SYDNEY, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- A train breakdown in the early hours of Friday morning has sent Sydney's entire transport network into meltdown, with thousands of commuters traveling through the Harbour city's Central Business District stranded for hours amid a backlog of rail services.
With the logjam still disrupting the transit network throughout the afternoon, Sydney Trains Chief Executive Howard Collins told Sydneysiders to leave work early in order to avoid the chaos.
"If you need to travel home tonight - if you've got an urgent appointment or you need to see your kids, look at some other alternatives," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We're doing our best, but a big railway like this, with all the interconnections, may take some time."
Describing Sydney's rail network as "ancient," he said a loose hatch and overhead wires were to blame for this morning's incident.
"Because we've got a pretty ancient system, we have to send people down into tunnels to pull old-fashioned switches to turn the power off just at this platform," Collins explained.
Although the repairs were completed by around 9:00 a.m. local time and replacement bus services were implemented to ease the congestion, it did little to halt the massive commuter queues which built up around the city.
To vent their frustration, furious travellers took to social media to share their horror journeys.
"Welcome to Sydney. If it rains the trains stop. If it's too hot the trains stop. Electrical work at Town Hall Station - The whole damn network stops," Twitter user Maddalena Scordia said.
One commuter looked to avoid public transport altogether, opting to walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge instead.
"So I just walked from Central station to my office in North Sydney," Sam Fletcher posted to social media along with a photograph of the icon Sydney Opera House.
"I think I probably beat plenty of people who waited in an endless queue for a bus. Also the harbour is pretty."
As a result of today's chaos, Collins said there will be a "huge investigation" to make sure the problem does not happen again.
