IT IS not the first time a NSW government has announced the ''biggest shake-up in a generation'' for the state's troubled railway. And it may not be the last government that fails to deliver.

In 2008, the Labor government nervously took receipt of a $10 million ''Customer Service Improvement Program'' drafted by the Boston Consulting Group. For seven months they ignored it until they could no longer.

Union officials ... Sally McManus, Alex Claassens and Tim Ayres. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Its recommendations were no surprise - they had appeared in various forms in similar reports for decades. But they were so frightening the then minister, David Campbell, said they gave him nightmares.

At the heart of the proposed reforms were sweeping industrial changes: the axing of all 3000 train guards, using CCTV to replace hundreds of staff at quiet stations and rapid moves towards outsourcing the hideously anachronistic maintenance workshops.