Airport and East Hills railway line, Sydney

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Airport & East Hills Line
Overview
Mode	Commuter rail line
Area
Map colour	Green
Owner	CityRail
Design
Stations	27
Connects	Town Hall Central Wolli Creek/Sydenham Glenfield Campbelltown
1931	East Hills line opened
1987	Connected to South line
2000	Airport Link opened
Operations
Operator(s)	CityRail Airport Link Company
Fleet	C, R, S, T, M sets
Public transport |  v • d • e

The Airport & East Hills railway line in Sydney is part of the CityRail metropolitan network. It can be considered in two parts: an underground airport line and an older overground East Hills line. The line begins at Town Hall station in the City Circle. After Central station it travels underground via Sydney Airport then emerges at Wolli Creek where it runs as 4 tracks to Beverly Hills, then as two tracks to Glenfield Junction. Here it joins up with the Southern line and runs to Campbelltown and terminates at Macarthur

[edit] History

The older, original East Hills line was opened on 21st Sept 1931 as an electrified double track line from Tempe to Kingsgrove, then single non- electrified track to East Hills with a passing loop at Riverwood. The single line between Kingsgrove and East Hills was electrified in December 1939. The line was duplicated between Kingsgrove and Riverwood in 1948, with points for terminating trains provided at Kingsgrove and Riverwood, and a passing loop at Revesby was opened in 1956. Services generally ran all stations from East Hills via Tempe and Sydenham, to the City Circle. Occasional services terminated at Riverwood, Kingsgrove and Padstow. Most trains stopped at Erskineville and St. Peters, now only served by the Bankstown line.

State Rail East Hills Line Timetable from 1987, prior to the Glenfield extension.

In 1987, the line was duplicated through to East Hills and extended to Glenfield to connect with the Main South line allowing through services to and from Campbelltown. A new station was provided at Holsworthy, and East Hills station was rebuilt with the addition of a third platform. Initially, there were only limited services from Campbelltown via East Hills during peak hours only; however, in 1988 an all day half hourly service was provided. Local (all stations) services generally ran every 15 minutes from East Hills.

The section between Wolli Creek Junction and Kingsgrove was quadruplified in the late 1990s in conjunction with the construction of the Airport line. Local (all stations) trains generally run from East Hills via the airport, peak hour express trains from Campbelltown run along the original route via Sydenham, taking the express tracks between Kingsgrove and Wolli Creek Junction.

The Airport line was commissioned in 1995 by the then Liberal state government under a public-private partnership scheme that guaranteed passenger numbers to the line's operator the Airport Link Company. The Airport Line segment was constructed after the main East Hills line and is an underground CityRail railway line that opened in the year 2000, just in time for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The line and some of the stations were constructed by a corporation and attract a higher fare than is usual for CityRail lines. However as of 2004 the corporation was in financial difficulty. The fiasco resulted in the Government of New South Wales being contractually forced to accept the debts of the "private rail line". The Airport line has cost taxpayers $800 million to date.^[1]

The opening of the Airport line in 2000 resulted in the government run Airport Express bus service being discontinued, to encourage the use of the new train line.

[edit] Clearways project

There are two projects on the East Hills line for the Clearways project. Firstly, the turnback with one platform at East Hills will be supplemented by a turnback with 2 platforms at Revesby. Secondly, the two track section between Kingsgrove and Revesby will be expanded to four tracks. These projects will allow the all stations service to Revesby via the Airport to be segregated from the limited stop service to Macarthur via Sydenham.

