Revealed: Plans for new passenger train lines across Sydney

Construction of a new train line linking Parramatta to Kogarah is among secret plans being worked on by senior transport officials to expand Sydney’s passenger rail network over the next two decades.

The leaked plans also envisage extending the Metro West line eastwards from the CBD to Randwick via Zetland, as well as continuing the heavy rail line used by double-deck trains from Leppington to the new city of Bradfield near Sydney’s new international airport.

The designs for new lines and extensions of others are outlined in Transport for NSW’s confidential medium-term rail plan.

While the plans have yet to be finalised and submitted to the Minns government, they provide an insight into senior transport bureaucrats’ thinking about future expansions of the rail system.

The potential changes are illustrated in a future map of Sydney’s rail system, which could result in more express trains from Penrith, Macarthur and Waterfall, as well as “significant capacity and connectivity improvements” from Homebush, Revesby, Cronulla and Epping.

They also outline the benefits of new “cross-regional corridors” focused on providing rail connections to Parramatta without passengers having to be routed through the Sydney CBD.

That could involve a “new line” from Kogarah in the city’s south to Parramatta and Westmead, which was cited among the major items to be “scoped in full by business cases”.

The internal documents, which first emerged in an online forum related to YouTube channel trainguy4, indicate that electrification of the T8 South line from Campbelltown to the fast-growing area of Wilton in Sydney’s outer south-west will be among the priorities over the next five years.

They warn that the scale of development in Greater Macarthur and Wollondilly will increase travel demand and place more pressure on already limited transport options. The area is slated for 172,000 new houses by 2041.

The plans show that rail authorities intend to divert trains on the T8 South line away from the crowded airport tunnel and run them via Sydenham to Central Station by 2034. It would result in two extra off-peak trains from Macarthur, and six additional peak-hour trains and eight more off-peak services from Revesby.

The documents also outline plans to extend the “inner-urban network” from Hurstville to Cronulla, which would allow for a “single, all-stops, high-frequency stopping pattern”.

While commuters from Cronulla “would no longer have access” to express services, the documents say that “this will be offset” by more frequent services and new digital systems “further reducing journey time impacts”.

Transport for NSW said in a statement that “this draft plan” had not been approved by the NSW government and none of the new lines on the map had yet been costed.

“It is the role of Transport for NSW to develop long-term plans for a growing city like Sydney to ensure the public transport system grows and evolves with the city,” it said.

The department said a strategy in 2018 first identified a possible strategic long-term rail connection between Kogarah and Parramatta, but it had not been costed, and no other work had gone into it.

The Herald verified the rail map and parts of the internal plans with the department.

While the internal documents lay out probable corridors, extensions of metro lines such as from the Sydney CBD to Randwick are considered longer-term plans, and would require tens of billions of dollars in funding.

Business cases into extensions of the Western Sydney Airport metro line northwards from St Marys to Tallawong, and south from Bradfield to Macarthur, are due to be completed by early next year.

The federal government has committed $1 billion to secure rail corridors between Bradfield and both Leppington and Macarthur.

However, Premier Chris Minns recently sought to lower expectations that another set of metro rail lines will be built in Sydney in coming years, citing their massive expense and drag on the state budget.

He has ruled out selling public assets to fund new rail lines as the former Coalition government had to pay for the M1 line between Tallawong and Bankstown via the CBD.

A confidential review of Sydney’s metro projects two years ago proposed completing an extension of the airport metro line from Bradfield to “Bradfield South” by 2032 at a cost of $2.3 billion, as well as a heavy rail line from Leppington to Bradfield South by 2033 for $4.6 billion.

Under the review’s scenarios, they would be followed by a northern extension of the airport metro line from St Marys to Schofields by 2037, costing $9.6 billion, and on to Tallawong by 2039 for a further $3.2 billion.

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