Commuters will travel free on Sydney trains during a busy football finals weekend, but a late pause to industrial action will still lead to delays and timetable headaches.
After failing to reach a breakthrough in emergency talks with the NSW government, the Rail, Tram, and Bus Union launched work bans across Sydney trains, including refusing to staff the extra services needed for a marquee weekend of events.
Late on Thursday, the government announced weekend trips would be free - meeting a key union demand of 50-cent fares and halting key elements of the industrial action.
However, the spectre of further disruption in the coming weeks still looms as workers call for a major pay increase and for construction to be shelved on a planned metro conversion of an existing rail line.
Premier Chris Minns said his government would continue negotiating, but it was prepared to take a financial hit so that people could get to football games over the weekend.
Unions NSW assistant secretary and lead negotiator Thomas Costa confirmed trains would be staffed as needed while the free-travel offer was in place.
"Whether the trains run as normal or not will be up to management and their ability to manage the timetables," he said.
While industrial action has been shelved, some train delays are possible. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
The rail union's opposition to the conversion of a stretch of the Bankstown line to driverless metro is running in parallel to an enterprise agreement claim for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years and a 35-hour work week.
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said there would still be disruptions over the weekend as officials worked through last-minute schedule changes.
"There are still some work bans in place which impact the way we respond to incidents and the types of timetables we can operate on," he said.
"Because of this industrial action in place, there may be some service cancellations."Â
Sydney will host NRL and AFL finals - including the Swans' sold-out game against Port Adelaide at the SCG - and the Bledisloe Cup rugby union fixture from Friday night through the weekend.
The free rail services will run across the whole rail network, including the metro, on Saturday and Sunday.
Business Sydney says the rail disruptions could not come at a worse time. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
The union is still threatening to shut down the entire Bankstown T3 train line - from Liverpool in Sydney's southwest to the city centre - if the Sydenham-Bankstown section is closed as planned for metro conversion on September 30.
The government has warned union bans could delay the work at a cost to taxpayers of $100 million a month.
Mr Costa said there were "serious safety concerns" about metro services on the 150-year-old line, which ran at ground level and put workers at risk of being struck.
He denied the campaign was really about an objection to driverless trains, despite the union's website describing the conversion as an "attack on working people" and "automation for the sake of automation".
Mr Minns said the safety concerns would be addressed by the national regulator not the government, but he would take the union at their word that their primary concern was safety.
"I'm not a train expert - there's an independent regulator who's responsible for signing off on every public transport program across the entire country," he said.
Labor has ruled out cancelling the project, which it inherited from the former coalition government.