Thursday Things - Sydney Trains

                                                               SYDNEY TRAINS

Every working day I, like thousands of other Sydney siders travel aboard the Sydney Trains network.
 My train crosses over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I have to admit that I have stopped looking out the window when I cross like I used to. But how well do we know the history of Sydney Trains and how it all operates? Most of us don't have the time, so I am going to devote a few Thursdays to examining the network - its past- its present and its future.

Sydney Trains is statutory authority, owned and operated by the New South Wales Government for all passenger rail services in the metropolitan Sydney area. The network is a hybrid metro-suburban railway with a central underground core that serves 182 stations over 815km of track and operates 20 hours a day operation with train frequencies of every three minutes or better in the underground core, 5-10 minutes at most major stations all day, 15 minutes at most minor stations all day. (on a good day) On weekends, service is less frequent with headways of upwards of a half hour on outer stations. (when there is no track work) Sydney Trains operates seven suburban lines, plus a late night NightRide bus network across metropolitan Sydney.

On 1 July 2013 a restructure of RailCorp resulted in all suburban services in the Sydney Metropolitan area bounded by Berowra, Emu Plains, Macarthur and Waterfall transferring from CityRail to Sydney Trains. The Sydney Trains logo, nicknamed The Hop, replaced the L7 logo introduced  in the 1970s and the Waratah logo introduced in 2009. At this time, Howard Collins OBE the former Chief Operating Officer from London Underground was appointed as Chief Executive of Sydney Trains.
We will look at Cityrail's history next time.

The main hub of the Sydney Trains system is Central station, where most lines start and end. Trains coming from the T2 Airport Line and T3 Bankstown Line, after travelling anti-clockwise on the City Circle, sometimes terminate upon arrival at Central and proceed to the Macdonaldtown Turnback. However, most trains continue on and become respective outward bound T2 Inner West and South Line trains. The reverse applies for trains coming from the Inner West and South Lines, which, if not terminating, become outward bound trains on the T2 Airport and T3 Bankstown Lines respectively. In the same manner, most trains on the T1 Western Line and T1 Northern Line become the T1 North Shore and Northern Line once they reach Central. Services on T4 Illawarra line convert to a T4 Eastern Suburbs Line service.

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more information about Sydney Trains.