In time for the return to work after the Christmas break, the four-car services leaving Central at 3.24pm and 3.54pm will be doubled to eight carriages.

These changes mean all South Coast services from Sydney between 3pm and 6pm will now be eight carriages.

The eight Oscar carriages will come from the 5.46pm South Coast service, which from Monday will be made up of Tangara carriages.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward claimed it took a long time to find the extra carriages.

“On the peak periods, all the rolling stock is on the rails,” Mr Ward said.

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“We’re using all of the carriages we have to get people around the network.

“We can’t add new carriages to services unless we have them to allocate in peak periods. Because the New Intercity Fleet is hitting the rails now we have the capacity to do so.”

For several years commuters have complained about crowded conditions on those two services from Central heading to Kiama.

With each service only having four carriages it has meant some Illawarra commuters having to stand until as far as Sutherland.

Government data showed as many as 16 people standing in each of the carriages.

The situation was so bad it sparked two separate petitions, one of which came from Mr Ward.

“Having experienced the crowding on both of these services personally I was determined to make sure that we made changes to accommodate much more relaxed and comfortable journeys for people travelling long distances to the South Coast,” he said.