Problem

Demand for rail freight in the Newcastle to Sydney corridor is projected to continue growing over the coming decades.

Stage 1 improvements to the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor have increased the corridor’s capacity by 50%, from 29 to 44 freight trains each day. This will accommodate growth in demand for rail freight up until 2028. In the longer term, the Sydney metropolitan rail network will again become a point of bottleneck for the rail freight network, mainly because of priority given to passenger rail services.

Proposed initiative

A second package of infrastructure improvements in the corridor would build on the earlier package to deliver a significant increase to core period (5 am to 10 pm) rail freight capacity, along with improved average transit times for freight services. This would also improve freight and passenger service reliability along the Strathfield to Broadmeadow corridor.

The candidate projects for the second package include Rhodes to West Ryde quadruplication and a third track between Thornleigh and Hornsby.

The New South Wales Government has completed a preliminary design for Rhodes to West Ryde quadruplication. A preliminary design for Thornleigh to Hornsby Third Track is being progressed.

Next steps

Proponent to complete business case development (Stage 3 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).