Sydney commuters have been warned to brace for major disruptions to their travel on Thursday despite unions striking a deal over a new pay agreement, which still has to be voted on by thousands of rail workers.
Just over an hour after the state government said it would be forced to cancel 1300 train services on Thursday, Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Alex Claassens said the terms of a deal had been reached with Sydney Trains over a new three-year agreement.
That offer will be sent to members overnight to allow them to vote by an email poll on whether to accept it by lunchtime on Wednesday.
If they do accept it, the overtime ban on Thursday would be called off, as would the 24-hour strike planned for Monday.
The deal includes a 2.75 per cent annual pay rise, a one-off $1000 payment to each employee and the extension of free travel using Opal cards to private and on-demand buses and the new metro train lines when they are opened in the coming years.
However, it is likely to come too late to avoid major disruptions to train services on Thursday as the government has already had to push the button on contingency plans.
Mr Claassens said he would not pre-empt his members' call on whether to accept the new deal, which would be up to them.
"There has been some progress made and we now have an offer on the table that the RTBU is prepared to take to our members," he said.
"The negotiations today have gone a long way to address those concerns that we have raised. I am hopeful that by lunchtime [on Wednesday] I will have a clear indication from my members as to whether they are prepared to suspend the industrial action."
Mr Claassens also said the Transport Minister needed "to be serious about solving this situation without him throwing bombs into it".
"It is not unusual for the Minister to come out and criticise the union and its membership for the work we do," he said.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the deal was a "positive step forward" but he warned "we are not out of the woods yet" because staff still had to vote on it.
"It is going to be an incredible challenge for us to plug services come Thursday. I would hope that we could work with the union leadership ... to make sure we are well placed to provide as many services as possible," he said.
He warned that the government had been forced to "press go" on implementing the equivalent of a Saturday timetable for train services on Thursday.
Mr Constance said everything that had been agreed to in the deal with unions complied with the government's wages policy for public servants of a cap of 2.5 per cent a year increases in pay.
There would be "appropriate employee-related savings" to offset the fact that the offer to rail workers was a quarter of a percentage point higher than the cap, he said.
About 1.3 million passengers travel on Sydney's rail network each weekday, underscoring the extent of the disruptions caused to the city's transport by industrial action.
About 2900 train services would typically be operated on a Thursday. The implementation of what is effectively a Saturday timetable means just 1600 services will run. The impact of the contingency plans will extend beyond suburban services to regional services.
About 500 buses will be put on standby at key locations around Sydney to avoid overcrowding at train stations such as Town Hall and Wynyard in the central city.
The government faces the added challenge a day later on Friday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to travel into central parts of the city for Australia Day celebrations.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Claassens said the sticking point in the government's offer had been clauses such as those for the master roster, which allowed staff to be called in at short notice from leave, the amount of time staff were put on base pay after an incident, and the use of contractors such as cleaners.
The breakthrough in the talks come a day after 16 people were injured when a Waratah train ploughed into a buffer stop at Richmond station in Sydney's outer west.
Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said it was still too early to determine the cause of the crash but he emphasised that there was "no indication there is anything wrong" with the rail operator's fleet of Waratah trains.
