On Thursday morning, Sydney Trains' executive director of network delivery warned the train workers' ban on overtime shifts may lead to a CBD station shutdown during the afternoon rush hour.
But a decision by the Fair Work Commission to postpone the industrial action for six weeks seems to have averted the predicted delays.
An indefinite ban on overtime shifts - announced by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union - began at 12.01am on Thursday, ahead of Monday's planned strike.
The union has been in negotiations with Sydney Trains and the state government over a new pay deal, with the union taken to Fair Work by the government in attempt to stop the industrial action.
As the hearing went ahead, Tony Eid said the morning commute had gone relatively smoothly, but commuters should expect delays in the evening especially at the busiest CBD stations of Wynyard, Town Hall and Central.
"We might have to close down platforms or even, for that matter, shut down a station, in a worst-case scenario," he said.
"We will do everything we can in our power to get everybody home as quick as we can.
"We want to make sure we do that safely, and we want to make sure that everyone gets home at a respectable hour."
Mr Eid said that, due to the ban on overtime, Sydney Trains reduced services to a weekend timetable across the network.
"That is 1300 less services that what we traditionally run on a weekday, so with those sort of numbers we ask everybody to be patient with us."
The Fair Work decision to postpone the strike and overtime ban for six weeks came into effect at 6pm, meaning drivers returned to doing overtime, allowing extra services to be added.
From about 4pm, commuters reported being "packed in like sardines" on trains "bursting at the seams".
Some said they left the office early so they wouldn't be travelling in the peak, while others squeezed on at CBD stations for trains that were full by the time they arrived at Central.
Buses were in high demand and would continue to be on Friday morning, Transport for NSW said, "even though planned industrial action on the trains has been suspended".
"Some bus services might be cancelled," the agency said.
Transport for NSW's Co-ordinator General, Marg Prendergast said 230 buses were on standby to ease congestion at the busiest stations, including Parramatta.
"We're going to do everything we can, we ask commuters to be patient," she said.
And while services on Thursday were running to a weekend timetable, Mr Eid said people should not expect to pay weekend prices.
"There's no changes to the pricing that I'm aware of," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Alex Claassens told the media the overtime ban was about "people being able to have their days off".
"Anybody that runs a business knows you can't continually run it on overtime, and if we're running a railway that requires people to work overtime, we've got a real problem," he said.
Ms Prendergast said the Transport NSW website would be kept up-to-date with the latest travel advice.
