Southwest Metro: Travel times to double, Minister warns, as new Western Sydney train lines revealed

The time to get a train from Bankstown and Central will more than double, Transport Minister Jo Haylen has conceded, as plans for alternative rail services are revealed.

A major revamp of train lines which will ferry western Sydney residents to the CBD during the shutdown of the T3 line have been revealed, with Transport Minister Jo Haylen warning travel times will more than double for many commuters.

A new train line – running between Bankstown and Lidcombe and named the T6 route – will be put into action when the T3 route shuts down between Sydenham and Bankstown later this year for its conversion to driverless Metro trains, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Rail services between Liverpool and the City Circle, which usually run via Bankstown, will also be rejigged to run to the city through Regents Park and Lidcombe along the current Inner West T2 route, with that route renamed the T3 Liverpool and Inner West Line.

A Sydney Metro City and Southwest train leaves a tunnel during testing.

The new T3 route will give residents of western Sydney between Liverpool and Sefton a direct link to the city, while passengers who catch the new T6 will be able to change onto the T3 at Regents Park or Lidcombe to get into the city.

The NSW Government’s own analysis shows the current travel time on the T3 between Bankstown and Central in the morning peak takes 26 minutes.

Under the new system, Bankstown commuters taking the trip via the rejigged network will spend up to 56 minutes travelling, including waiting time while changing over from the T6 onto the T3 line at Regents Park or Lidcombe.

At its shortest, the trip from Bankstown to central will take 40 minutes.

Ms Haylen conceded it would be a “difficult and disruptive” year as the existing T3 between Bankstown and Sydenham is shutdown, as part of the $18.5 billion conversion of the line to Metro services.

Minister for Transport Jo Haylen said new services would outstrip current ones on the T3 Bankstown line – but warned a year of pain for commuters would come first. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“The services that we’re putting on will get you to where you need to be, but they’re not going to be at the same standard as the T3 line and for some passengers travel times could more than double,” she said.

“This is going to be a really difficult and disruptive 12 months for the people of Canterbury Bankstown and for the Inner West but there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

More than two million passengers caught the T3 Bankstown line in March this year.

Residents in between Sydenham and Bankstown – using stations such as Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Campsie, Belmore, Lakemba and Punchbowl – will now catch a bus either eastwards, to the new City Metro starting at Sydenham, or west, to Bankstown, where they can catch the rejigged heavy rail network into the city.

Transport NSW is still unsure when the T3 west of Sydenham will be shutdown for the conversion to the Metro, with that move to come after Metro services start running without issue between Sydenham and Chatswood – expected to between July to October.

Once the conversion of the southwest portion of the Metro is finished, residents will be able to catch a driverless Metro train directly from Bankstown to Chatswood, via the CBD.

“When this section of the Metro is completed, they will get a train every four minutes. That’s a massive increase in train services, because right now there are stations on the T3 Line that only receive four trains an hour in the peak,” Ms Haylen said.

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Originally published as Southwest Metro: Travel times to double, Minister warns, as new Western Sydney train lines revealed