Almost three-quarters of rail defects have been repaired as part of a year-long maintenance blitz that has been hampering Sydney commuters every weekend.
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NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the $97 million maintenance project - forecast in June as a "year of pain" - was ahead of schedule, but she did not specify when the work would be finished.
"We have removed 70 per cent of the defects that we inherited from the former government," she told reporters on Friday.
More than 70 temporary train speed restrictions across the Sydney Trains rail network have been lifted, with seven remaining.
Further work over the coming weekend will get into the nitty-gritty, with some of network's 780 maintenance workers examining overhead wiring by hand.
"There's nothing that beats the human eye and the hands-on inspections that we do," Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said.
"These weekends are really important to make sure that we can keep on top of any maintenance repair issues before they create incidents for customers."
The repairs were critical to restoring public confidence in the transport system, Ms Haylen said.
The removal of the restrictions meant trains would be able to run faster and more reliably on the network, she added.
The government previously said about 80 per cent of the city's trains were running on time but that figure should be 95 per cent.
The maintenance blitz follows an expert report from April that identified almost 2000 high-priority defects and the need for around 3700 repairs, upgrades and refurbishments.
Work will be undertaken on varying parts of the network each weekend, when buses will replace trains and delays can be expected.
Australian Associated Press
