First we had the traffic chaos caused by the crowds flocking to see the QM2 and QE2.

Then we had the traffic chaos caused by Dick Cheney's visit, combined with the shutdown of all trains in the CBD.

It's only getting worse though. According to today's MX, the same we-close-the-roads-for-your-convenience courtesy extended to Cheney will be extended to all 23 APEC leaders between the 2nd and 9th of September.

As if that wasn't bad enough, evening trains will be replaced by buses between Central and North Sydney from the 3rd to the 5th; buses will replace trains between Ashfield and Central and on the Airport line on the 8th and 9th. The article also suggests that the entire City Circle will be shut down on the 8th and 9th, the days of the actual APEC conference.

That's not all though; the NRL final is due to be played the following weekend at Telstra Stadium. Guess which weekend citrail have decided to replace the Olympic Sprint trains with buses?

I'll add links to this story as I can find them online - the best I've seen so far is on news.com.au, but it doesn't contain all the detail that was in the MX report.

Update: SMH has the same story, but with more detail. Confirms that CBD, Inner West, and Airport lines will all be shut down for the weekend of 8/9 Sept; also implies that the whole harbour bridge may be shut for the same period.

Of course, the govt. says it's not going to be much of an issue:

The Premier Morris Iemma today acknowledged that Sydneysiders would be faced with delays, but said the government was working to minimise disruptions.

...

He said a public holiday would be in place to ensure that disruption and inconvenience was minimised.

Of course, that makes sense. Everybody knows that when there's a public holiday, we all just sit around in our houses - no-one takes public transport, no-one goes to the CBD, and most of all, there's no reason at all why anyone would be travelling on public transport through the CBD in order to reach, say, a nice beach to relax for the day, or the city's major parks...

Cityrail's own trackwork timetable looks pretty grim for September. Some of the highlights:

* Northern, North Shore, Newcastle and Hunter lines down on the 1st/2nd

* North Shore line down between Springwood and Penrith Sept 3-6 (I don't understand that either, I'm just quoting Cityrail)

* Newcastle line down between Gosford and Wyong during the day Sept 3-7

* Inner West, Airport and East Hills, and City Circle lines all down Sept 8-9. East hills services operate via Sydenham and terminate at Redfern

* Inner West between Central and Strathfield, and Olympic Sprint lines down Sept 15-16

* City cirle operates via Musem only, Airport and East Hills lines down completely, South line down between Macarthur and Liverpool, and Southern line down between Goulburn and Liverpool on Sept 22-23

Huzzah!