New Express Rail Services for Western Sydney - 21 February 2010

"This is about cutting travelling times and getting people home to their families sooner," Ms Keneally said.

The Western Express CityRail Service is part of the Premier’s Plan – the Metropolitan Transport Plan: Connecting the City of Cities.

It will achieve faster and more frequent services with a goal of up to 50 per cent more services and 17 per cent more passengers on the CityRail network on an average weekday.

The Western Express CityRail Service would have an impact across the entire CityRail network. It will free up capacity to increase services from the North and from the South West including Liverpool, Campbelltown, Rhodes, Sydney Airport, Green Square, Fairfield, Leppington and Sutherland.

Engineering works will give every new train a clear run through the network. This will include removal of cross-overs, merging or lane changing for train services.

The Western Express CityRail Service will see the main west tracks, which currently terminate at Central, extended into new underground platforms at Redfern, Central, Town Hall and Wynyard.

This will eliminate the need for western trains to merge with suburban trains before reaching the CBD. This will also address the fundamental capacity bottleneck of the Illawarra Junction.

It achieves full separation of express, suburban and local lines, allowing extra services on the North, South and Inner West Lines.

This will occur through:

• Separating a dedicated track from all other traffic;
• Construction of a new five kilometre priority tunnel – City Relief Line – will be built from 2015 in the city to separate western services from inner-city trains to provide shorter journey times;
• Construction eight new platforms to increase capacity at Redfern, Central, Town Hall and Wynyard to relieve congestion;
• New express train services introduced for the Blue Mountains, Richmond, Penrith, Blacktown and Parramatta; and
• Increased CityRail’s capacity on all lines and allow the introduction of express rail services to western Sydney.

The Western Express CityRail Service would mean:

• Improved capacity and travel times from the city’s west;
• 5,000 more seats from Parramatta in peak hour; and
• More than 10,000 extra seats an hour from western Sydney to the city.

Significant time savings from Western Sydney to the CBD (Wynyard)

In addition, the Western Express CityRail Service will result in:

• Another four services on the Main North to the CBD via Strathfield;
• Another two services to the CBD from Cabramatta via Granville with a decrease in journey time;
• Another two services on the InnerWest; and
• Another two services and a decrease in journey time on the Illawarra Line.

Source: Premier of New South Wales Media Release February 21 2010 - Western Express CityRail Service