HUNTER rail staff will strike at the end of August as part of rolling industrial action kicking off across the state from next week.
On August 23, workers across Newcastle, Hunter and Central Coast lines will strike between 10am and 4pm.
Along with services in and around Newcastle, including Hamilton and Broadmeadow, strikes will occur on the Hunter lines to Dungog and Scone.
Trains to Sydney through the Central Coast will also be affected by the strike, which is part of industrial action being rolled out across NSW from August 7 to 31.
Strikes will occur in the southern parts of Sydney to Wollongong on August 10, Sydney and south-east NSW on August 17, with locations to be decided for August 25.
Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW Secretary, Alex Claassens, said rolling strikes will allow services in most of the state to continue as usual.
"We've done a lot of work to ensure that our actions will impact management and the government and not the travelling public," Mr Claassens said.
"There's no reason why, with some planning and common-sense, trains cannot continue to run relatively smoothly while our actions are happening.
"We understand that commuters will be frustrated because we're frustrated too. We're hopeful that the NSW Government listens to commuters and workers and finally puts safety first."
As well as the strikes, the RTBU will issue bans on the handing out of fines and cautions, cleaners using vacuum cleaners or scrubbing machines, trains that do not meet maintenance centre standards and foreign-made trains at various stages throughout the month.
On August 13, station staff will be instructed to leave gates open at all times.
The strikes come on the back of a long-running industrial fight between the rail union and NSW government over a new enterprise agreement and a Korean-made Intercity train fleet.
The government, which argues the fleet is safe, has promised to spend $264 million to modify the stock but the union wants written confirmation.
The RTBU said further protected industrial action would take place after the government failed to unlink its pledge to fix the fleet's issues from rail workers' wages and conditions.
"We've done everything by the book in order to get these vital safety changes, but the government is refusing to listen," he said.
"This is our only way of making sure that the safety changes that need to be made will actually be made."
