‘Delays, breakdowns, frustration': NSW commuters left waiting at the station

The Guardian

5 days ago

As more families seek affordable housing outside Sydney, they are experiencing a daily stress: their bosses want them back in the office more frequently but the train services to get there are becoming more and more unreliable.
NSW has just recorded its worst year for on time running for Sydney trains, with nearly one in five running late, but the real problem is with intercity trains. Since July, one in three have failed to meet the punctuality benchmark.
'It's usually late. It's a surprise when it's on time,' says Elita Bird, who travels from Gosford. 'The slightest thing with the weather, which is increasing, it just runs late.'
'Terrible,' says Kim, who asks not to use her surname. She makes the one hour, 40 minute journey from and to Tuggerah on the Central Coast to Central station every weekday.
'They just constantly cancel, reschedule them and they're very slow because we get stuck behind the all-stations trains.'
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It raises serious questions for the Minns Labor government as it attempts to deal with a housing crisis and skyrocketing house prices, which are sending families farther afield to find a place to live.
'If you want to take the pressure off house prices we have to make it easier for people to live outside the major cities. That means having reliable public transport,' says Dr Geoffrey Clifton, senior lecturer in transport at the University of Sydney.
The headline numbers the NSW government releases on train performance do not fully capture the agony of the state's long-distance train commuters as Sydney Trains combines the performance of the city and the intercity services.
'Whilst Sydney Trains did not reach its own 92% performance target over the past three years, in part due to protected industrial action during this period and severe weather events, on time running in 2022 was 92.1%, 95% in 2021 and 92.5% in 2020,' a spokesperson told the Guardian in an official statement.
But it is an entirely different story if the focus is on the intercity services – trains to the Central Coast, South Coast, Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands.
Those services have failed to meet the 92% benchmark – trains arriving within six minutes of their timetabled arrival during peak hours – for all seven years, where data is available.
So far, in the first three weeks of the 2025-26 financial year, just 65.2% of trains on the four main intercity lines were 'punctual'.
It was little better in the previous 2024-25 year: just 70%
Worse still, punctuality is worse when commuters are trying to get home.
In the week 30 June to 4 July 2025 just 37% of trains taking commuters home from the city were 'on time'.
In the week 19 May to 23 May, when the east coast was hit by huge rainfall, just 21% of evening peak trains were on time.
Rain leads to several problems: subsidence on to the lines, as well as crowding into middle carriages as passengers huddle under cover in the central part of platforms.
Bird says she now looks at the weather to decide whether she should commute or work from home.
'If there is rain or wind, then often there's a line down. I know what the problem is: Cockle Creek station [on the Newcastle line] just floods really easily and that then leads to delays further down the line. It doesn't feel like they are being upfront about what's going wrong,' she says.
Communication is another bugbear of commuters.
'My train stops multiple times and is often about half an hour to 40 minutes late to the final station,' says Liam, who commutes to and from Springwood in the Blue Mountains.
'There's some very quiet message. One of the days there was someone on tracks but delays are a very common occurrence.'
Clifton says Sydney Trains relies on phone calls and paper instructions to tell train drivers what to do – such as skipping stations or terminating early. Digital systems are being introduced.
The Central Coast and the Blue Mountains lines have seen a significant decline in the punctuality of their services since Labor was elected in 2023.
The Central Coast line was on time 60 to 70% during 2024-25, with some weeks as low as 35%.
On the Blue Mountains line, most weeks only 45 to 65% of trains run on time.
The South Coast line's punctuality is also deteriorating while there has been some improvement on the Southern Highlands line.
Clifton says NSW has struggled to provide a reliable service between cities partly because the lines are so complicated, with 'lots of old tunnels and bridges'.
The other part of the equation is maintenance, he says.
Sydney Trains admits maintenance backlogs are at 'a new maximum', which means temporary speed restrictions are now in place on parts of the network.
A spokesperson says the maintenance backlog built up during the industrial action from September 2024 to February 2025.
It's not the same story elsewhere. In Europe, Switzerland topped the list with 95% of its long distance trains arriving within five minutes of the timetabled time in 2024. The Netherlands was not far behind with 94%, followed by Belgium at 90%, France 89%, and Italy 80%.
Surprisingly Germany, once a poster child for train punctuality, has achieved only 54% on the same measure, with commentators saying the deterioration is due to ageing infrastructure and a lack of investment.
Sydney Trains points to the new Mariyung trains as one of the investments the Minns government has made.
'New trains can certainly help once the new fleet is introduced but the teething problems can last at least a year or so,' Clifton says.
The transport minister, John Graham, says: 'Settling the rail agreement means all energy can now be focused on reliability. We have got that message loud and clear.'
But Clifton says Graham and other members of the government should experience the train system for themselves.
'If they did, they'd see the delays, the breakdowns, the frustration… The truth is Labor thinks they can take these seats for granted.'