About The Blue Mountains Line is an inter-urban commuter rail service operated by NSW TrainLink serving the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. The line travels west from Sydney to the major town of Katoomba and on to Mount Victoria, Lithgow and Bathurst. Mount Victoria is the terminus for most electric services, but some services terminate at Lithgow instead. Due to electrification limits at Lithgow, the Bathurst Bullet is run using the Endeavour railcars. The Blue Mountains Line operates over a mostly duplicated section of the Main Western line. As such, the tracks are also traversed by the Central West XPT, Outback Xplorer and Indian Pacific passenger services and by freight trains. There were 10,154,000 passengers in 2019. The distance of this route is 107km (66.4mi) Services The line is operated entirely by NSW TrainLink V sets. As the electric overhead wiring ends at Lithgow, diesel-electric Endeavour railcars operate the services to and from Bathurst. All-electric Blue Mountains line services start and terminate from the intercity platforms (4-15) of Central station. During the weekday off-peak, they operate hourly, alternating between services to Mount Victoria and Lithgow. During the morning and afternoon peaks, some express services operate, together with short workings to Springwood and Katoomba. There are two services each way from Bathurst to Central, known as the Bathurst bullet, mainly catering for commuters working in Sydney. Two services run toward Central in the morning and return in the afternoon. Two shuttle services operate from Lithgow to Bathurst in the early morning and return to Lithgow late at night. Passenger rolling stock V sets Endeavour railcars D set (Not yet running) Video Showing trains running in the dry and snow, Night and day
Would love this route and to drive a Tangara, but you can actually start the route from Hornsby to Katoomba and beyond, making it a worthwhile route with the amazing stretch from North Sydney towards Sydney Central as the route travels along the roadside of the harbour bridge with spectacular views including the opera house. If they were to charge us £50 or more I would still be one of the first to buy it. Sydney also has a decent three routes metro system that runs from Circular Quay to Kingsford or Randwick and Sydney Central to Dulwich Hills. If I had the patience and skills of being a designer, I would produce all of these routes myself and encourage those to look at the stunning and spectacular detail the the plenty of YT videos capture.
The Blue Mountains are certainly picture perfect image of quintessential Australian bush. Even as a Melbournian I have to admit that if you want a place that captures our deep forested bushland then the Blue Mountains are where to head. Have to nail that blue eucalyptus oil haze that is their namesake though. Added this thread to the master list of Australian proposals (here). This diagram shows how driving the route in each direction would be completely separate challenges: Boy is that some gradient!
I believe some do have a look at this gives a better idea of how freight moves around Australia https://www.transportinfrastructurecouncil.gov.au/publications/freight_route_maps
I love to drive a train from Australia! Need a break from driving in the same 3 countries that DTG go for. Wonder what the Aussies have in terms of safety systems? In the U.K. we have aws and dsd, Germany has pzb, LZB and sifa and America has the alerter and that’s about it. American railroads and rolling stock are not as up to date as trains in Europe.
I definitely agree having the same 3 countries gets boring and also makes it look that DTG is playing favourites. With the safety systems on trains each state uses different systems.
Australia uses KPH as a general standard. It was converted from MPH a long time ago... tho some lines (heritage in Victoria like Puffing Billy and Victorian Goldfields Railway uses MPH).
Huh? Thought they used MPH like we do. Ah well, makes things easier to know which speed that you’re racing down the railway at! Is KMH just used for trains or is it on cars as well?
My fellow Melbournites will hunt me down and burn me for saying it, but I would buy the Blue Mountains line. I've ridden the line a number of times and its an interesting one with some good challenges. It also has good varied freight opportunities both with "native" NSW locomotives and foreigners in the hands of private operators.
Excellent idea and I've been on DKM 8143 1989 build V set Granville to Paramatta one way back in 2002. The line is 93 mi 150 km/s from Central Station to Lithgow. Around 16:00-20:00 V sets become standing room only