T1 North Shore and Western line

The T1 North Shore and Western Line is a suburban passenger rail service operated by Sydney Trains. It consists of 56 stations and serves the North Shore, Cumberland and Outer West regions of Sydney.

The line was first created in October 2013 as an amalgamation of the North Shore, Northern and Western Lines. In 2018, the Epping-Chatswood Rail Link (ECRL) was closed and converted for the Sydney Metro. The T9 Northern Line was separated back out in April 2019.

Currently, the T1 utilises part of the Main Western railway (Emu Plains to Central), North Shore railway (Berowra to Central) and Richmond branch railway lines.

The T1 North Shore & Western Line is given the code on maps and stations.

Main North Line
The Main North line is one of the major trunk rail lines on the network. It is used extensively by suburban, intercity, regional and freight trains. The T1 only uses a short section of this line, namely between Berowra and Hornsby, two interchange stations on the northern outskirts of Sydney. The T1 also formerly used a longer section of the Main North line (between Hornsby and Strathfield), but this section has now been split off and renamed to the T9 Northern Line.

North Shore Line
The North Shore Line is a part of the Sydney Trains metropolitan rail network. The North Shore Line extends from Sydney Central station through the western limb of the City Circle, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and along the North Shore area to Hornsby where it joins the Main North line.

There are terminating facilities at:
 * Hornsby (crossovers)
 * Gordon (turnback platform)
 * Lindfield (turnback platform)
 * Chatswood (removed when Sydney Metro Northwest was built)
 * North Sydney (two turnback platforms)
 * Wynyard (crossover, used during trackwork only)

History
The North Shore Line was opened on 1 January 1890 as a single track between Hornsby and St Leonards. The line was extended to the Sydney Harbour foreshore at Milsons Point on 1 May 1893. Transport between this original Milsons Point station and central Sydney was by ferry boat. Most of the North Shore line was duplicated between 1900 and 1909. In 1927 the line was converted to electric operation using a 1500 volt DC, overhead supply.

The construction works for the Sydney Harbour Bridge necessitated truncation of the southern terminus from Milsons Point to Lavender Bay. When the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 19 March 1932 a new Milsons Point station (on the bridge approach) came into operation and the North Shore Line was extended through it and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to link with the underground lines of central Sydney.

After 1932 the original Lavender Bay station became a storage depot for electric trains, and the line connecting Lavender Bay to the North Shore line was reduced to single track. This line joins the current passenger-carrying North Shore line at Waverton station.

In early years, Old Milsons Point, Bay Road, St Leonards, Chatswood, Lindfield, Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra, Wahroonga and Hornsby stations had goods yards. All but St Leonards, Chatswood and Hornsby yards had disappeared by mid-twentieth century, and the latter three did not survive into the late twentieth century. The North Shore Line is now a major commuter artery between the North Shore and central Sydney.

Main Suburban line
See also: 

After going over the Harbour Bridge and into the Sydney CBD, services then run along the Main Suburban line to Granville, using the middle 'Suburban' pair of tracks. These tracks are shared with T9 Northern services. Some services switch to the 'Main' pair of tracks west of Strathfield. Trains make very few stops in this section to speed up the journey for commuters travelling further west. Stopping services are provided by the T2 Inner West & Leppington line services.

Main Western line
After Granville, trains join the Main Western line, another major trunk line used by suburban, intercity, regional and freight trains. The line is four tracks wide between Granville and St Marys. The two track pairs are named 'West Suburban' (northern pair) and 'West Main' (southern pair). (Note that the track names switch - the West Suburban connects to Main and West Main connects to Suburban) At this point, the tracks are grouped by name (ie. Up West Suburban is next to Down West Suburban)

The line soon reaches Parramatta, a major population centre declared to be Sydney's second CBD. West of Parramatta, the track configuration changes at a grade separated junction. The tracks are now grouped by direction (ie. Up West Suburban is next to Up West Main).

After Seven Hills, the Richmond branch starts, adding another two tracks to the north. Again this is a grade separated junction, so down trains do not have to stop and wait for the up lines to be clear before crossing over to the Richmond branch.

