Sydney train delays LIVE updates: Industrial action continues for rest of working week; multiple services cancelled as destructive weather lashes city

Further rain and a potential thunderstorm could put even more strain on the busy State Emergency Service.

NSW SES chief superintendent Dallas Burnes said he was particularly concerned for holidaymakers in the state’s north, which is set to be lashed by rain.

“We’re expecting further thunderstorms today, and we’ve also got concerns about our weather front that’s going to impact the northern part of the Mid North Coast and the north-east of the state over the next couple of days, a lot of rain coming there,” he said on Today.

Burnes said the storms were so widespread across the state on Wednesday evening, it made things even more difficult for volunteers.

“It does make it difficult, because we can’t move teams from one zone to another to support the zone that’s impacted,” he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a high chance of showers this morning in Sydney with the chance of a thunderstorm. The rain is predicted to continue into Friday.

Work bans, particularly from the Electrical Trades Union, are forcing Sydney Trains to operate the network on a “minute-by-minute” basis.

Jas Tumber, the executive director of rail operations, said on 2GB that the hundreds of work bans in place from the combined unions are making it difficult to recover when things go wrong on the network – like during the wild storm and when urgent repairs were needed but not completed on Tuesday night.

“Our ability to operate and maintain the network is really challenged with all of these work bans in place. When we lose critical assets, like we have done at Homebush and Bondi [Junction] , that’s a real big impact for us,” he said.

“We’ve got bans in place to really hinder us from recovering the service, altering the service live on the day. And that, again, is very challenging.

“The ability to operate and maintain the railway in its entirety becomes a very, very challenging, day by day, hour by hour, minute-by-minute proposition,” Tumber said.

Buses are replacing trains between Lidcombe and Olympic Park this morning.

“Operational issues” from the union work bans have been blamed for the shutdown of the T7 line.

There was confusion within the State Emergency Service overnight when an influx of calls led to a significant wait for Sydneysiders trying to contact the volunteer organisation.

Earlier today we reported the SES Ku-Ring-Gai branch said phone lines were “temporarily overloaded” during Wednesday night’s destructive weather, meaning people in need of assistance were unable to make contact.

SES headquarters have now said that while there was a significant wait, the phones were not “temporarily overloaded”.

The organisation received 2,250 calls on Wednesday night, involving 1,800 incidents. More than 600 of those calls came from Sydney, with significant storm damage across the city.

The storm ripped the roof from a unit block at Carlingford, impacting 19 people living in four apartments within the complex. There was also a tree down on a hospital at St Leonards and a tree on a car at Castle Hill, both of which have since been addressed.

At midnight last night, the SES’ Ku-ring-gai Unit, which is based on the upper north shore, said that it had received 63 calls for assistance for things like fallen trees and fallen and low powerlines. As of 12am, the unit had addressed 12.

Made up largely of volunteers, the SES is responsible for cleaning up storm damage.

This post has been updated to reflect new information from the SES.

Sydney commuters were experiencing delays of about 20 minutes on all lines across the rail network at 6.30am on Thursday, which is expected to worsen throughout the day.

New figures reveal the extent of the chaos on Wednesday, showing that 1913 services were cancelled, and more than 95 per cent of trains delayed or cancelled. Fewer than 5 per cent of trains arrived within five minutes of their operated timetable.

With the chaos extending into a second day, Premier Chris Minns has returned from holidays and is expected to address the media this morning.

The T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line was the worst affected on Wednesday with delays reaching almost five hours.

However, some workers completed maintenance on critical infrastructure at Bondi Junction overnight, which has allowed equipment to be certified. As a result, delays will be less severe on Thursday on the T4 line, although it set to be affected by flow-on impacts from delays and cancellations on other lines across the city.

A ban by the Electrical Trades Union on locking and unlocking padlocks has meant that maintenance at Homebush station was not completed for a second night. The incomplete works at Homebush will again cause severe disruptions to the T1, T2, T3 and T8 lines.

Work on maintenance at Gosford which was meant to start at midday on Wednesday also remains incomplete, which will cause significant disruptions to intercity trains on the Newcastle and Central Coast line.

A train needing repairs has stopped services running between Mulgrave and Richmond on the T1 Western and T5 Cumberland lines.

Buses are replacing trains, and delays are expected.

Severe weather brought an already crippled train network to its knees last night.

Multiple stations including Lidcombe and Cabramatta were without power last night. The Town Hall concourse flooded, and trees on overhead wires at Normanhurst and Bell.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said all trains returned to stable yards by midnight last night in a bid to reduce the impact of the storms and to better prepare for services today.

Commuters avoiding the train pain by taking the roads didn’t escape the storm impacts – flooding and fallen trees closed roads across the city.