NSW residents to get a free day of travel after Sydney trains went into meltdown
Every Sydney resident gets FREE travel after trains collapse: here’s what we know so far
- The train network across Sydney was shut down on Wednesday
- NSW Premier said free public transport will be offered for a day
Dominic Perrottet has announced that there will be a day of free public transport in New South Wales to make up for Sydney’s train network which collapses on Wednesday afternoon.
Commuters trying to get home after work on Wednesday had to wait nearly two hours after the public transport radio system went down.
The NSW premier said on Thursday there would be a ‘tariff-free’ day to try and make amends for the chaos.
“I have made it very clear to the Secretary of the (NSW Transport) Department that I expect there will be a free day to somehow make amends for what happened yesterday,” he told reporters.
The Sydney Trains network came to a halt on Wednesday as frustrated commuters scrambled to find alternative ways to get home. In the photo, commuters wait for a tram at City Hall
“I am truly sorry for the inconvenience many faced yesterday as they tried to go home, visit their families, work and catch flights.”
It is not yet known when the day of free public transport will be.
All trains stopped just around 3pm on Wednesday – with the screens at Central Station in the middle of Sydney’s CBD completely empty.
Transport NSW had to stop all trains for safety reasons after the digital train radio system failed.
The system was eventually rebooted and more than an hour after the problem started, grounded trains started running again.
However, tens of thousands of commuters remained stranded in the city.
People thronged outside Central Station in Sydney’s CBD on Wednesday afternoon
Transport NSW initially warned commuters that the problem would affect service throughout the afternoon.
Warnings for passengers to ‘expect delays’ earlier in the afternoon escalated into messages advising commuters to seek ‘alternative travel options’.
The system outage caused the price of Ubers to skyrocket, with journeys across Sydney costing commuters nearly three times the price.
A commuter posted a screenshot of a trip from the city center to Bondi charging $88.21.
More buses were sent into the city to keep train commuters in limbo.