There is a siding at Rooty Hill for the Holcim Concrete Facility there. After St Marys, the outer two tracks end, merging together to form a double track line. This is also where the former Ropes Creek branch left the Main Western line. The line then proceeds to Penrith, the last major station before the Blue Mountains, where there is a large stabling yard. T1 services continue for one more station to Emu Plains, at the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

There are terminating facilities at:
 * Parramatta (crossovers, only used by T2 trains)
 * Seven Hills (crossover, emergency use only)
 * Blacktown (turnback platform, used during peak only)
 * St Marys (crossovers, trackwork/emergency use only)
 * Penrith (turnback platform)
 * Emu Plains (crossover)

History
The Western Line opened to Penrith in 1863 as a double track branch from the junction with the Main South line at Granville. Electrification reached Parramatta in 1928 and Penrith in 1955. In 1980, quadruplication of the track between Blacktown and St Marys was completed. The branch line from Blacktown to Windsor, Richmond and the Hawkesbury River opened in 1864 (known as the Richmond branch line). In 1926, an extension was opened to Kurrajong, closing in 1952. The line was electrified to Riverstone in 1975. Electrification from Riverstone to Richmond commenced in 1987 but was suspended in 1988 due to lack of funds, restarting in 1990 and opening in August 1991. Initially electric trains operated as 2-car shuttles between Riverstone to Richmond until the electric power supply was upgraded to allow through running to and from Sydney in 1992. As part of the Clearways Project, the line was duplicated between Quakers Hill and Schofields. On 20 November 2006, Railcorp announced plans to extend duplication further along the line to Vineyard station, but this did not go ahead. There are also long term plans to link Sydney Metro Northwest to join the Richmond line at Schofields or Vineyard.

Proposed Fast Rail Link
First introduced in 2004 by a consortium of Dutch bank ABN AMRO and developer Leighton Holdings, the project dubbed the Penrith High Speed Link, known officially as Western FastRail, was reproposed in December 2006 and received approving comments by the NSW State Government, and was offered funding by Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd should the Australian Labor Party win the 2007 Federal Election. The $2 billion Western FastRail project will involve a tunnel being built between Parramatta and the Sydney CBD. It will shrink times from Penrith to the city to 28 minutes (presently over 55 minutes), Parramatta to City to 11 minutes (presently over 30 minutes) and Blacktown to City to 17 minutes (presently over 40 minutes). The plan would assist the entire Western Suburbs of Sydney (40% of Sydney's population), which as an area, is accursed with longer commute times than any other part of Sydney. It would also reduce the car dependency that is characteristic of this region. The Western FastRail project was rejected twice after government advisers estimated the project would cost $4.5 billion: $2 billion more than the proponents claimed. It was not clear where $600 million worth of single-deck rolling stock would come from; Penrith commuters would have to pay an extra $40 a week, and those who could not afford such a steep tariff would have to travel 84 minutes to the city for work due to the services cut to free tracks for the fast trains. Central, Parramatta and Wynyard would all need multimillion-dollar upgrades. Commuter car parks and feeder services would be needed. And none of these central concerns had been modelled or costed; a senior member of the Government's appraisal team said: "The construction cost estimates were entirely fanciful at $2 [billion] to $2.5 billion. That is just bollocks". Michael Easson, a former NSW Union Leader who had since become a prominent developer was central to the project and its strongest promoter. Concerns were raised that Easson would use inside knowledge to buy up adjacement property in Parramatta and Penrith, realising considerable profits through his companies EG Property Group and EG Property Consulting. Easson has however consistently denied these allegations.

This project has now been revived under the name Sydney Metro West.

Services
There are many stopping patterns on the T1, too many to list here. Almost every possible combination of terminating locations is used at some point during the day. Generally trains in the core section run at around 6 trains per hour (tph) during the offpeak and up to 11tph during the peak. However the actual service frequency seems a lot higher as many stations are also served by trains on other lines. For example the section between Strathfield and North Sydney has already reached 20tph (maximum capacity) as the track is shared with T9 services.

The Richmond branch does not run at night, instead, T5 Cumberland line services extend to Richmond.

Trains on the T1 change run numbers upon reaching Central, as technically the train's direction has changed.

Also note that due to the intricacies of the system that drives the platform screens, many services that could be considered as running on other lines will be shown with a T1 symbol. For example, Central Coast line trains running between Wyong and Blacktown via the North Shore (peak hour special service) are shown as T1 on screens.

The T1 is served by Waratahs (A and B sets) and Tangara (T set) trains. The aforementioned Central Coast services which show as T1 services are run by OSCAR (H Set) trains. However, there are limited OSCAR services which run exclusively on the T1 and terminate at Hornsby.

Trackwork services
Whenever the Harbour Bridge is inaccessible due to trackwork, Western Line services will either terminate at Central Grand Concourse or proceed around the City Circle.