A damning review into a major Sydney train disruption earlier this year has found maintenance issues and gaps in communication contributed to the entirely avoidable incident.

Council of the City of Sydney

A review into a significant Sydney train disruption has revealed that a single broken wire near Homebush led to extensive delays and left a million passengers stranded. The review found that the response to the incident was uncoordinated, with delays in evacuating passengers and starting repairs, as well as shortcomings in public communication.

The problematic wire had been detected by high-tech analysis years earlier but was not scheduled for repair, and a recent visual inspection failed to identify the fault. In response, Sydney Trains will implement laser detectors for inspections and invest $400 million in upgrades, though further disruptions are expected as repairs are carried out.

Review finds wire fault created days-long train disruption

A million passengers left stranded and abandoned as Sydney Trains failed Sydney. Passengers were not put first during that 48 hours. A damming review has exposed how a single broken wire triggered a myriad of problems. This incident just took way too long to resolve. It started when a thin wire fell onto a train near Homebush on May 20. The review finding no good reason it took more than an hour to start removing the 300 passengers. The last one off three hours after the train stopped. The response to the incident was not coordinated and had gaps in process. Poor leadership and confusion then saw the train not removed for a further four hours and access for repair crews delayed until 3am. Their work beginning 13 hours after the wire broke, even though they were efficient, it was too late. It should have been repaired that evening and we should have been running a normal timetable the next day. Instead, passengers were left in the dark, poor public communication slammed as disturbing. What is perhaps more alarming, however, is this problematic thin wire was first detected through high tech analysis back in 2020, but it was not listed for repair. A visual inspection using binoculars only weeks before the failure also failed to pick it up. The incident at Homebush really was the result of human error. Now laser detectors will replace binoculars for inspections and $400 million will be poured into upgrades. Severe weather and industrial action blamed for undoing improvements from last year's $70 million repair blitz. High risk defects have gone up to a record high under Chris Minns and Sydney commuters who are suffering. And the new repairs won't be pain free. This will mean some disruption to the travelling public, but we need to do it. Lachlan Kennedy, 10 News.

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Manhattan

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Kyiv

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Heathrow Airport

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Breakdown