Macquarie Fields MP Anoulack Chanthivong has slammed the Liberal Government after it was revealed that Sydney trains are running later than ever, with peak hour delays recorded for almost 80 per cent of June. This equates to only four weekdays last month that Sydney Trains met its on-time running target.

“Minister Constance’s new timetable is off the rails. He has failed to properly resource the bungled train timetable changes and we’ve had enough,” Mr Chanthivong said.

“Daily last-minute cancellations, trains running consistently late, overcrowded and non-airconditioned carriages are all part and parcel of this Government’s diabolical timetable.

“Many of my constituents are forced to change trains at Glenfield, when direct services once ran directly from Macarthur through to Liverpool and Parramatta. It’s a retrograde step that is unfair and resulting in longer travel times for local commuters when they could be spending precious time with their families.

“One of my constituents was more than 30 minutes late to work due to the train timetable debacle, which is completely unacceptable. Yet, despite the endless barrage of complaints to Sydney Trains and Transport for NSW, this Government continues to peddle the same old spin and the Minister continues to turn a blind eye.  

“It’s simply not good enough and local commuters deserve better and they deserve a fair go. They are tired of being treated as if they don’t exist.”

Mr Chanthivong also questioned why the Minister had failed to deliver on his promise to provide 8 car sets on the T5 service. Meanwhile, local commuters are squashed daily into tiny 4 car sets. Further highlighting the absurdity of the bungled timetable is the fact that 8 car sets have been spotted on the T5 line on weekends, when the greater need is during weekday peak times.

“Local commuters are at their wit’s end and all they want is for this Liberal Government to fix the debacle and get our services running on time and back on track.”

The new timetable was introduced in November 2017 yet the Berejiklian Government has promised for months that it would ‘tweak’ changes to improve services for commuters. Sydney Trains punctuality target is for 92 per cent of trains to arrive and depart within five minutes of the scheduled timetable in the Sydney CBD between 6am and 10am, and between 3pm and 7pm.

Train punctuality on weekdays:

*New timetable introduced **New timetable tweaked