T3 Bankstown line

The T3 Bankstown Line is a suburban rail service operated by Sydney Trains, serving the Inner West and South Western suburbs of Sydney. It is referred to on maps and platforms by the code. Services mostly run along a railway line of the same name.

History
The line opened between Sydenham on the Illawarra railway line and Belmore in 1895. This was the first solely suburban line to open in Sydney — all other rail lines were mainlines carrying traffic into and out of Sydney. In 1909, the line was extended to Bankstown, with intermediate stations at Lakemba and Punchbowl. Wiley Park station opened later in 1938. In 1928, the line was extended westwards from Bankstown to join the Main South line at Sefton Park Junction. In 1916, the Metropolitan Goods Line was constructed paralleling the Bankstown Line between Marrickville and Campsie.

The current rail service also runs along two other physical railway lines: the Illawara and Main South lines. The Cabramatta-Liverpool section was opened in 1856, while the Sydenham-City section opened in 1884. The Lidcombe-Sefton Park Junction-Liverpool section opened in 1928.

In 1926 the Bankstown became the second line in Sydney to be electrified and a maintenance depot was constructed at Punchbowl. Electrification was extended from Bankstown to Regents Park in 1939. Electric passenger services originally operated along the Bankstown Line to St James station, until the 1956 opening of Circular Quay station and the completion of the City Circle. The Punchbowl maintenance depot closed in 1994.

The line formerly was depicted in a brown colour in the early 1990s before being changed to a purple colour around 2000, before it became the current orange colour.

January 2006 saw the completion of a four-year project to upgrade the line. The work included the resleepering of the entire line, replacing the former wooden sleepers with the more durable concrete ones, replacement and upgrade of the signalling, and also replacement of the ageing catenary, mostly with the more modern double contact wire variety. Other minor work such as graffiti removal and lineside litter clean-up was also carried out as part of the upgrade. The lengthy upgrade process was noted for its "January Closedowns", in which the entire line was closed in January for the bulk of the upgrade work to take place. Trackwork buses operated in leiu of the trains.

In addition to the track and catenary upgrade, many of the stations on the Bankstown Line have had their facilities upgraded in the early 2000s, including new station buildings, the installation of platform lifts for wheelchair access, and the installation of security cameras. The upgrade of all stations is ongoing, and many are still in their original condition, and do not provide wheelchair accessibility, making it prudent for those requiring this capability to check before travelling.

In the October 2013 timetable changes, the Lidcombe and Homebush turnbacks were brought into use, stopping trains from returning to the city from Lidcombe via the Inner West Line.

Sydney Metro Conversion
The Bankstown railway line is currently being converted to metro operation between Bankstown and Sydenham. Sydney Metro City & Southwest will take over this section in 2024 and run services between Bankstown and Chatswood, with trains continuing onto the Metro North West Line at Chatswood. Works include installation of new wheelchair accessible concourses at stations that don't currently have one, installation of gap fillers and platform edge doors, installing a new signalling system and upgrading the power supply. In order to carry out these works, the line will close temporarily during the Christmas & New Year periods between 2019 and 2023. A longer closure (likely several months) will occur in late 2023 or 2024, just before the new metro line opens.

T3 Bankstown Line services will continue to operate west of Bankstown after the conversion. It is likely that it will operate as two branches: Liverpool-Lidcombe-City and Bankstown-Lidcombe. St Peters and Erskineville stations will be serviced by the T4 and/or T8 lines.

Route
Services begin in the City Circle. Trains on the Bankstown line are often split between the inner (anticlockwise) and outer (clockwise) City Circle tracks. After Central, all trains merge back into the 'Illawara Local' tracks. Trains operate on the 'Illawarra local' (western pair) tracks between Redfern and Sydenham, serving St Peters and Erskineville stations. After Sydenham, trains make a sharp turn to the west, joining the Bankstown railway line. At Birrong, the line splits into two branches, both travelling along the Main South line, to Lidcombe and Liverpool.

