Safety concerns on Sydney Metro rail lines were once again in the spotlight last week following an incident involving a carriage door left open while travelling through the underground at high speed. The incident – now being investigated by the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) – is the latest in a string of public safety failures from Sydney Metro, highlighting significant flaws in the operator’s emergency management plans. Read more about the issue here.
Members will recall from SitRep 53/2024 that Metro has also failed to provide FRNSW with a permanent equivalent capability to that of the Rail Fire & Emergency Unit (RFE), a small but important unit within Sydney Trains with specialist emergency response capability. An FRNSW business case designed to fund this specific capability gap was agreed to be presented to Treasury by the end of 2024, an undertaking tied to the ONRSR accreditation process. However, following recent Budget Estimates hearings, it is now clear that little to no progress has been made. Members can see a video of the Estimates exchange here.
While the RFE continues to respond on Sydney Metro lines under a temporary Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the operator, it remains imperative that the NSW Government resolve the issue of a permanent capability, ensuring that appropriate resources and funding grow concurrently with state significant infrastructure and new risk.
The FBEU has requested an urgent briefing from the FRNSW Capability team and a meeting with the Minister for Transport. Sydney Metro will now also provide all after-action reviews from rail incidents to the Estimates Committee for review. In the meantime, members are encouraged to report related issues to the FBEU Office.
EMERGENCY SERVICES BUDGET ESTIMATES
Minister Dib and agencies fronted Budget Estimates today to face questions about the performance of the Emergency Services Sector. Following concerns raised by the FBEU about administration of the State Rescue Board (SRB) – detailed here in SitRep 12/2025 – the Minister today stated the SRB will be considering a new risk framework for rescue arrangements. As usual, the devil will be in the detail and the FBEU will be paying close attention to such discussions.
The Minister was also willing to acknowledge the ‘structural underfunding’ of FRNSW occurring over more than a decade but stopped short of an admission that agency duplication across the emergency services sector required urgent review. More to be said about this in the coming weeks.
