Some Sydney commuters are facing long lines for replacement buses after overheard wiring issues caused train delays for the second time in almost as many weeks.
The city-bound service between Gordon and Chatswood on the T1 North Shore Line has been replaced with buses on Tuesday morning.
Sydney Trains said the wiring failed overnight, and services on the T1 line and the T9 Northern Line had been hardest hit.
“We had what’s called a loss of tension in the overhead wire at Chatswood, so the line that powers the train, due to a failure in one of the counterweights,” Sydney Trains CEO Matthew Longland said.
“So we have very heavy weights that hang off to the side that keep the tension, keep the wires held up. One of those counterweights failed last night.
“The counterweights are inspected regularly, so we’ll obviously look at the history of this particular location, whether there was any incident there that was a problem.”
Replacement buses have been made available to morning commuters facing train delays. (ABC News)
Mr Longland said crews had been working through the night to fix the issue.
He told 702 ABC Sydney about 8:30am that primary repairs were “now complete”.
“There’s still a little bit of secondary work to do before the power gets turned on, but we’re targeting later this morning to have the repairs complete, have the lines re-energised, and have trains operating back on the T1 line as normal towards the city,” he said.
Aerial vision shows a train stopped on the tracks at Artarmon on Sydney’s lower north shore. (ABC News)
Passengers have been urged to allow extra travel time.
“We’ve got extra staff on the ground to assist passengers and the peak has flowed well,” Mr Longland said.
“Heading towards the city from Chatswood, obviously Sydney Metro would be the best way to get to the city for people that need to connect into town.”
“For those passengers up at the Hornsby end, we are operating a normal service on the T9 line that runs via Strathfield into the city.”
Second incident in 11 days
A crowd gathered at Chatswood Station. (ABC News: Monish Nand)
Commuters told the ABC they had been packed like sardines, saying the metro could not handle the amount of customers now going on to that service.
“I usually just go to Gordon, just to get to uni, because I go from Gordon and Chatswood, but I had to travel all the way from Chatswood instead. Now I’m late,” one woman said.
“The trains are super unreliable. I’ve been in situations where I’ve had no way to get home before.”
The incident comes less than two weeks after a “freak issue” caused major delays to afternoon services on Friday, August 14.
Hundreds of people had to be assisted off trains after overhead wires came down onto a train.
At the time, Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said “every centimetre of overhead wiring” had been scanned as part of a $2.1 billion uplift of the network.
Crews had been working throughout the night to address the issue this week. (ABC News)
Some bus marshals have been deployed at key stations to help passengers on Tuesday.
“For locals that are travelling into the city, they might be able to also catch a normal scheduled bus service,” Mr Longland said.
“Check on the Opal app because that might be a quicker way rather than lining up for a bus at a train station.”
Changes have been made to the T1 Western Line with some services from Penrith, Emu Plains and Richmond which usually go to Lindfield and Gordon terminating at North Sydney to “reduce some of the congestion on the line where we’re doing the work”.
The Central Coast line has also been impacted, with all trains to the city operating via Strathfield.