Incorrect destinations
Some services on the Lidcombe branch have incorrect destinations displayed for various reasons. At Lidcombe, platform screens will display City services as terminating at Sydenham, to stop passengers for the City, who can take a much faster T1/2 service, from boarding. Newer trains running outbound Lidcombe branch services display 'Birrong' as the destination. As the train turns back toward the City after Birrong, the train receives a new run number after Birrong. Therefore, the train displays 'Birrong' as its destination as that is the last stop on its current run. The exterior displays can be manually overriden by the guard to display 'Lidcombe', but the interior displays cannot.

Historical
As far back as 2000, there were generally 6 tph in the peak, made up of 2tph from Liverpool and 4tph from Lidcombe. Stopping patterns were varied, however 2tph skipped Canterbury to Marrickville, St Peters and Erskineville, and some also skipped Carramar to Leightonfield. Trains alternated between using the City Inner and City Outer.

In the off-peak, there were generally 2tph from Liverpool and 2tph from Lidcombe, for a total of 4tph.

No trains actually terminated at Lidcombe until 2013. Trains instead ran as a loop, forming Inner West line services upon reaching Lidcombe and continued back to the City. In 2013, the Lidcombe turnback was brought into use, with trains now turning back to the City via the Bankstown Line.

Also in 2013, the stopping pattern for express services was changed. Express services now skipped Yagoona, Canterbury to Dulwich Hill and Erskineville only and travelled via the City Outer. All stops services travelled via the City Inner. Trains alternated between express and all stops patterns in the peak, for a total of 7tph. The off-peak timetable remained the same.

New Timetable (after November 2017)
In 2017, the ABC won a legal battle with Transport for NSW and as a result published TfNSW's 2014 draft timetable. The revised timetable showed that the Bankstown line would be upgraded to 10 trains per hour, 4 from Lidcombe and 2 each from Liverpool, Bankstown and Leppington.

The actual timetable change came into effect in November 2017. Services were significantly boosted on the Bankstown Line on weekdays, but not as much as shown in the draft timetable. More stopping patterns were added for peak hour services and express services were added during the off-peak.

Morning Peak Stopping Patterns Afternoon Peak Stopping Patterns
 * Lidcombe, all to Hurlstone Park, Sydenham, all to City (Inner) at 2tph
 * Liverpool, all to Cabramatta, Chester Hill, all to Birrong, Bankstown, Campsie, Dulwich Hill, all to Sydenham, Redfern, City (Outer) at 2tph
 * Lidcombe, all to Sydenham, Erskineville, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * Liverpool, all to Birrong, Bankstown, Lakemba, Campsie, Sydenham, St Peters, Redfern, City (Inner) at 2tph
 * Liverpool, all to Leightonfield, Sefton, Birrong, Bankstown, Belmore, Dulwich Hill, all to Sydenham, Erskineville, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
 * City (Inner), Redfern, Sydenham, Marrickville, Campsie, Lakemba, Bankstown, Birrong, all to Liverpool at 2tph
 * Lidcombe, all to City (Outer) at 4tph
 * Liverpool, all to Birrong, Bankstown, Lakemba, Campsie, Marrickville, Sydenham, Redfern, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
 * City (Inner), Redfern, Sydenham, Marrickville, Campsie, Lakemba, Bankstown, Birrong, all to Liverpool at 4tph

Off Peak Stopping Patterns


 * Lidcombe, all to City (Outer) at 4tph
 * Liverpool, all to Birrong, Bankstown, Lakemba, Campsie, Marrickville, Sydenham, Redfern, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
 * City (Inner), Redfern, Sydenham, Marrickville, Campsie, Lakemba, Bankstown, Birrong, all to Liverpool at 2tph

Weekend Stopping Patterns
 * Lidcombe, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * Liverpool, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
 * City (Outer), all to Liverpool at 2tph
 * City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 2tph