Inside Central Station

Every great city lives... Happy New Year!

..and breathes through its railway.

And for Sydney, Australia's biggest city,

the heart is Central station.

Yeah, this is the office alright.

Never a dull moment.

Every day is a different scenario. Please stand beside the doors.

Let the customers alight first.

We've only got two minutes. Let's load from the front.

1.3 million journeys...

..every day.

And the brains of it all,

the Rail Operations Centre.

Sydney Trains security. The ROC.

It's Vaughan from security control. Who's this?

Icon onsite. Yeah, police? We've got an incident.

Play forward.

If I can see him, he shouldn't be there. He's trespassing.

The concern is that the male is intoxicated.

See if you can see anything suspicious.

This is the network like you've never seen it before...

! (BLEEP)!

We're gonna have a lot... a lot of delays.

The weather, then we had the broken-down freight train.

Our priority is to get a train every three, four, five minutes.

Do nothing until I speak to you.

..an access-all-areas...

No! (GASPS) ..two, one, firing!

..capturing every moment...

Ha! Look at that.

New South Wales Railway Band. Formed in 1896.

..and the soul of the network...

I'm really proud to be part of it.

I just found him.

Look, is he breathing?

..the people.

Let's go!

Another day in the life of the railway. (LAUGHS)

Alright, guys. Let's go.

For your safety, please remain

behind the yellow line at all times.

Coming up...

Happy New Year!

At the ROC... Oh, he's off again.

..Tim deals with a violent situation.

Oh, he's just assaulted another male.

The biggest ever Harbour Bridge upgrade.

Gotta make do what we got. I know it's hard.

10 years in the planning. Sorry, mate.

Just 10 days to complete.

But a huge storm...

..puts it all in jeopardy.

Mitch, lightning.

Oh! We're (BLEEP).

Five, four, three, two, one!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve 2020.

Oh, look at that.

Welcome to 2021!

Normally, millions would crowd the Sydney Harbour foreshore,

choking trains to get there.

But, thanks to COVID-19, tonight, there are none.

There's nothing you can say. It's just spectacular.

For New South Wales Transport boss Howard Collins,

there's nowhere he'd rather be.

Not too smoky.

Now, they shut the road bridge,

but what is fantastic is the trains keep running.

As the fireworks fade, Howard knows every train on the bridge

is about to grind to a halt.

We're... Oh.

So we're all down here

hopefully to meet the Minister.

We're just keeping... we're keeping a radar.

Normally, I get a call from the Minister or his chief of staff

saying, "Howard, we're already here."

So... I'll just double-check. But...

Everyone in the transport department is nervous.

The Minister is about to announce a massively significant event.

Today we're announcing a... a major piece of work

in relation to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We are going to shut the bridge to trains

for the first 10 days of next year.

Repairing the bridge's rail line will cost $80 million

and cause massive disruption.

Has there ever been a period of 10 days

when it's been shut to trains before in its 88-year histories? No.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the main link

between the city's north and south,

the artery bringing workers into the CBD.

Yeah, not a problem.

Send the machine back and I'll send it up.

5am, January 1.

Hello. How youse going? Good.

Good, good, good. How you doing?

The Harbour Bridge's 88-year-old rail line is being torn up

and a new one put down.

Can we send him back up, please, with the batter bucket?

The most ambitious ever repair of the bridge's rail corridor has begun.

OK. That's good. Yeah, 'cause I can't.

I need to go and update the schedule ready for an update.

It must be finished before the working year begins in 10 days.

200,000 commuters normally take the train.

If they're forced into cars, it'll be gridlock.

Copy, Dave Davis. Yeah, mate.

The pressure is immense.

Been working on this job for 10 years, so this is...

..so this is the pinnacle.

So we've had works pretty much...

..we've had teams working over the last sort of

three or four months, 24/7 itself,

getting all the preparation work done,

and now we've got the last 10 days

around the clock to get this works completed.

Glenn is one of three shift coordinators...

What do they need?

..who will share the responsibility to keep the project on track.

From now on, it will run 24/7.

So start unbolting, 12, it's gonna finish at 0400.

Missing the deadline is not an option.

We've got heaps of steel repairs to do.

There's an excess of sort of 9,000 holes

we have to drill and put bolts in.

There's hundreds of locations where we got to do steelwork repairs

and... and plate up.

We're busy.

The main mission is to lay long-lasting precast concrete panels

on the bridge in its approaches.

Before that can happen,

the aged sleepers, bolts and supports must be removed

and the steel below repaired.

To complete the work on time, every task is scheduled to the minute.

Right, rail removed at 11. Yep.

And then transoms will we start coming out from...

11. ..11 until...

Three. Three in the morning. Yeah.

It'll... it'll take more than four hours.

Already, on day one, there are problems.

We just gotta make do what we got. I know it's hard.

Sorry, mate.

Oh, yeah, it's struggling. Is it?

Yeah. You can't up the amps?

No? It's 15 amps.

Yeah, it's 15 amps in there as well.

Using power off the... off the bridge.

They're having trouble. There's not enough power to run their tools.

Can you ask her and find out if there's an issue with their power?

I got Rob... Rob talking to her now.

Power is failing to the crews on the deck.

Copy. Over.

And then there's the weather.

Yeah, weather's a big concern. We're out in the elements here.

We've got rain. We've got wind. There's no cover for us.

We got electrical equipment. Makes things slippery.

And we've already had about an hour of showers... well, good rain today.

Forecasting rain at about six o'clock tomorrow morning.

And then there's rain for the next sort of eight days forecasted.

By lunchtime on day one, the biggest rail project in the bridge's history

is four hours behind,

and there are cloudy skies ahead.

To compensate for the lack of trains,

the transport department is running 170 extra buses every day

from North Sydney into the city.

But the impact of the closure is being felt across the network

as passengers navigate the temporary closure.

Well, I tried to tell him that I'm a comet more than a star, but...

(ON PA) The 4:57 Lidcombe via Bankstown Line service...

While commuter numbers are lower over the holidays,

Central is still buzzing with activity.

You all good? Yeah, good.

Central is the place to be -

I guess for us, the most exciting place to be.

We have the best people working for us,

but we also have wonderful, wonderful customers.

Yeah. You want to hold my hand? Yes.

It's a unique place.

(ON PA) Due to the Sydney Harbour Bridge shutdown,

train services have been affected on several lines.

How are you? Everything alright?

New look?

We're going to send the police down here to have a chat with you. OK?

So just have a seat. Would you like a bottle of water?

Yes?

I'll give you a bottle of water.

So if there's any issues, raise it. We want to help you. Yeah?

She's the biggest and the largest station precinct

that we have in Australia.

This is the most glamorous.

Better than Flinders. Hands down.

Is that good enough for you? It's the one. Huh? Did you like that?

It's the morning of day three on the Harbour Bridge.

After early power problems and rain,

the team is working hard to make up lost time.

Today's day three - this is where

we've got the peak of people out there.

This is when we've got big teams of track crews blasting,

like boilermaking crews, and we've got painting as well.

Yeah, I've got a full one here. Put the full one on top, two short ones.

And then put another full one on top.

There's over 200 people per shift,