Every year, a heaving mass of humanity trudges from harbourside spots to train stations in Sydney’s central business district, eager to get home to bed after the New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganza.

From control rooms, senior transport officials sweat on the massive demands that hundreds of thousands of people put on the city’s train network at once, praying that a train breakdown or an act of lunacy by partygoers does not throw the system into........

© The Sydney Morning Herald