Sydney narrowly avoided a transport crisis. Now comes the tricky part

Sydney, for now, is back on track after the Labor state government and union bosses managed to agree on one thing: an international city such as Sydney could not be without its extensive rail network for days.

Grinding the city to a halt would have been a disaster. This week, the million people who use the suburban train network each day have faced the prospect of devising other ways to get to work, school, sports events and music concerts without the relative ease and low cost of a train trip.

Sydneysiders have been on the brink of finding out what it feels like to live in a second-rate city.

Faced with the frustrating prospect of driving their cars in sluggish peak-hour traffic or cramming onto crowded buses or ferries, it’s safe to assume many would have given up and stayed home.

Business lobby groups said the “economic damage and chaos” of the potential shutdown – which would have coincided with major events including Saturday’s Pearl Jam concert at Sydney Olympic Park, and A-League football matches at Moore Park and Kogarah, was “just devastating”.

With little more than 12 hours to spare, the threatened shutdown of all services from first thing Friday to Sunday has been thwarted. But the deal is not done – far from it.

The government agreed on Thursday to run limited 24-hour train services this weekend in return for the union dropping work bans. It buys time for more intense negotiations.

Now the hard work really begins between the unions and members of Premier Chris Minns’ government – who have been adamant that it cannot afford the combined rail unions’ pay demands.

Asked whether the government had kicked the can down the road for a fortnight, Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the negotiations were an “ongoing process”, but Labor had “made good progress”.

“Both parties want to see this agreement reached. I’m very pleased that because of the progress we have made, people will be able to get where they want to go this weekend.”

Sydneysiders who relied on public transport told the Herald before the agreement was reached they were hoping for the best but planning for the worst. The commuters also made it clear they would have placed the blame for the proposed stoppage firmly on the shoulders of the state government for failing to come to a resolution.

Speaking after the meeting hosted in his Macquarie Street boardroom, Minns acknowledged there had been rolling industrial action since Labor was elected.

Nurses, teachers and paramedics have all walked off the job in various forms since the March 2023 state poll. In fact, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows in NSW there have been 23,300 working days lost to industrial action in the past five quarters.

However, that is far fewer days than the final five quarters under the previous Coalition government. In the lead-up to the election loss of the Perrottet government, bureau data shows there were 155,700 working days lost.

How quickly we forget.

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