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Liverpool & Inner West Line
B sets passing at Summer Hill.
Overview
Service type	Commuter rail service
Status	Operational
Locale	Sydney, New South Wales
Predecessor	Inner West (1999–2013) Bankstown (2013–2024)
First service	30 September 2024; 3 months ago (2024-09-30)
Current operator(s)	Sydney Trains
Route
Termini	City Circle Liverpool
Stops	30
Average journey time	1 hour
Line(s) used	City Circle Main Suburban Main Southern
On-board services
Disabled access	Yes
Technical
Rolling stock	K, M, A and B sets
Track gauge	Standard gauge
Electrification	1,500 V DC from overhead catenary
Track owner(s)	Transport Asset Holding Entity
Timetable number(s)	T3
Sydney rail services Metro North West & Bankstown North Shore & Western Leppington & Inner West Liverpool & Inner West Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Cumberland Lidcombe & Bankstown Olympic Park Airport & South Northern v t e

The Liverpool & Inner West Line (numbered T3, coloured orange) is a commuter rail service operated by Sydney Trains in the Inner West and Western suburbs of Sydney. It operates from the City Circle to Liverpool via the Main Suburban railway line to Lidcombe and the Main Southern railway line from there to Liverpool.

History

Early history

The section of the Main Suburban railway line used by Liverpool & Inner West Line services is the oldest railway in New South Wales, having opened in 1855. The section of the Main Southern railway line from Lidcombe to Cabramatta via Regents Park that it also uses is newer, having opened between 1912 and 1924 as deviation to provide a more direct route to Liverpool. Electrification to Liverpool was completed by 1929, after which electric passenger suburban services began operating the same route from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park as they do today.

T3 Bankstown Line (2013–2024)

Following the 2011 state election, the newly elected O'Farrell government embarked on reform of transport in New South Wales, creating a new organisation, Transport for NSW, in November of that year. This was followed up with another government reform, which saw Sydney Trains take over operation of the Sydney suburban rail network from CityRail in July 2013.

Transport for NSW developed a new rail timetable, which was put into effect on 20 October 2013. The 2013 timetable was designed to integrate the projects of the Rail Clearways Program, a 2004 plan to divide the network's fourteen metropolitan rail lines into five independent "clearways" by installing extra tracks, passing loops, turnouts and turnbacks at pinch points around the network, such as at Homebush and Lidcombe. By 2013, the Rail Clearways Program was substantially complete.

The 2013 timetable saw services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park, which had previously been operated by CityRail under the name Inner West Line, phased out. Instead, from 2013 stations on the Main Southern railway line between Lidcombe and Cabramatta were only serviced by the T3 Bankstown Line, a Sydney Trains continuation of earlier CityRail services on the Bankstown railway line. This service operated as two branches, one from Liverpool and one from Lidcombe, connecting to the City Circle via Bankstown and Sydenham instead of via the Main Suburban railway line. This configuration utilised the new turnback at Lidcombe, and reduced bottlenecking on the Main Suburban railway line. However, the changes attracted criticism due to the increased number of interchanges and increased travel time for passengers from stations west of Bankstown.

T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line (from 2024)

From 30 September 2024, a new Sydney Trains timetable was introduced which restored services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park and the Main Suburban railway line, branded as the T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line. This coincided with the partial closure of the Bankstown railway line between Bankstown and Sydenham for its conversion as part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project. The restoration of this service was informed by community consultation undertaken by Transport for NSW in 2020, in which 85% of respondents favoured the option of restoring services from Liverpool to the City Circle via Regents Park.

Operation

Route

T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line
km continues as 5.0 Museum 4.4 St James 3.0 Circular Quay 2.0 Wynyard 1.2 Town Hall 0.0 Central 1.3 Redfern 2.5 Macdonaldtown 3.1 Newtown 4.7 Stanmore 5.5 Petersham 6.2 Lewisham 7.0 Summer Hill 8.4 Ashfield 9.4 Croydon 10.6 Burwood 11.8 Strathfield 12.7 Homebush 14.3 Flemington 16.6 Lidcombe 18.4 Berala 19.9 Regents Park 21.2 Sefton 22.3 Chester Hill 23.7 Leightonfield 24.5 Villawood 25.9 Carramar 32.0 Cabramatta 34.2 Warwick Farm 35.7 Liverpool
This diagram: view talk edit

T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line services begin in the Sydney CBD on the City Circle. After leaving Central, T3 services use the Main Suburban railway line to travel through the Inner West. At Lidcombe T3 services branch off from the Main Suburban, and use the Main Southern railway line via Regents Park to complete their journey to Liverpool.

