Why is sorry the hardest word? Sydney owed apology for train shutdown disaster

OPINION: The saying goes that the buck stops at the top.

Even if bosses aren't directly to blame when something goes wrong, they should face the music when it does.

It stands for our politicians too. They may not personally be to blame, but Ministers, and ultimately the Prime Minister or Premier, should be held accountable when mistakes are made.

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Why is it then, that those at the top so often get off scot-free? And why, when a stuff up does happen, does sorry seems to be the hardest word?

Sydney's entire train network was ground to a halt for a full day last week, with no warning, leaving commuters stranded and roads gridlocked.

The stoppage also happened on a day Sydney and Australia were meant to celebrating.

We were finally opened to the world, with the first international tourists since the start of the pandemic.

University students were heading back to campus for the first time in two years. And workers were welcome back into the office with the easing of Covid restrictions.

Or at least that was the plan.

Instead, the city was in chaos. It was easier to fly to Sydney from Los Angeles, than get from the airport to your hotel.

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Students were told to stay at home and go back to online learning. The advice was, if you could avoid it, don't travel anywhere.

So much for a celebration. It was all part of an ongoing industrial dispute, and the volume on the blame game was dialled up to 11.

The unions blamed the government. The government blamed the bureaucrats. And long-suffering commuters were left as the meat in the sandwich.

The NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and his Minister responsible for Transport David Elliott are both adamant they had no idea the trains were being shut down.

Incredibly, the Minister later admitted that even if Transport Department bosses who made the decision to stop the trains close to midnight had tried to call him, he would not have answered the call. He was tucked up in bed asleep.

He'd clocked off, even though talks over the industrial dispute were getting testy and there was areal threat things could turn bad.

Nurses and midwives had walked off the job over pay and conditions the week before.

The unions were standing firm across a range of industries, but in the end, even the union was caught off guard by the snap decision to stop the trains.

Train drivers turned up to work, only to be told the trains weren't running because the bureaucrats decided it wasn't safe.

Grandmothers could be stranded without a certain timetable they claimed. Instead, it wasn't just grandmothers stranded, but everyone, with not a single train running across the entire city.

The NSW Premier and Transport Minister may not have been responsible.

The decision was made by their senior bureaucrats, who had even been doing modelling of the impact of a two-week stoppage, rather than a single day.

They may not be to blame, but the Government looks like it's asleep at the wheel. Like an episode of Yes Minister, it's the bureaucrats running the show.

The Transport Minister and all Ministers have however since been reminded by the Premier that they must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

But a simple sorry wouldn't go astray.

Despite the major inconvenience experienced by so many across the city, no one has been held accountable.

Commuters are just expected to cop it on the chin and move on.

At the end of a sorry saga, no one's even bothered to say sorry. It really is the hardest word.

2GB Afternoons with Deborah Knight is on from midday to 3pm from Monday to Friday. You can subscribe to the podcast here.