Commuters travelling on the North Shore rail line are facing the prospect of disruptive trackwork and replacement buses every weekend for an entire year.

Member for Willoughby Tim James said he would strongly advocate for local commuters to ensure the Government minimises disruption and keeps us moving.

“I will always support works to keep our rail system maintained and reliable, but what is proposed is highly disruptive for commuters.” Mr James said.

“I have sought urgent briefings from the Minister for Transport and Transport for NSW to understand how the Government’s plan will affect local commuters on the ground.”

“So many of us rely on the train line to move about and I’m concerned at the impact this proposal will have including on weekend workers travelling to places such as Royal North Shore Hospital.”

“The government needs to clearly explain how they will provide an adequate bus replacement service given the current bus driver shortage affecting that industry.”

“As the Government’s own review confirms, the maintenance backlog cited to justify this disruption has come about ‘due to the impact of Protected Industrial Action” unions undertook last year with Labor’s support.”

At the end of 2021 there was a backlog of under 200 Infrastructure points requiring inspection. At the end of 2022 there were over 1400.

Rail incidents at peak times were at its lowest level in nearly a decade prior to the Industrial action in 2022 and have risen since then because the unions stopped doing maintenance.

“Commuters are now paying the price for the union’s action and the Government must do all it can to minimise the impact of these works.”

“The Transport Minister said there would be no impact to services and has already broken that promise.” Mr James noted.