Patronage

The following table shows the patronage of Sydney Trains network for the year ending 30 June 2024.

1. Figures based on Opal tap on and tap off data
2. T3 patronage from former route via Bankstown.
3. T6 services commenced on 19 October 2024.

See also

• Leppington & Inner West Line

References

1. Asset Standards Authority (19 March 2014). RailCorp electrical system general description, version 1.0 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
2. "Opening of the Regents Park line, Cabramatta Railway Station". Fairfield City Heritage Collection. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
3. ^ "NSW Rail.net Lidcombe-Cabramatta line". Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2007.
4. Saulwick, Jacob (1 July 2013). "All change as RailCorp is disbanded". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
5. Transport for NSW (18 July 2017). "October 2013 timetable changes". NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
6. Transport for NSW (15 August 2014). "Rail Clearways Program – completed projects". NSW Government. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015.
7. Saulwick, Jacob; Carroll, Lucy; Bodkin, Ed (21 October 2013). "New train timetable had a smooth start but not all commuters are happy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
8. Khalil, Shireen (14 January 2015). "Roydon Ng isn't giving up on his year-long campaign to restore the Inner West line". Inner West Courier. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015.
9. Beech, James (30 March 2015). "NSW Election 2015: Tania Mihailuk saves Bankstown for Labor and vows to fight state privatisation". Canterbury-Bankstown Express. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
10. Transport for NSW. "Southwest Link". transportnsw.info. NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
11. Transport for NSW (October 2024). "Train and bus timetable changes FAQs: 2024 train and bus timetable" (PDF). NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
12. Hathaway-Wilson, Joseph (27 September 2024). "What you need to know about the T3 Sydenham to Bankstown train stations closure". ABC News. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
13. Transport for NSW (December 2020). "West of Bankstown rail services in 2024". NSW Government. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
14. ^ "Main South line". NSW Rail.net. Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
15. ^ "NSW Rail.net City Circle". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2007.
16. "Driver Route Knowledge Diagrams - City Circle" (PDF). Railsafe. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
17. "Train Patronage – Monthly Figures". Transport for NSW. Retrieved 30 October 2024.

v t e Public transport in Sydney
Transport for NSW Ticketing Opal card
Metro	Lines M1 Metro North West & Bankstown Sydney Metro Northwest Sydney Metro City & Southwest Sydney Metro West Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport Operator Metro Trains Sydney Infrastructure List of Sydney Metro stations
Train	Lines T1 North Shore & Western T2 Leppington & Inner West T3 Liverpool & Inner West T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra T5 Cumberland T6 Lidcombe & Bankstown T7 Olympic Park T8 Airport & South T9 Northern Operator Sydney Trains Infrastructure Airport Link Company List of Sydney railway lines List of Sydney Trains railway stations Sydney rail rolling stock Transport Asset Holding Entity
Bus	Services B1 Metrobus 144 190X 333 NightRide Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts Sydney Olympic Park bus routes Operators Busways CDC NSW Keolis Downer Northern Beaches Transdev John Holland Transit Systems U-Go Mobility Infrastructure Liverpool–Parramatta T-way North-West T-way
Ferry	Sydney Ferries Services F1 Manly F2 Taronga Zoo F3 Parramatta River F4 Pyrmont Bay F5 Neutral Bay F6 Mosman F7 Double Bay F8 Cockatoo Island F9 Watsons Bay F10 Blackwattle Bay Operator Transdev Sydney Ferries Infrastructure List of Sydney Ferries wharves Other services Captain Cook Cruises Church Point Ferry Cronulla and National Park Ferry Cruises Manly Fast Ferry
Light Rail	Lines L1 Dulwich Hill L2 Randwick & L3 Kingsford L4 Westmead & Carlingford Infrastructure List of Sydney light rail stops
Other	Bridj Monorail Trams Trolleybuses
Italics denotes services yet to commence

• 2024 establishments in Australia
• Railway lines opened in 2024
• Standard gauge railways in Australia
• Railway lines in Sydney
• Sydney Trains
• Inner West