Thousands of football fans were left stranded when Sydney’s rail network was thrown into chaos after a suspected act of vandalism.
There were long delays for people leaving the World Cup semifinal between the Matildas and England at Olympic Park on Wednesday night.
Matildas supporters, already disappointed by Australia’s 3-1 loss, endured extreme frustration after an incident at Ashfield affected trains from about 10pm.
It was about the time the Women’s World Cup semifinal wrapped up in front of a crowd of more than 75,000.
Meanwhile, Melbourne’s game gathering in Federation Square wasn’t entirely without incident either after orange flares were let off in the 10,000-capacity venue.
Some unruly crowd members stormed barriers as excitement reached fever pitch when skipper Sam Kerr scored a stunning goal.
Police escorted some young men away from the event after they began hurling flares into the crowd.
Some families left early when the rowdy section caused the disruption and spoiled the experience for some people.
Suspected vandalism
Sydney police were questioning two men, aged 47 and 33, after cables in a railway signal box were allegedly cut and equipment damaged.
Officers were called to Ashfield about 11pm when the “suspected vandalism” was discovered.
The men were assisting police with inquiries at Burwood Police Station.
Passenger Andrew Beatty posted a photo showing Matildas fans crammed onto platforms with no moving trains.
“Bravo Sydney Trains. Two hours after full time and tens of thousands of people with no way to get home,” he tweeted.
Another fan wrote: “There are train fulls of people from Olympic park offloaded at Lidcombe station with zero information about where to go next…thousands of people running between stations & trains, crowd crushes, and no announcements from staff or correct signage…debacle”
Transport for NSW said city-bound trains from Olympic Park were diverted via the T3 Bankstown line, and there were flow-on delays at Lidcombe and Olympic Park Stations.
There were major delays for train services on multiple Sydney lines, with frustrated fans posting images of crowded platforms on social media.
“Specialist engineers were immediately deployed to rectify the issue and services were restored within approximately 90 minutes,” a Transport for NSW statement said.
Ride-share operators were alerted in a bid to help deal with the crowds but it took until midnight to clear the Olympic Park precinct.
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