Train Repair Blitz ‘More Than a Lick of Paint’

Defective trains causing commuter chaos are being targeted in a maintenance blitz aimed at sprucing up New South Wales’ (NSW)’s faulty fleet. Train faults spiked 28 percent in the past year causing 2,445 delays and 595 service cancellations, the state government said. Officials on June 28 launched the state’s largest co-ordinated maintenance program, with the removal of 2,037 defects the first target of the $35 million (US$23.4 million) project. All 11 models of trains will be upgraded and 1,622 carriages will be cleaned and painted. But Premier Chris Minns said the investment was “more than a lick of paint” and would ensure less services were scrapped because of dodgy equipment....