Sydney train delays as it happened: Haylen says ‘more than a thousand’ services to be cancelled by end of the day as RTBU action resumes

We’re wrapping up today’s live coverage as a challenging day on Sydney’s rail network gave way to weather chaos as severe thunderstorms hit the metropolitan area. Here’s a summary of what happened today:

• Commuters faced long waits for trains on Wednesday as renewed work bans by the Combined Rail Union led to delays and cancellations.
• More than 1000 services were expected to be cancelled across the network by the end of the day.
• Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said a refusal by the Electrical Trades Union to carry out maintenance overnight was causing the worst of the delays.
• The government has offered the unions a 13 per cent pay rise, plus an extra 1 per cent from cost savings and an extra 1 per cent in super, over four years. The unions were given a Thursday deadline to give their response. Union officials have already indicated that they will formally reject it.
• Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms have caused damage across much of the state. At least one man has died in the Central West and about 120,000 homes were without power across NSW.
• The storms left multiple stations without power and caused flooding in the Town Hall concourse as many commuters were still struggling to get home.

Thank you for joining us today. We’ll keep you posted with updates about the industrial action again tomorrow.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sydney’s train disruptions.

Today, every train line across Sydney has been facing significant delays and multiple cancellations due to the Combined Rail Unions reinstating 10 key work bans. Here’s everything you need to know:

• Commuters faced long waits for trains on Wednesday due to delays and cancellations
• More than 1000 services were expected to be cancelled across the network by the end of the day. Metro services remain unaffected.
• The delays and cancellations are caused by renewed work bans in place by the Combined Rail Union. Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said a refusal by the Electrical Trades Union to carry out maintenance overnight was causing the worst of the delays.
• The government has offered the unions a 13 per cent pay rise, plus an extra 1 per cent from cost savings and an extra 1 per cent in super, over four years. The unions were given a Thursday deadline to give their response. Union officials have already indicated that they will formally reject it.
• Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms, which have caused damage across much of the state, have caused chaos on the roads.
• Multiple stations are without power as a severe thunderstorm affects stations across the metropolitan area, as many commuters still struggle to get home following a day of rail chaos.

As city commuters faced a challenging day on rail lines, severe thunderstorms which have caused damage across much of the state have led to chaos on the roads.

In addition to flooding at Town Hall station, flooding has forced road closures at Pyrmont, where two out of three lanes in both directions were closed on the Western Distributor at Bank Street.

Elsewhere in the CBD, police were responding to a fallen tree which had blocked traffic at the intersection of Wattle Street and Macarthur Street.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest warnings show that the most severe part of the storm front has moved away from the metropolitan area, and as of 9.30pm is affecting Newcastle, but Sydney remains in a “warning” area.

The bureau has advised people to stay indoors, not walk, ride or drive through flood water, secure or put away loose items around their homes, and keep well away from fallen power lines.

Lidcombe, Cabramatta and Flemington train stations are all without power after heavy rain and thunderstorms began to hit Sydney at about 8pm this evening.

There has been flooding of the concourse at Town Hall, although there is no water on the tracks.

Elsewhere, a tree which has fallen on overhead wires at Normanhurst is affecting travel in both directions on the T9 line, with trains not running between Hornsby and Epping.

A tree on overhead wires at Bell means no trains are running from Lithgow to Mount Victoria.

Severe thunderstorms are continuing to affect much of Sydney. According to Ausgrid, almost 69,000 homes across the state are without power as a result of unplanned outages, while more than 53,000 homes on Endeavour Energy’s grid are without power. Winds of up to 100 km/h have been reported at Sydney Airport, while wind speeds reached 117 km/h at Kurnell.

To compound commuters’ woes, Herald readers have alerted us to the fact that the light rail has not been running between Town Hall and Circular Quay due to a power outage.

Signs are advising that the L2 and L3 lines are not operational in the CBD, with travellers advised to use trains or walk instead.

Dan Boyd, 47, who works in the CBD, opted to take the light rail after waiting for 30 minutes in vain for a train – he didn’t get far before the service ground to a halt and the driver informed passengers of the outage. Faced with another unknown wait for a train to Circular Quay, he opted to walk.

The light rail, whose workers are represented by a different union, is not affected by today’s RTBU’s industrial action.

The network has experienced recent difficulties with power outages. In December, a network-wide outage knocked all Sydney light rail lines out of service for an hour.

Frances Howe has been chatting to residents of the Blue Mountains all afternoon, with the multi-hour delay on the 5.11pm service to Lithgow giving her ample time to hear from commuters as the train sat stationary on platform 6 at Central Station.

But Howe is pleased to report that after almost exactly two hours, the train has left the station. Watch below.

Dozens of commuters hoping to skip the evening disruptions on the heavy rail lines were joining a long queue for the Parramatta River ferry service from Barangaroo to Sydney Olympic Park shortly before 6pm.

It was a similar story at the bus stops near Wynyard Station, with long lines snaking down the street.

Steven Siewert is at Chatswood Station, where the platform is looking pretty packed with commuters.

His photograph also captures a screen in the background advertising jobs for train drivers...