Article: Railway delays test sports fans

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Railway delays test sports fans

Railway delays test sports fans

The Daily Telegraph

August 22, 2009 12:00am

THOUSANDS of sports fans will be delayed for up to an hour while travelling to tonight's Bledisloe Cup clash, with RailCorp once again scheduling trackwork during a major event.

RailCorp has scheduled work on the Western, Blue Mountains and Hunter lines for the weekend - despite selling integrated game and transport tickets to many of the expected 80,000 fans heading to ANZ Stadium.

The poor timing comes just two months after the Government set up the Transport Ministry's transport co-ordination group to bring together its various agencies to more effectively manage the city of Sydney's transport.

Despite warning of delays, RailCorp would not comment on the scheduling decision, instead referring all questions to the transport co-ordination group.

A transport group spokeswoman yesterday defended the weekend work and said it was essential for service reliability.

"There is trackwork virtually every weekend because it is necessary to upgrade the track," she said.

She said that work had been scheduled at weekends and at night to minimise passenger delays during the weekday peak.
She said it was not possible to ensure work avoided a major event as, "Sydney is an events city so there are events on virtually every weekend."

The work means buses will replace trains on the Western Line between Penrith and Blacktown and on the Blue Mountains Line between Lithgow and Blacktown.

Upgrades to the Hunter line means all weekend trains will not stop at Mindaribba station.

This is not the first time transport for a major event has been plunged into chaos by trackwork. Scheduled work was carried out during last year's NRL Grand Final, the 2007 AFL Grand Final re-match and the Golden Slipper.

Last night trains were packed as the afternoon peak-hour clashed with another sporting event crowd as Wests Tigers and Parramatta fans headed to Moore Park to watch one of the season's most-anticipated games.

And footy fans travelling from Newcastle also had to catch buses to Broadmeadow because of trackwork.

Yesterday, RailCorp warned Blue Mountains residents coming to the Bledisloe to allow an extra hour of travelling time and those using the Western Line should allow an extra half an hour.

There will be direct services between Olympic Park and Central and extra services on the Newcastle, Central Coast, North Shore and Inner West lines.