Blue Mountains rail line

traveling from Lithgow to Sydney by public transport is a joke. It can take nearly twice the time on the train as it does to drive, and cost almost the same! While millions of dollars are being spent upgrading the Western Highway to accommodate the road traffic, not enough is spent on the rail to make it even close to viable for commuters.

There are 2 tracks running the Blue Mountains line. Coal, freight and passenger trains share the lines. My idea is to have the coal, freight and express passenger trains running one line and all station shuttle trains running the other. This could dramatically improve the travel times for longer journey commuters, and possible allow for more frequent trains running all stations between the express stops.

For example; If I lived in Leura and commuted to the University of Western Sydney everyday, I could catch the Lawson to Mount Victoria shuttle or drive to Katoomba, and catch the express to Kingswood stopping only at Lawson and Springwood before arriving at Kingswood. (Note that Penrith is no longer a major stop on account of the obviously higher passenger numbers at Kingswood). Quite likely then, my journey from Leura to Kingswood would be as fast if not faster by train.

Because the one rail is used for the less frequent express trains, more trains could run the other line. Ideally there would be one train per shuttle section, moving back and forth all stations between the respective express stops.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.