Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland puts it bluntly: “We did not take care of passengers”.
The report spells out how passengers were failed on May 20 and 21.
The “incident train” came to a standstill about 50 metres short of Homebush station at 2.56pm but passengers were not removed until three hours later.
The incident train which triggered two days of chaos. Credit: Anthony Segaert
Four other trains were left stranded between stations: two within 300 metres of Leppington station, one 720m short of Flemington, and a fourth with one carriage on platform seven of Strathfield station.
Passengers were taken off the Strathfield train within minutes, apart from one passenger with a mobility scooter who left the train almost two hours later. The other three trains arrived at the next station and passengers disembarked within an hour.
For the “incident train”, passengers were on board for three hours and were left for long stretches without communication.
One passenger described how about 300 people were stuck with no water, no power and no air-conditioning. For the final 45 minutes, there was no communication and many people had lost battery power in their mobiles and needed the toilet.
“In the Panel’s view, many aspects of [the passenger]’s experience are simply unacceptable,” the report said.
“Detraining took far too long, with the negative effects of this experience compounded by the absence of meaningful customer care – including more assistance in completing their journeys once passengers disembarked. We are also of the view that, with their consent, customer details should have been taken to allow subsequent follow-up.”
