The fast-growing suburb being eyed for passenger train link

The NSW government is quietly working on tentative plans that could lead to extending passenger rail services to the fast-growing residential area of Wilton in Sydney’s outer southwest from Campbelltown.

Transport for NSW has begun an early investigation aimed at “identifying opportunities to enhance passenger rail services between the Wilton area and Campbelltown to support urban development and strengthen the local economy”, internal documents reveal.

Wilton is growing rapidly on Sydney’s southern fringe.Credit: Brook Mitchell

“The area studied is along the main south line from Campbelltown to Picton station. The study area includes the Maldon corridor, covering around 26 kilometres by rail,” say the documents, which are marked “sensitive” and dated July this year.

They say it is pre-feasibility work and at an early stage, and that the “concept has not been shared publicly outside of TfNSW”.

About 80 kilometres southwest of the Sydney CBD, Wilton is designated a growth area. It is slated for 15,000 houses by 2040, raising concerns about a lack of infrastructure and public transport.

The documents do not detail whether a new station could be built along the main south line closer to Wilton or other potential options. The main south line is electrified only as far as Macarthur, which means diesel-powered trains are needed to travel further south from Sydney.

Under plans in the 1980s, a single-track rail freight line between the main south line at Maldon and Dombarton near Port Kembla was to pass through Wilton. By the time the project was shelved in 1988, about 25 kilometres of earthworks had been finished, and a bridge had been partially built.

Transport for NSW said in a statement that preliminary investigations explored several options for potential future rail investment and further investigations were needed to assess “other multimodal options” which could range from improved bus services to rail options.

However, the agency said it was not considering a new alignment of the main south line via Wilton, which sits at the junction of the Hume Motorway and Picton Road.

Wollondilly Shire mayor Matt Gould said a rail link to Wilton was “absolutely critical” given the town’s population was forecast to grow to 50,000 people over the coming decades.

“The road network just can’t cope. Something is going to have to give as we have this significant growth coming in. Between Appin and Wilton, it is tripling our population,” he said.

The incomplete Maldon to Dombarton rail bridge.Credit: Nick Moir

Gould said the fact that the main south line was not electrified meant people had to switch trains at Macarthur or Campbelltown to travel into Sydney and the priority given to freight trains meant passenger services could be unreliable. “It is just not reliable enough at the moment, and it is such a hassle to change trains,” he said.

Transport for NSW’s preliminary investigations into linking Wilton by rail comes after a confidential final report from a review of Sydney’s metro lines recommended the state government develop a “clear forward pipeline of staged” projects.

It proposed up to $4 billion a year be spent on expanding the metro network in the years that follow the completion of mega projects such as the Metro West line between the central city and Parramatta, which is due to open in 2032.

The review favours prioritising a short extension of the Western Sydney Airport metro line from the city of Bradfield to a “new Bradfield South station”, and linking it to Leppington by extending the heavy rail line. It estimates the metro rail extension to Bradfield South will cost $2.3 billion, and that it will cost $4.6 billion to extend the heavy rail from Leppington.

NSW Planning Department secretary Kiersten Fishburn recently told a business function that the state had to be “much more sophisticated” in the future so that metro projects were planned not just as transport links but as a form of urban renewal from day one.

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