Lawyer Leo Saunders, who represented the combined rail unions, told the Fair Work hearing that they had committed to no new industrial action that posed a threat to train services on New Year’s Eve, while the Electrical Trades Union had agreed to withdraw a series of bans.

Late on Monday night, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) agreed to withdraw major bans, including limits on the distance train crews can travel, alongside several other actions that would no longer come into effect on December 28 as planned.

Following the hearing, RTBU state secretary Toby Warnes said the government should return to the bargaining table on Boxing Day and “stop talking to your lawyers”.

Warnes said the union had withdrawn some bans to give the public more certainty about transport services but insisted there were “never going to be” any major disruptions on New Year’s Eve.

“The government and the big business community withdrew its case before the Fair Work Commission,” he told reporters after the hearing.

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However, Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said enormous amounts of evidence had been assembled to support the need for operational certainty on the rail network, and the outcome from the Fair Work hearing was a “strong and very important result”.

Hotel boss Craig Laundy, a former federal Liberal MP, said the unions’ withdrawal of the work bans gave businesses certainty that trains would operate on New Year’s Eve. “Disappointed we have to be here in the first place at all, but it looks like New Year’s Eve will happen as it has traditionally,” he said. “Thankfully, sanity prevailed.”

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said New Year’s Eve might be marked safe, but the rail dispute was far from resolved and commuters were likely to face further disruption in the weeks and months ahead. “This is just another rinse-and-repeat mess from Chris Minns – chaos kicked down the road,” he said.