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T2 Inner West & Leppington Line

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The T2 Inner West & Leppington Line is a commuter rail line serving the inner west and south-western regions of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The line forms part of the Sydney Trains network and is coloured light blue on maps and informational material. Consisting 37 stops, the service commences from the City Circle and heads west to Granville. The line branches at this point; services either head northwest to Parramatta or south to Leppington. A third terminus at Homebush is used when the part-time Parramatta branch isn't operating. The line commenced operations on 26 November 2017, replacing the T2 Airport, Inner West & South Line.

History


Following the 2011 New South Wales state election, the newly-elected O'Farrell government embarked on reform of transport in New South Wales, and created a new organisation, Transport for NSW, in November of that year. This was followed up with Sydney Trains taking over operation of the Sydney suburban rail network from CityRail in July 2013.

Transport for NSW developed a new rail timetable and branding, which was put into effect on 20 October 2013. This saw three of CityRail's lines - the Airport & East Hills Line (Macarthur - City via Sydney Airport or Sydenham), the Inner West Line (Liverpool or Bankstown - City via Regents Park) and the South Line (Campbelltown - City via Granville) - merged to form the Airport, Inner West & South Line. A new numbering system was also introduced and the new line was given the number T2. 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 adding and upgrading infrastructure at pinch points around the network.[1] By 2013, the Rail Clearways Program was substantially complete, as was the delivery of 78 new Waratah trains.

During the CityRail era, the Airport & East Hills Line was through-routed with the South Line, and the Inner West Line formed a loop with the Bankstown Line. A substantial change introduced by the 2013 timetable was the abolition of Bankstown loop services and most Liverpool via Regents Park services. These changes were made possible by Rail Clearways projects to construct new turnbacks at Homebush and Lidcombe. This allowed the operation of the Inner West and Bankstown lines to be separated, freeing up capacity between Lidcombe and Homebush for use by other services. However, the changes attracted criticism due to the increased number of interchanges and increase in travel time for passengers for all stations between Carramar/Berala and Birrong.[2][3]

The former T2 line added a branch to Leppington on 13 December 2015, replacing a temporary shuttle service to Liverpool.[4]

Current line

A new Sydney Trains timetable was introduced on 26 November 2017. The former T2 line was split in two. The new T2 consists of services from Leppington to the city via Granville, with a branch to Parramatta being added. A new T8 Airport & South Line provides services from Macarthur to the city via Sydney Airport or Sydenham.[5] The new T2 is coloured light blue - a similar colour to CityRail's South Line. The T8 inherited the green line colour from the old T2, which was itself derived from the colour of CityRail's Airport & East Hills Line.[6]

T5 Cumberland Line services were modified to no longer travel to and from Campbelltown, instead starting and terminating at Leppington.[7] These changes mean the section of the network between Glenfield and Macarthur is served exclusively by services operating via the East Hills railway line.[7][8][9]

Route

Services on the Inner West & Leppington Line commence by taking the City Circle (generally in an anti-clockwise direction) and then the Main Suburban railway line to a junction west of Granville. Here the line splits, with all-stations services taking the Main Western line a short distance to Parramatta. Limited-stops services take the Old Main South railway line to a junction north of Cabramatta and the Main South railway line as far as Glenfield. At a junction south of Glenfield, services switch to the South West Rail Link to reach the terminus at Leppington. The primary intermediate terminus of the northern section of the former T2 was Homebush. Most trains that terminated there now continue to Parramatta. The Homebush terminus is still used when the Parramatta branch is not operating, most notably at weekends.

T2 Inner West & Leppington Line stations
Name Distance from
Central[10][11][12]
Opened
[10][11][12]
Railway line Sydney Trains interchanges Other interchanges*
Museum 4.99 km 1926 City Circle none
St James 4.4 km 1926
Circular Quay 2.97 km 1956
Wynyard 2.1 km 1932
Town Hall 1.2 km 1932
Central n/a 1855
Redfern 1.30 km 1878 Main Suburban none
Macdonaldtown 2.48 km 1892 none
Newtown 3.10 km 1855
Stanmore 4.67 km 1878
Petersham 5.50 km 1857
Lewisham 6.25 km 1886
Summer Hill 7.03 km 1879
Ashfield 8.38 km 1855
Croydon 9.42 km 1875
Burwood 10.62 km 1855
Strathfield 11.81 km 1876
Homebush 12.74 km 1855 none none
Flemington 14.32 km 1924
Lidcombe 16.61 km 1858
Auburn 18.63 km 1877
Clyde

(weekdays only)

