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Liverpool & Inner West Line

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This article is about the service to Liverpool via Regents Park. For the service to Leppington via Granville, see Leppington & Inner West Line.

Liverpool & Inner West Line
B sets passing at Summer Hill.
Overview
Service typeCommuter rail service
StatusOperational
LocaleSydney, New South Wales
Predecessor
  • Inner West (1999–2013)
  • Bankstown (2013–2024)
First service30 September 2024; 2 months ago (2024-09-30)
Current operator(s)Sydney Trains
Route
TerminiCity Circle
Liverpool
Stops30
Average journey time1 hour
Line(s) used
On-board services
Disabled accessYes
Technical
Rolling stockK, M, A and B sets
Track gaugeStandard gauge
Electrification1,500 V DC from overhead catenary[1]
Track owner(s)Transport Asset Holding Entity
Timetable number(s)T3

The Liverpool & Inner West Line (numbered T3, coloured orange) is a commuter rail service operated by Sydney Trains in the Inner West and Western suburbs of Sydney. It operates from the City Circle to Liverpool via the Main Suburban railway line to Lidcombe and the Main Southern railway line from there to Liverpool.

History

[edit]

Early history

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The section of the Main Suburban railway line used by Liverpool & Inner West Line services is the oldest railway in New South Wales, having opened in 1855. The section of the Main Southern railway line from Lidcombe to Cabramatta via Regents Park that it also uses is newer, having opened between 1912 and 1924 as deviation to provide a more direct route to Liverpool.[2][3] Electrification to Liverpool was completed by 1929, after which electric passenger suburban services began operating the same route from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park as they do today.

T3 Bankstown Line (2013–2024)

[edit]
Further information: Bankstown railway line § Historic services

Following the 2011 state election, the newly elected O'Farrell government embarked on reform of transport in New South Wales, creating a new organisation, Transport for NSW, in November of that year. This was followed up with another government reform, which saw Sydney Trains take over operation of the Sydney suburban rail network from CityRail in July 2013.[4]

Transport for NSW developed a new rail timetable, which was put into effect on 20 October 2013.[5] The 2013 timetable was designed to integrate the projects of the Rail Clearways Program, a 2004 plan to divide the network's fourteen metropolitan rail lines into five independent "clearways" by installing extra tracks, passing loops, turnouts and turnbacks at pinch points around the network, such as at Homebush and Lidcombe. By 2013, the Rail Clearways Program was substantially complete.[6]

The 2013 timetable saw services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park, which had previously been operated by CityRail under the name Inner West Line, phased out. Instead, from 2013 stations on the Main Southern railway line between Lidcombe and Cabramatta were only serviced by the T3 Bankstown Line, a Sydney Trains continuation of earlier CityRail services on the Bankstown railway line. This service operated as two branches, one from Liverpool and one from Lidcombe, connecting to the City Circle via Bankstown and Sydenham instead of via the Main Suburban railway line. This configuration utilised the new turnback at Lidcombe, and reduced bottlenecking on the Main Suburban railway line. However, the changes attracted criticism due to the increased number of interchanges and increased travel time for passengers from stations west of Bankstown.[7][8][9]

T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line (from 2024)

[edit]

From 30 September 2024, a new Sydney Trains timetable was introduced which restored services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park and the Main Suburban railway line, branded as the T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line.[10][11] This coincided with the partial closure of the Bankstown railway line between Bankstown and Sydenham for its conversion as part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project.[12] The restoration of this service was informed by community consultation undertaken by Transport for NSW in 2020, in which 85% of respondents favoured the option of restoring services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park.[13]

Operation

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Route

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T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line services begin in the Sydney CBD on the City Circle. After leaving Central, T3 services use the Main Suburban railway line to travel through the Inner West. At Lidcombe T3 services branch off from the Main Suburban, and use the Main Southern railway line via Regents Park to complete their journey to Liverpool.

