Sydney Trains T8 Airport & South Line

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by paintbrushguy, Jul 24, 2022.

  1. paintbrushguy

    paintbrushguy Well-Known Member

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    I have no expectation any Australian route, or by extension any route outside NA and Europe will enter the TSW franchise.

    Overview
    The Airport & South line, sometimes referred to as the 'East Hills line' and numbered T8 on timetables and maps, is a heavy rail line in the south-west of Sydney NSW, Australia's largest city. It is served by passenger trains only, and extends to a maximum distance of 43km from Central with 32 stations. The line is electrified at 1500V DC OHLE and is standard gauge.
    Route
    The line starts in the City Circle, shown below, running from Central to Central via the City. This balloon loop allows 'up' services to change line and return to the suburbs in the 'down' direction with the same cab leading. The CC is primarily cut-and-cover, except for a short New York-esque section of elevated running through Circular Quay.
    [​IMG]
    City Circle in green
    South of Central, the T8 splits briefly, with limited peak T8 services continuing along the quad Illawarra lines through Sydenham and the rest on the new underground 5km Airport Link, which was bored and opened in 2000. The lines then merge in a grade separated junction immediately west of Wolli Creek, forming quad track again to Revesby on the East Hills line. Express services (to Macarthur) do not stop between Revesby and Wolli Creek, and thus use the outer tracks in this section, whilst all stops trains to Revesby use the two inner tracks.
    This means some services do not stop for around 12km, running at speeds of up to 115km/h in places.
    West of Revesby, double tracking resumes and Macarthur services stop at all stations. At Glenfield, the line joins the Main South railway at another grade separated junction, and just south of here another flyover allows T2 and T5 trains to turn off to Leppington. T8 trains however continue south to Macarthur, the southern extremity of Sydney Trains services and the end of electrification.
    A&S.png
    I couldn't find a good line map, so I made my own. Best used side by side with the official network map.

    Services
    For this, it's best to use the official timetable.

    Various other lines intersect with this route, such as T2 and T3 along the city circle, T3 between Central and Sydenham and T4 between St Peters (between Sydenham and Central) and Wolli Creek.
    Also, one intercity line, the South Coast line, runs along the route between Central and Wolli Creek, and if expansions permit, Regional NSW services to Canberra, Griffith, Moss Vale, Goulburn and Melbourne run on the fast lines between Central and Macarthur.

    I will split up the route into sections seen in my map above to explain peak-hour TPH.
    City Circle
    15 TPH on T8 only (maximum 20 TPH if T3 and T2 are included here)​
    Airport Link
    12 TPH​
    Illawarra
    5 TPH (up to 10ish with T4, SCO and T3)​
    Revesby Local (East Hills)
    5 TPH (some trains run to an altered stopping pattern in peak hours, so including these trains 12 TPH)​
    Macarthur Trains
    12 TPH (Some trains start just north of Macarthur, at Campbelltown)​

    Rolling Stock
    I propose the Sydney Trains A&B and M sets could be included, with the K set as a DLC.
    This would mean no T4 or SCO services could be run with true-to-life stock, but hey, this route won't happen anyway so what gives!

    The A & B sets, whilst being two different classes of EMU, are 90% similar and considered the same for driver training purposes. They are double deck and run off the OHLE. They run on all featured lines except T4 and SCO.

    The M sets are precursors to the A&Bs, and run the same services.

    Further reading (I recommend you do read these, as I went into very little detail):
    A&B sets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Trains_A_&_B_sets
    M sets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Trains_M_set
    K sets (ik i didn't even talk about these lol): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Trains_K_set

    Thanks for reading yet another suggestion that won't happen...
     

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  2. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    DLC Trains
    1986 Built C Set
    1972-1987 L,R & S Set
    1987 T set
    For this route
     
  3. paintbrushguy

    paintbrushguy Well-Known Member

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    The T set would not be worth the money for this route alone, and would best be layered from another route such as Central-Berowra.
    This is because there is only 1 weekend T set on sector 2 (T2, T3, T5, T7, T8) and only a short section of T4 running.
     
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  4. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for telling me about this since I was used to the 2002 Service Pattern which has the South Line see T sets towards Glenfield via Granville and Liverpool NSW. How about the other electric trains like V Sets H Sets or D sets they can fit there. In 2002 V Sets would have done the South line too if Needed together with L R & S Sets, T Sets & M Sets.
     
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