[edit] Airport and East Hills Line stations

Name of Station	Code	TravelPass Zone	Serving Suburbs	Pattern stops at this station							Connections
Airport and East Hills Line
Town Hall	THL	Red	Sydney, Darling Harbour								Northern Line, North Shore Line, Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line, Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line, South Coast Line (peak hour only)
Wynyard	WYD	Red	Sydney, The Rocks, Millers Point, Barangaroo								Northern Line, North Shore Line, Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line
Circular Quay	CQY	Red	Circular Quay, Sydney, The Rocks, Millers Point, Barangaroo								Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line
St James	SAJ	Red	Sydney								Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line
Museum	MSM	Red	Sydney								Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line
Central	SBO	Red	Central, Strawberry Hills, Ultimo, Surrey Hills								Northern Line, North Shore Line, Western Line, Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line, Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line, Newcastle & Central Coast Line, Blue Mountains Line, Southern Highlands Line (limited services only), South Coast Line
Redfern	RDF	Red	Redfern, Waterloo, Darlington, The University of Sydney								Northern Line, Western Line, Inner West Line, South Line, Bankstown Line, Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line, Newcastle & Central Coast Line (peak hour only), Blue Mountains Line (peak hour only), Southern Highlands Line (peak hour only), South Coast Line (peak hour only)
Sydenham	SDN	Red	Sydenham, Marrickville								Bankstown Line, Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line
Green Square	?	Red (+ fee)	Zetland, Beaconsfield, Waterloo
Mascot	?	Red (+ fee)	Mascot, Rosebery
Domestic	DOM	Red (+ fee)	Sydney Airport, Mascot
International	INT	Red (+ fee)	Sydney Airport, Mascot
Wolli Creek	WOC	Green	Wolli Creek, Arncliffe								Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line, South Coast Line
Turrella	TLL	Green	Turrella
Bardwell Park	BWP	Green	Bardwell Park, Bardwell Valley, Earlwood
Bexley North	BXN	Green	Bexley North
Kingsgrove	KGV	Green	Kingsgrove
Beverley Hills	BVH	Yellow	Beverly Hills
Narwee	NWE	Yellow	Narwee
Riverwood	RVD	Yellow	Riverwood
Padstow	PDW	Yellow	Padstow
Revesby	RSV	Yellow	Revesby, Revesby North
Panania	PNA	Yellow	Panania
East Hills	EHS	Pink	East Hills, Voyager Point, Pleasure Point
Holsworthy	?	Pink	Holsworthy, Hammondville, Wattle Grove
Glenfield	GFD	Purple	Glenfield								Southern Highlands Line (limited services only), South Line, Cumberland Line
Macquarie Fields	MQF	Purple	Macquarie Fields, Macquarie Links
Ingleburn	IGB	Purple	Ingleburn, Denham Court
Minto	MIO	Purple	Minto, Bow Bowing, St Andrews
Leumeah	LUM	Purple	Leumeah, Woodbine, Claymore,
Campbelltown	CAM	Purple	Campbelltown, Campbelltown North, Blair Athol								Southern Highlands Line, South Line, Cumberland Line
Macarthur	MCU	Purple	Ambarvale, Englorie Park, Bradbury, Glen Alpine								Southern Highlands Line

[edit] Stopping Patterns

• Pattern 1: Campbelltown, all stations to Turrella, then Sydenham, Redfern and the City Circle and vice-versa (early morning only).
• Pattern 2: Macarthur, all to the City Circle via the Airport line and vice-versa(early morning only).
• Pattern 3: Macarthur, all stations to East Hills, Padstow, Riverwood, Kingsgrove, Wolli Creek and all stations to the City Circle via the Airport line and vice-versa(peak and off-peak).*
• Pattern 4: East Hills, all stations to the City Circle via the Airport line and vice-versa (peak and off-peak).
• Pattern 5: Macarthur, all stations to East Hills, Revesby, Beverly Hills, Sydenham, Redfern, all stations to the City Circle and vice-versa. (weekday peak hours only).
• Pattern 6: Macarthur, Campbelltown, Glenfield, Holsworthy, Kingsgrove, Wolli Creek and all stations to the City Circle via the Airport line (one weekday morning peak service to the City only).
• Pattern 7: Kingsgrove, all stations to the City Circle via Wolli Creek and the Airport line and vice-versa. (weekday afternoon peak and late evening only).†

Note: means that not all services on this pattern service this station: * Some services on this route do not proceed to or from Macarthur (but terminate at and proceed from Campbelltown). Some services also do not stop at Ingleburn and Glenfield (weekday morning peak hours), and at Macquarie Fields (weekday afternoon peak hours). Some services do not stop at Kingsgrove. † Some services on this route do not stop at Bexley North, Bardwell Park, or Turrella.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ For sale: ghost train to Sydney Airport