This week we will be talking about the draft timetables obtained by the ABC for the Sydney Trains network from 2018 onwards.
It must be mentioned that these are drafts created in 2014 that the ABC has been fighting in court to obtain and they are obviously out of date and has most likely been discredited by TFNSW. The ABC is still in cour trying to get newer versions of the timetable released.
These potential changes could seee services to many stations cut whilst some other areas would see a boost in services.
On of the main changes that has been talked about is the changes to the T1 North Shore, Northern and Western Line services that have to change due to the closure of the ECRL for conversion to metro.
Once the ECRL closes, accorindg to these plans, there will be an increase of services on the T1 Northern Line from 10 trains per hour to 12 trains per hour and later 15 trains pe hour once the NWRL opens. This would provide a much needed boost to services in the growing region it services. This however appears to be at the expense of the T1 North Shore Line which may see a temporary decrease in services from 20 to 18 per hour. In addition it appears that the T1 western line would be truncated at St Mary’s with half of all Penrith starters cut short. The other half will become part of the Blue Mountains Line, starting at Emu Plains in the short run, before later moving to Penrith, there will also be changes to stopping patterns of all trains, reducing conflicting movements. This could potentially increase reliability.
Another major change pertains to the south west and the T2 South Line, T3 Bankstown Line and the T5 Cumberland Line. As percently proposed, the draft timetables see all T2 South Line and T5 Cumberland Line services travel to Leppington instead of Campbelltown. However these draft proposals also suggest that half of the current Liverpool starters on the T3 Bankstown line will also travel to Leppington and that the T5 Cumberland Line would be truncated at Parramatta instaed of travelling to Schofields. This would be a significant downgrade for the line.
In addition, the draft proposes that the T2 Inner West line continues beyond it’s current Homebush terminus to Parramatta. This would likely cause the already crowded line to become even more crowded and could cause passenger displacement at inner city stations such as Newtown.
Overall, these draft timetables appear to be just that, drafts. They seem very unlikely to be implemented and rightfully so as they contain significant service cuts and increases to travel times for many commuters.
Pictured: The proposed network and frequencies for 2018 and 2019.
Transport NSW Blog 