20.66 km 1882
Granville 21.22 km 1860
At Granville, the line branches. The northwestern branch is towards Parramatta, and the southern branch is towards Leppington.
To Parramatta
Harris Park

(weekdays only)

22.53 km c.1800s Main Western none
Parramatta

(weekdays only)

23.21 km 1860
To Leppington
Merrylands 23.47 km 1889 Old Main South none
Guildford 25.72 km 1876
Yennora 27.44 km 1927
Fairfield 29 km 1856
Canley Vale 30.98 km 1878
Cabramatta 28.43 km 1870 Main South
Warwick Farm 34.16 km 1889
Liverpool 38.68 km 1856
Casula 38.8 km 1894
Glenfield 33.03 km 1869
Edmondson Park 2015 South West
Leppington 2015

* Most stations are served by connecting bus services. Some additional stations may be served by intercity trains at certain times.

Patronage

The following table shows the patronage of Sydney Trains network for the year ending 30 June 2019.

2018-19 Sydney Trains patronage by line[n.b. 1] [13]
Line Figure
T1
106,924,000
T2
58,917,000
T3
30,578,000
T4
69,575,000
T5
7,738,000
T6
568,000
T7
1,802,000
T8
46,346,000
34,036,000


  1. Figures based on Opal tap on and tap off data.
    = T1 North Shore, Northern & Western Line was split into the T1 North Shore & Western Line and T9 Northern Line in April 2019. These figures group the T1 Northern Line with those of the T9 Northern Line instead of the T1. Additionally, the Northern Line route was changed in Septermber 2018 when the Epping to Chatswood line was closed. This resulted in a decrease in Northern Line and an increase in North Shore Line patronage from October.

References

References

References:
  1. Transport for NSW (15 August 2014). "Rail Clearways Program – completed projects". Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150711182127/http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/Projects-Completed-Projects/Rail-Clearways-Program. 
  2. Roydon Ng isn’t giving up on his year-long campaign to restore the Inner West line, Daily Telegraph 14 January 2015
  3. Beech, James (31 March 2015). "NSW Election 2015: Tania Mihailuk saves Bankstown for Labor and vows to fight state privatisation". Canterbury-Bankstown Express. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/south-west/nsw-election-2015-tania-mihailuk-saves-bankstown-for-labor-and-vows-to-fight-state-privatisation/story-fngr8hxh-1227284817476. 
  4. "South West Rail Link: Soon to head North and East, with more services". Transport for NSW. 15 October 2015. http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/south-west-rail-link-soon-head-north-and-east-more-services. 
  5. "Changes to Sydney’s train network". Transport for NSW. https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2017/mtms-sydney-network-changes-aug-2017.pdf. Retrieved 2017-08-09. 
  6. "CityRail network" (PDF). Rail Corporation New South Wales. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130510123127/http://cityrail.info/stations/pdf/CityRail_network_map.pdf. Retrieved 25 November 2017. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 "More Trains, More Services for South Western Sydney". Transport for NSW. 27 February 2017. https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/b2b/projects/more-trains-more-services-sw-sydney-fact-sheet.pdf. Retrieved 27 February 2017. 
  8. Barr, Eliza (27 February 2017). "Southwest Sydney train service to increase with new peak hour trains and north-south connection from Leppington to Parramatta and Blacktown". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/liverpool-leader/southwest-sydney-train-service-to-increase-with-new-peak-hour-trains-and-northsouth-connection-from-leppington-to-parramatta-and-blacktown/news-story/d73b929edb43d030766ef7fb36eccf92. Retrieved 27 February 2017. 
  9. O'Sullivan, Matt (27 February 2017). "Decision on rail link to new Sydney airport 'many years off', Transport Minister Andrew Constance says". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/decision-on-rail-link-to-new-sydney-airport-many-years-off-transport-minister-andrew-constance-says-20170227-gum5rs.html. Retrieved 27 February 2017. 
  10. 10.0 10.1 "City Circle". NSW Rail.net. http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:city_circle. Retrieved 3 March 2017. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Main South line". NSW Rail.net. http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:main_south. Retrieved 3 March 2017. 
  12. 12.0 12.1 "South West Rail Link". NSW Rail.net. http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:sw_rail_link. Retrieved 3 March 2017. 
  13. "Train Patronage - Monthly Figures". Transport for NSW. https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/data-and-research/passenger-travel/train-patronage/train-patronage-monthly-figures. Retrieved 23 August 2019. 


Attribution

This article incorporates text from the following revision of the English Wikipedia article "Inner West & Leppington Line": https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inner_West_%26_Leppington_Line&oldid=895413916.

Inner West & Leppington