T3 stations
Name Distance from
Central

[14][15][3][16]

Opened

[14][15][3]

Railway line Serving suburbs Other suburban lines
Museum – Liverpool
Museum 5 km

(dist via

Town Hall)

1926 City Circle Sydney
St James 4.3 km

(dist via

Town Hall)

1926 Sydney
Circular Quay 3.0 km 1956 Circular Quay, Sydney
The Rocks, Millers Point
Wynyard 2.1 km 1932 Sydney, The Rocks, Millers Point
Town Hall 1.2 km 1932 Sydney, Darling Harbour
Central 0 km 1906 Central, Strawberry Hills
Ultimo, Surrey Hills
Redfern 1.3 km 1906 Main Suburban Redfern, Waterloo, Darlington
The University of Sydney
Macdonaldtown 2.5 km 1892 Macdonaldtown
Newtown 3.1 km 1855 Newtown
Stanmore 4.7 km 1878 Stanmore
Petersham 5.5 km 1857 Petersham
Lewisham 6.3 km 1886 Lewisham
Summer Hill 7.0 km 1879 Summer Hill
Ashfield 8.4 km 1855 Ashfield
Croydon 9.4 km 1875 Croydon
Burwood 10.6 km 1855 Burwood
Strathfield 11.8 km 1876 Strathfield
Homebush 12.7 km 1855 Homebush
Flemington 14.3 km 1855 Homebush West
Lidcombe 16.6 km 1858 Lidcombe
Berala 18.4 km 1912 Main Southern Berala
Regents Park 19.9 km 1912 Regents Park
Sefton 21.2 km 1924 Sefton none
Chester Hill 22.3 km 1924 Chester Hill
Leightonfield 23.7 km 1942 Villawood
Villawood 24.5 km 1924 Villawood
Carramar 25.9 km 1924 Carramar
Cabramatta 28.4 km 1870 Cabramatta
Warwick Farm 34.2 km 1889 Warwick Farm
Liverpool 35.7 km 1856 Liverpool
Diagram of the T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line
Diagram of the T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line

Patronage

[edit]

The following table shows the patronage of Sydney Trains network for the year ending 30 June 2024.

2023–24 Sydney Trains patronage by line[n.b. 1] [17]
86,736,689
47,048,199
20,178,194 [n.b. 2]
54,802,802
8,028,853
– [n.b. 3]
1,345,017
37,691,564
22,303,028
  1. ^ Figures based on Opal tap on and tap off data
  2. ^ T3 patronage from former route via Bankstown.
  3. ^ T6 services commenced on 19 October 2024.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Asset Standards Authority (19 March 2014). RailCorp electrical system general description, version 1.0 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Opening of the Regents Park line, Cabramatta Railway Station". Fairfield City Heritage Collection. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "NSW Rail.net Lidcombe-Cabramatta line". Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2007.
  4. ^ Saulwick, Jacob (1 July 2013). "All change as RailCorp is disbanded". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  5. ^ Transport for NSW (18 July 2017). "October 2013 timetable changes". NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  6. ^ Transport for NSW (15 August 2014). "Rail Clearways Program – completed projects". NSW Government. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015.
  7. ^ Saulwick, Jacob; Carroll, Lucy; Bodkin, Ed (21 October 2013). "New train timetable had a smooth start but not all commuters are happy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  8. ^ Khalil, Shireen (14 January 2015). "Roydon Ng isn't giving up on his year-long campaign to restore the Inner West line". Inner West Courier. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015.
  9. ^ Beech, James (30 March 2015). "NSW Election 2015: Tania Mihailuk saves Bankstown for Labor and vows to fight state privatisation". Canterbury-Bankstown Express. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  10. ^ Transport for NSW. "Southwest Link". transportnsw.info. NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  11. ^ Transport for NSW (October 2024). "Train and bus timetable changes FAQs: 2024 train and bus timetable" (PDF). NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  12. ^ Hathaway-Wilson, Joseph (27 September 2024). "What you need to know about the T3 Sydenham to Bankstown train stations closure". ABC News. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  13. ^ Transport for NSW (December 2020). "West of Bankstown rail services in 2024". NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Main South line". NSW Rail.net. Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  15. ^ a b "NSW Rail.net City Circle". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2007.
  16. ^ "Driver Route Knowledge Diagrams - City Circle" (PDF). Railsafe. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  17. ^ "Train Patronage – Monthly Figures". Transport for NSW. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
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