A train full of passengers bound for Kiama ended up in the rail yards just past Redfern station in early August - and a commuter said it almost happened again weeks later.
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Mark Southcott regularly commutes from Thirroul to Sydney for work and, while he said the trains are regularly running late, the 8.23pm train to Kiama on August 9 threw up a new experience.
Once it left Redfern, instead of heading to the South Coast, it ended up on a very different rail line.
"Next thing you know, we're in the yards - there's barbed wire fences on one side and people in hi-vis vests looking at the window asking 'why is there a train with 200 people on it parked in the yard?'," Mr Southcott said.
"We're in a dead-end yard with trains parked all around us."
He said the train was parked there for 15 minutes before being driven back to Redfern so as to get on the right track - adding around 50 minutes to an already long train ride to the Illawarra
Unbelievably, on August 29, Mr Southcott said it almost happened again.
Mr Southcott said that train had been heading towards the dead-end siding before it stopped and headed back to Redfern.
He said those trains heading for the South Coast line arrived at Central with eight carriages; there they were spilt in two, with four cars carrying passengers to the Illawarra and the others sent to the rail yards in preparation for the Sydney morning peak.
Mr Southcott suggested that signallers somewhere on the network may have mixed up the four-car trains and sent those with passengers on them to the yard by mistake.
"Someone has diverted the train in the wrong direction," he said. "The driver can't steer it, so somebody signalled the train and sent it to the yards."
While no-one was hurt in these incidents, Mr Southcott said it raised the concern that a train could be sent at speed into a dead-end, or even into the path of another train.
"I know that's probably over-dramatic - they'll say there's so much safety built into it," Mr Southcott said. "But I do fear that something stupid's going to happen."
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said Sydney Trains was looking into why the August 9 train was sent to a stabling yard.
"Trains can divert into sidings for many reasons including for safety matters relating to mechanical or electrical faults," the spokeswoman said.
She said no similar incident occurred on August 29, "however, Sydney Trains understands the train to Kiama experienced a minor delay due a technical issue on the train ahead of it".
The spokeswoman said the signalling system was designed to be "a fail-safe system to ensure trains don't collide".
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
