Sydney faces commuter chaos if a deal isn’t reached by Sunday

Sydneysiders could see industrial action once again if if a deal between the NSW government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union isn’t reached this week. Commuters are facing travel chaos next week as the union’s interim ceasefire ends on Sunday. RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes said “action” was set to commence on Monday. Mr Warnes told The Daily Telegraph negotiations had been going well, but the union had hit “a stumbling block” with Transport for NSW. He said if the bureaucracy of Transport for NSW continues to prevent them from reaching a deal, the worst case scenario is that life for commuters will become “increasingly more difficult” from Monday to Wednesday. While the union was previously negotiating for trains to run 24 hours each day from Thursday to Saturday nights, it has since backed down and is now focusing on reducing a kilometre ban. This ban from the union will gradually prevent its members from travelling over a certain distance each day on suburban and intercity trains. Mr Warnes said pay is still the RTBU’s key concern and that the union had identified enough savings and productivity benefits to justify a fair pay rise for its members. Premier Chris Minns was unable to predict when transport chaos would come to an end, saying that he “can’t promise a breakthrough”. “Whilst we want to get an agreement with the union we can’t do it at any cost because the cost will eventually be borne somehow by taxpayers in the state.” Sydney’s train network almost came to a halt in November as a result of failed negotiations, but were avoided at the last moment after crisis talks between the union and government.