The trains will keep rolling across NSW – for the next few weeks at least – after crisis talks and a major government concession averted strikes.
Trains from Newcastle to Wollongong and across Sydney were due to lay dormant from Friday morning until Sunday night amid an escalating pay dispute between the state government and rail workers.
The largest rail shutdown in living memory would have caused commuter chaos and an estimated $50 million dent in the economy.
But late on Thursday, word of a short-term peace agreement filtered out of the talks between union heavyweights and government and onto platforms and carriages.
The Labor government agreed in part to the rail union’s demand to run trains 24 hours a day this weekend in return for lifting work bans.
Some lines will run through Thursday night, many on Friday night and most on Saturday night – music to the ears of Pearl Jam and A-League ticketholders.
“It’s not the entire network, so we can still do ongoing maintenance and the bans will not be applied,” Transport Minister Jo Haylen told reporters.
Those 109 work bans, including crew travel limits, have increasingly disrupted the network in recent weeks.
They will be lifted while parties take part in two weeks of intensive bargaining to try to reach a full agreement.
In a message to members, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union said the government had “caved” to avert the “disastrous shutdown (sic) that the media have (been) playing up all week”.
“This is by no means the end but it is now well and truly within sight,” the bulletin said.
Premier Chris Minns and Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey both played key roles in the past 48 hours of negotiations, which the premier suggested were interrupted by little more than sleep and parliamentary question time.
“I apologise for how long it takes but these are long-standing, very difficult, complex negotiations,” he said.
Mr Minns denied his involvement cast a poor light on his minister’s abilities.
“We’re a team – when I need to get a breakthrough, I’ll call in Jo,” he said.
The deal comes against a backdrop of the combined rail unions’ demand for eight per cent pay rises annually – among almost 250 claims.
The government says anything more than 11 per cent across three years is unaffordable.
“Chris Minns says intensive negotiations begin today – what on earth has been happening for the past six months?” Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said on Thursday evening.
“Only when the opposition and the media shame (him) into action, did he finally agree to meet the union.”
Services ran around the clock last weekend to ward off stop-work bans.
In recent days, transport officials tried to draw a line in the sand, stressing that the maintenance disruptions made it unsustainable long-term.
Analysis released on Thursday suggested a three-day strike would cause a hit of at least $50 million to businesses.
The train network moves more than one million people on a typical day.
Industrial action would have impacted many of the 700,000 retail and hospitality workers unable to work from home, unlike white-collar employees.
Business Sydney said some members had already seen booking cancellations because of the threat to public transport.
“It is good that the rail union and the government have stepped back from the abyss,” executive director Paul Nicolaou said.
“However, the threatened industrial action of this week should never have reached such a disturbing point.”
