The truth about today’s train cancellations

Scheduled train service cancellations across the network on Monday have not only inconvenienced commuters, but have also puzzled workers who are trying to get to the bottom of why Sydney Trains management has started cancelling vital services.

One minute, Sydney Trains management said that the cancellations were due to an excessive amount of approved leave, then it was track work, then they changed their minds and decided to blame workers taking sick leave, and on Twitter, they’ve even blamed “reduced customer demand” and the weather.

After investigations, we believe that there has been no abnormal spike in sick leave today by train drivers” and is another attempt by Sydney Trains to demonise their hard working and dedicated Drivers to hide their own failings!

This reeks of management trying to cover up their own scheduling failures by putting the blame on the workforce and commuters.

The new Sydney Trains timetable has been shambolic since day one. The timetable was introduced without any consultation with the workforce and the result has been disastrous for commuters.

This is another example of the NSW Transport Minister’s incompetence.

To suggest that workers are to blame for scheduled train cancellations across Sydney today is ridiculous, especially given Sydney Trains had started making plans to cancel today’s services last Friday.

It’s absurd to think that a few workers falling ill would cause disruptions across the whole transport network. These workers are charged with looking after the safety of thousands of passengers every day. We can’t have people putting others at risk by coming to work if they’re sick, and management need to have enough drivers employed to be able to deal with the usual numbers of sick leave.