But in a report issued on Tuesday, NSW auditor-general Grant Hehir showed the number of complaints about timetable issues increased from 458 in 2013 to 4808 in 2014 – a 949 per cent increase, which Sydney Trains attributed to the timetable changes.

According to Ms Berejiklian, the new timetable added 1000 extra rail services per week. This helped produce an overall drop in crowding on the rail system.

But this was not spread evenly among all lines, and some stations experienced a drop in the number of rail services.

Kogarah, for instance, which for decades has been promoted as a major employment destination, lost its direct rail connection with the Sutherland Shire and the Illawarra. A number of smaller stations in the Central Coast, Illawarra and Blue Mountains also received fewer services.

In a release, opposition leader John Robertson said rail commuters were "unhappy about the trains on a level never before seen in NSW".