Central Coast and Newcastle line

The Central Coast & Newcastle Line (CCN) is an intercity service, part of the NSW TrainLink network. It runs from Sydney Central to Newcastle Interchange, a large city to the north of Sydney, via the Central Coast region. It is coloured grey with red on NSW TrainLink maps and other promotional material.

Route
The line starts at Sydney Central's intercity platforms (1-12). It then travels west, entering the six track Main Suburban railway line, using the Main pair of tracks. At Strathfield, the line turns to the north and enters the Main North line, which it stays on for most of the way to Newcastle. Most of the Main North up to Hornsby is 3-4 tracks, with some short double track sections. This allows CCN trains to pass suburban T9 services.

Past Berowra, the line starts to travel through bushland in the outskirts of Sydney. The terrain here is steep and rugged. The line climbs approaching Cowan and then descends steeply with grades of up to 1:37 towards Hawkesbury River. The line also passes through a number of sharp turns, cuttings and tunnels, allowing the line to traverse the difficult terrain without being too steep for heavier freight trains. The line was deviated in 1909 and 1946 to further ease the gradient, creating two disused tunnels.

After Hawkesbury River station, the line crosses the Hawkesbury River using a large bridge. It then continues along the banks of Mullet Creek. There are rainfall monitors set up in this section as there is a risk of landslide during heavy rain. After this section, the line is mostly unremarkable, passing through many towns in the Central Coast region. After Broadmeadow, the line turns onto the Newcastle Branch railway line, ending at Newcastle Interchange.

The line is electrified throughout at 1500V DC, and is primarily double track, although there are passing loops at Hawkesbury River, Gosford, Wyong, Awaba, and Sulphide Junction (between Cockle Creek and Cardiff). Trains can terminate at Gosford (added platform), Wyong (added platform) and Morisset (crossover) stations.

There are two stations planned on the line - a new station for Warnervale town centre at North Warnervale and a Glendale station between Cockle Creek and Cardiff.

The line is notable for the detailed murals that adorn areas near most stations between Hornsby and Newcastle, incorporating imagery and names related to the appropriate station.

Services
The line is usually served by two trains per hour (tph) in the off-peak (stopping patterns shown below): There are additional services during the peak, which use the Gosford and Wyong termini as well. Additionally, some peak services run via the North Shore line and then continue past Central to terminate at Blacktown, in Sydney's west. Some trains also make extra suburban stops during the peak at Redfern, Asquith and all stops Town Hall-Chatswood. Late night trains make all stops between Hornsby and Berowra in lieu of T1 North Shore line trains.
 * Central, all to Newcastle Interchange (1tph)
 * Central, express to Newcastle Interchange (1tph)

Weekend trains run to a slightly different arrangement:
 * Central, express to Wyong, all to Newcastle (0.5tph)
 * Central, express to Wyong, express to Newcastle (0.5tph)
 * Central, all to Wyong (1tph)

Historically, there were also shuttle services that ran between Newcastle-Morriset. There were also two named services on the line: "The River", which ran between Wyong and St Marys via the freight line at Strathfield and "Newcastle Flyer", which ran between Central and Newcastle, but skipped most stations, even those usually stopped at by express services. Both of these ran during the peak, and were intended to speed up the journey for people living on the upper Central Coast working in Sydney.

CCN services are run by H and V sets, in both 4 and 8 car configurations. V sets usually run weekday express services, with H sets on the rest. (Note that V sets are never rostered on services running via the North Shore, as most platforms are too short to accomodate an 8 car V set and they are not marked as short platforms) There were also once 2 car K sets that ran on the Newcastle-Morriset shuttle.

Opal is accepted for all services on this line.

Free Wi-fi Trial
In 2020, Transport for NSW began trialling free wi-fi to stations on the Central Coast Line, between Wyong and Hornsby, to improve connectivity between the two areas. As of May 2020, 11 stations have had wi-fi installed, with another 8 planned, to bring the total to 19 stations. The trial will run for 3 years at all stations between Wyong and Hornsby. It is the first line in New South Wales to receive the trial. 

Stations
The table below only shows regularly served stations. As described above, some services make extra stops or run via a different route.