“Chaos” – that’s how one commuter described the scenes on Illawarra trains on Thursday morning.
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Not only were the number of services cut in half due to an overtime ban, but the trains were smaller.
Normally eight-car sets take peak-hour commuters to Sydney but on Thursday, two of the three morning trains were just four carriages.
This saw crowded platforms of commuters at Wollongong and North Wollongong forced to squeeze into carriages.
By the time the 6.42am service left North Wollongong station, there were more than 10 people standing in the aisles on each level and the vestibules were full – signs of what Transport for NSW calls “crush load”.
Tempers frayed at Thirroul, where station staff announced there was an express bus to Central.
This prompted a lot of people to leave the crowded train – far more than could fit on the solitary bus.
With at least a half-hour wait while staff got approval for more buses, some commuters vented their displeasure at staff, while others chose to head back to their cars and offered strangers a lift to Sydney.
Some, like Bulli’s Gareth Beaumont, opted to forget about travelling to Sydney – where he was due to interview people for a position – and headed to his firm’s Wollongong office.
“Chaos is the word I chose to use when talking to my boss on the phone this morning,” Mr Beaumont said of Thursday’s peak hour.
Others, like Sean Kendall, was unimpressed that the eight-carriage trains had been cut back to four.
“It’s an indictment on a government that can’t run a full service without using overtime,” Mr Kendall said.