Sydney has had a very rough time of it on the travel front recently but there’s finally some hope on the horizon.
The NSW rail union has reportedly struck an in-principle agreement to decrease their industrial action for the next six weeks at least (as per news.com.au), which would give commuters a much-needed respite from the network chaos.
It comes after hours of serious discussions between the rail union’s representatives and NSW Transport Minister David Elliott, with the specific details of the deal to be agreed upon over the coming weeks.
Ever since its enterprise agreement expired last May, the Rail, Bus and Train Union (RBTU) has been lobbying the NSW government to improve pay and working conditions for their members.
That led to severe delays and cancellations over the last few months. Just last week, commuters in Sydney faced major delays due to the action of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), who stopped their members from undertaking certain maintenance work across the entire train network. The RTBU decided to stand in solidarity with the ETU and said its members would also refuse to work.
It was unfortunate timing as the network was still recovering from damage caused by the recent terrible weather, with many lines suffering huge disruptions and cancellations.
“Our collective focus is to make sure commuters get the service that they deserve,” the Transport Minister explained yesterday morning. He also insisted that he’d be ready to answer the phone at any time of the day to field grievances wrought by the negotiations.
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Several ideas have been touted to appease commuters, including the possibility of Fare-free Fridays, the suggestion by the rail union’s NSW secretary Alex Claassens. While that would go a long way to apologising to commuters, the government and unions haven’t reached an agreement on the proposal yet.
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