West of Bankstown
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T3 Bankstown Line since 2013 is City Circle to Lidcombe (and Liverpool) via Bankstown and T2 City Circle to Liverpool via Bankstown (not just Sydenham to Bankstown).
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Before 2013, there was also the Bankstown to City via Regents Park (through Lidcombe and T2 Inner West Line) service, which was removed in preparation for the original Metro Southwest. The original Metro Southwest proposed in Sydney’s Rail Future (2012) was to convert the (near) entire T3 Bankstown Line to Lidcombe and Cabramatta in the west beyond Bankstown.
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Transport for NSW has been unable to provide any evidence of reliability benefits from ending the T3 Bankstown Line at Lidcombe (removal of Bankstown to City via Regents Park and T2 Liverpool to City via Regents Park) and forcing up to 19,000 commuters to interchange at Lidcombe.
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9 stations west of Bankstown between Lidcombe and Cabramatta and Bankstown (i.e. Berala, Regents Park, Sefton, Chester Hill, Leightonfield, Villawood, Carramar, Birrong, Yagoona) have been significantly disadvantaged from Sydney Trains timetable cuts since 2013 per internal Transport for NSW documents.
Key Issues
Forced interchanges at Lidcombe, Birrong, (and Strathfield) since 2013 especially in off-peak.
For example: Sefton to Homebush used to be a direct train 16 minutes, now it’s up to 53 minutes with up to 4 separate trains (Sefton to Birrong interchange to Lidcombe interchange to Strathfield interchange to Homebush).
Increased travel times for Cumberland LGA (including Lidcombe, Berala, Regents Park etc).
For example, since 2013: Berala and Regents Park commuters forced to interchange at Lidcombe instead of direct train to City, and commuters forced to wait up to 30 minutes for T3 Bankstown Line train at Lidcombe towards Berala, Regents Park.
And since 2017, express trains from Lidcombe to Central (20 minutes) have been removed resulting in a near all stops journey of 33 minutes.
2024 timetable removal of Liverpool to Bankstown direct trains.
The T3 Bankstown Line beyond Bankstown will become a shuttle service between Lidcombe and Bankstown from the 2024 timetable. Commuters travelling between Liverpool-Sefton and Birrong-Bankstown stations will have to interchange at Regents Park.
For example, a commuter from Chester Hill travelling to Canterbury currently has 1 direct train. But in the 2024 timetable, this journey becomes 3 separate trains (Chester Hill to Regents Park interchange to Bankstown interchange (for Metro) to Canterbury).
Transport for NSW and Sydney Metro internal working groups appear to be continuing to consider removing trains in the West of Bankstown area as part of the NSW Future Transport Strategy.
The Sydenham to Bankstown Alliance advocates for the T2 Inner West Line & T3 Bankstown Line to operate as per above map (pre-2013) with station accessibility upgrades (as part of the Transport Access Program not Sydney Metro) and with digital signalling upgrades for up to 30 trains per hour.