Passengers waiting for the extension of Australia’s only driverless train network are facing further delays because of a bitter industrial stand-off.

Converting a rail line that had taken passengers since 1895 to accommodate driverless trains on the Sydney Metro was a complex task and won’t be completed on time, Transport Minister John Graham told reporters on Wednesday.

The work, which has forced an estimated 60,000 commuters in southwest Sydney onto buses since September, was scheduled to take about a year.

But the completion date has now been pushed back until sometime in 2026.

Industrial action due to an ongoing dispute between the NSW government and rail unions over a new pay deal had been “very disruptive” to the conversion work, Mr Graham said.

“We’ve seen significant impact – including from industrial action – 130 days that have been impacted in some way,” he said.

The Fair Work Commission in February ordered industrial action be paused until July in the hope the dispute can be resolved.

The Electrical Trades Union, one of the unions involved in the dispute, has launched legal action in the Federal Court in a bid to overturn the decision.

Stations on the southwest metro conversion have been fitted with screen doors and mechanical “gap fillers” providing a bridge between platforms and the driverless trains that will eventually pull up there.

Lifts have also been added at several stations to improve accessibility.

But testing will take some time, as more trains are run more quickly along the line to ensure safety.

Sydney Metro is the nation’s biggest public transport project, comprising four lines, 46 stations and 113km of new rail.

The project also includes lines to the city’s west and the under-construction Western Sydney Airport.

Services from Tallawong to Chatswood in Sydney’s northwest which opened in 2019 were extended under the harbour and through the city centre to Sydenham in August.

That extension opened 15 days later than originally planned while awaiting approval from safety regulators.

This post was originally published on Michael West.