T7 Olympic Park line

The Olympic Park railway line is a railway line linking the Sydney Olympic Park precinct to the Main Suburban railway line at Flemington and Lidcombe. Originally opened as the Abattoirs branch in 1911, it was rebuilt and reopened as the Olympic Park railway line in 1998.

Sydney Trains operates passenger services on the line, as part of its T7 Olympic Park service.

History
After Sydney's successful Olympic bid, the area around Homebush Bay was chosen as the main site for the 2000 Olympics and accordingly renamed Olympic Park. A new railway was constructed to convey spectators to the Olympics, partially following the route of the former Abbattoirs branch. The new line opened on 8 March 1998.

Today, the line continues to transport people to and from major events occurring within the Sydney Olympic Park precinct, but also carries workers and residents of Olympic Park to and from the rest of the Sydney Trains network.

Route
The Olympic Park line begins with a triangle junction with the Main Suburban line, near Flemington Maintenance Centre and Lidcombe station. It then meets another triangle junction with the Metropolitan Goods line. After this, there is a siding which leads to the former Abattoirs branch. It then crosses Parramatta Road and the M4 motorway with one of the two bridges formerly used by the Abbattoirs branch.

After this, there are a set of crossovers allowing trains to terminate before reaching Olympic Park. After the crossover, the line becomes a single track balloon loop. Trains normally run clockwise around the loop, but can go in the other direction when shunting. The line becomes double track for a short distance around Olympic Park station, before again merging back into single track.

Branding
Passenger services on the line were originally run by the State Rail Authority (SRA), which became CityRail. The line was initially marked on the network map as a part of the Western Line (coloured yellow). It was later separated out into its own line, named the Olympic Park Sprint and given the colour white. With the 2013 restructure of rail services, the line was rebranded and given the colour grey.

Normal Service
Initially, a single train ran as a shuttle between Olympic Park and Lidcombe (using the Olympic Park Sprint Platform, which is now named platform 0), with a service every 20 minutes. A small number of trains also ran between Central (intercity platforms) and Olympic Park on weekdays. Later on, these trains were cancelled and replaced with an extra shuttle train to boost the frequency to every 10 minutes during the daytime. Most trains were 4 carriages long. This configuration has continued to this day.

Special Event Service
During major events at Sydney Olympic Park, in addition to the Lidcombe shuttles, train services run direct from the intercity platforms of Central, making stops at Redfern and Strathfield. After larger events, westbound trains from Olympic Park are sometimes extended beyond Lidcombe to Blacktown via the Western line, and to Glenfield and Campbelltown via the Main South line, using platforms 2 and 4 at Lidcombe. All services that run during special events are boosted to 8 cars.

Fleet
Trains and crew on the line are usually provided by Flemington Maintenance Centre. Crew changeovers occur at Lidcombe station. The line is part of Sector 2. Any available train in the suburban fleet can be used for all services on the line. Currently, M sets are rostered for normal services on weekdays, while Series 1 Waratahs are rostered for normal services on weekends.