For several weeks now, observers of NSW politics have detected a shift in the language Premier Chris Minns has used about public transport. Minns has always been cautious about raising commuter hopes that his government would green-light major new rail projects, arguing the government has its hands full delivering the mammoth lines already under construction. Old and crumbling: Sydney Trains has the highest number of “high-priority defects” on record. Credit: Oscar ColmanOf late, though, the premier has offered up a new and even more valid excuse for not committing to grand new schemes: the need to spend much more energy and money on improving the existing heavy rail system. Minns warned us the report – which reviewed the calamitous May 2025 rail fail in which most of Sydney’s heavy rail system ground to a halt for two days – would make for “sobering reading”.