, after industrial action by unions last year, they were still not servicing customers.

Under the original plans, the trains were to start services on lines from Sydney to the Central Coast and Newcastle in late 2019, and to the Blue Mountains and Lithgow the following year.

The hold-up to the rollout of the new intercity fleet is delaying the retirement of decades-old V-set passenger trains, and the transition of Oscar trains to Sydney’s suburban lines.

The delays come as the government has hired executive headhunter NGS Global to search for a new chief of the state’s main transport agency.

Long-time senior bureaucrat Howard Collins is acting Transport for NSW secretary and is regarded as the leading internal candidate for the top job. The agency oversees a 14,400-strong workforce which is heavily unionised.

Transport for NSW did not say whether Allaway would be permanently replaced, confirming only that chief operating officer Dale Merrick was now acting TrainLink CEO.

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Labor set a goal – matched by the Coalition – during the state election campaign of cutting senior public servants by 15 per cent through attrition.

After winning power in March, the Labor government commissioned a review into Sydney’s rail network. Among 12 recommendations accepted by the government in an interim report released last month was advice that it consider shifting responsibility for the intercity trains.

If adopted, it will place all electric trains under Sydney Trains’ control and effectively re-establish the old CityRail operations bounded by Bomaderry in the south, Newcastle in the north and Lithgow in the west.

The previous Coalition government created Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink in 2013 out of the old RailCorp and CityRail, two years after it swept to power.

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