A scathing review has savaged NSW transport authorities over the lead-up and response to the failure that brought trains in Sydney to a standstill in June.

The independent report was commissioned by the state after an overhead wire broke and fell onto a train near Homebush station on May 20, wreaking havoc across the entire network for two days.

It found authorities took too long to get the hundreds of passengers off the stricken train, there was a "comprehensive failure" to keep commuters informed about the disruptions, and a warning about the exact wire that snapped had gone ignored five years earlier.

 Transport Minister John Graham said the report was sobering reading for the government.

"Incidents are inevitable from time to time on a rail network the size and age of Sydney's,

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