Sydney Trains Are Still Experiencing Major Delays That May Affect Your Commute Home

A mechanical issue at Town Hall this morning is still causing delays on six of Sydney's nine train lines.
Lauren Vadnjal and Samantha Teague
August 23, 2019

Fridays are great, except for when your morning trip to work takes much longer than expected. That's the scenario many Sydney commuters faced this morning — Friday, August 23 — when the train network was hit by major delays because of a mechanical issue at Town Hall.

As it turns out, it was quite the issue as the delays are set to continue into the evening commute.

Make sure your phone's got a lot of juice — or you've at least got a book with you — because Transport for NSW is currently reporting major delays on the T1 North Shore and Western Line, T2 inner West and Leppington Line, T3 Bankstown Line, T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line, T8 Airport and South Line and T9 Northern Line. Yep, that's six out of nine inner city train lines.

If you're heading out of town this evening, you should be ok unless you're planning to jump on the Central Coast to Newcastle train — that one has been hit by big delays, too.

Travellers are being advised to either leave work early, head home later or avoid travelling at all if possible. You'll definitely need to allow plenty of extra time for  travel, and make sure you listen to announcements and check indicator boards as trains may have altered stopping patterns.

At the moment, the delays don't seem to have hit buses, so, if you're travelling to or from North Sydney you could try the 290, M20, 343 or 263. This morning saw long lines for buses, though, so you can probably expect the same to happen in the after-work rush.

The delays come after trains were stopped between Town Hall and North Sydney for over three hours while an electrical crew worked to repair a loose hatch on a train, which was close to overhead wiring. While the mechanical issue was repaired at around 8.45am, but the flow-on effect has been huge.

To stay up-to-date with delays, check the Transport for NSW website and real-time apps

Image: This line for buses at Newtown Station this morning, by Quinn Connors. 

Published on August 23, 2019 by Lauren Vadnjal
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