L1 Dulwich Hill Light Rail

The L1 Dulwich Hill Light Rail (formerly the Metro Light Rail) is a light rail line/service running through the inner west of Sydney. The line opened on 31 August 1997, mostly along the route of an unused goods railway line, to serve the redeveloped inner-city areas of Darling Harbour, Ultimo and Pyrmont, and was extended in 2000 to serve some of Sydney's inner western suburbs. The line was extended again in 2014 to Dulwich Hill. The line is owned by the NSW Government's Transport for NSW and operated by Transdev.

The line is currently served by 5-module Urbos 3 trams.

History[]

Most of the alignment of the Metro Light Rail's Central to Lilyfield line had its origins as the Darling Harbour Goods Line. From the time when the Sydney Railway Company was formed in 1848, it had been the intention of the company to build a freight terminal at Darling Harbour. To this end, a railway line was constructed between the Sydney Railway Station (the predecessor to Central Railway Station) and Darling Harbour, which opened on 26 September 1855. This line was extended to Dulwich Hill via Lilyfield in 1922. With widespread use as a freight line throughout the early 20th century, the use of containers and the decentralisation of freight terminals in Sydney to places such as Port Botany and Chullora, Darling Harbour traffic was reduced considerably. The port was closed and the area redeveloped.

In 1994, the Sydney Light Rail Company was formed. Construction and conversion of the first section of line from Central station to Wentworth Park started on 25 January 1996 and took 16 months to complete. The line started at Railway Colonade, the former tram terminus at Central. The line then ran along Hay Street with stops at Capitol Square and Paddy's Market. After Paddy's Market, the line turned onto the former freight line and followed it all the way to Wentworth Park.

The route opened for public operation with a trial service on 11 August 1997 for three weeks of testing. The official public opening was conducted by the then Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr on 31 August. A full revenue service started the next day at 6am on Monday 1 September. Buoyed by the success of the original line the route was extended along the closed section of the goods line to Lilyfield. The extension was officially opened on Sunday 13 August 2000.

In 2009 goods traffic on the line between Rozelle and Dulwich Hill ceased and in February 2010 the NSW Labor Government announced the 5.6km extension of the light rail from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill. Work to upgrade the track and remove the overhead wiring began in August 2010. The project received planning approval in February 2011. The extension was originally scheduled to open in 2012, but in September 2011 the newly elected Coalition Government announced that it would not open until 2014, and that the cost had risen from $120 million to $176 million. The Greenway walking and cycling path which was to run alongside much of the route was deferred. The Coalition blamed hasty planning by Labor for the delay and cost overruns, and the lack of an active transport masterplan for the deferral of the Greenway. John Holland Group was announced as the successful tenderer for the infrastructure works on 31 May 2012. The company designed and built the 9 stations, bridge works, signalling and power supply. The extension was estimated to be used by 3,105 boarding passengers per weekday by 2016 with 415 of those arriving by train and 460 arriving by bus.

On Friday, 23 March 2012 it was announced that the state government had bought Metro Transport Sydney, the owner of Sydney's Light Rail and Monorail systems. The NSW Government says that this will allow them to face fewer obstacles in extending the network. The system is now run by Transdev on the behalf of the government.

In 2013, all modes of transport were rebranded to the unified 'The Hop' branding. Light rail was assigned the colour red. The Dulwich Hill Line was numbered L1 (as it was the only line at the time) and given the colour dark red. Accordingly, all new trams were given a red and white livery.

In October 2021, cracks were found in the welding on some LRVs (it was later confirmed to affect all LRVs). All services were replaced with buses while further inspections took place. At a press conference on 5 November, it was announced that services would remain suspended for up to 18 months while repairs take place. In December 2021, it was confirmed after testing that the Alstom Citadis 305 trams, used on the L2/L3 CBD and Southeast Light Rail lines, were deemed suitable to be used on the Dulwich Hill line, and they would commence service on the line in February 2022, however only between Central and Lilyfield, with buses still to replace trains from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill until at least mid-2022. It was announced on 6 February 2022 that entire line would reopen on 12 February. At least one Urbos 3 unit returned to service starting from 1 August 2022.

Timetable[]

Between 6am-11pm, all trams run the full length of the line from Central to Dulwich Hill. Outside of these times, a shuttle runs between The Star and Central (which is currently suspended due to COVID restrictions).

Service frequencies vary between 8-15 minutes, depending on the time of day. There is no public timetable available for the route, however realtime arrivals information is available on both online and on LED platform indicators. This information may be inaccurate near termini, as the system calculates times based on the current position of the next tram and cannot account for dwell time at termini. Service frequency will increase to every 6 minutes when more trams arrive in 2023.

Service frequency is currently reduced to every 15 minutes between Central and Dulwich Hill due to lack of rollingstock associated with the Urbos 3 cracking issues. On top of this, there is one additional Urbos 3 unit operating between Central and Lilyfield during peak hours only.

Stations[]

Station	Transfer	Open
Central Grand Concourse	Central station, Central Chalmers Street Light Rail station, and bus services	1997
Capitol Square	Chinatown Light Rail station	1997
Paddy's Markets		1997
Exhibition Centre		1997
Convention		1997
Pyrmont Bay	Pyrmont Bay Wharf	1997
The Star	Route 389 bus	1997
John Street Square	Route 389 bus	1997
Fish Market	Route 501 bus	1997
Wentworth Park		1997
Glebe	Route 370/431 bus	2000
Jubilee Park		2000
Rozelle Bay	Route 433 bus	2000
Lilyfield	Route 470 bus	2000
Leichhardt North		2014
Hawthorne		2014
Marion		2014
Taverners Hill	Bus services on Parramatta Road	2014
Lewisham West	Lewisham station	2014
Waratah Mills		2014
Arlington		2014
Dulwich Grove	Bus services on Canterbury Road	2014
Dulwich Hill	Dulwich Hill station	2014

Ticketing[]

The Metro Light Rail initially used its own ticketing system based on zones. Zone 1 was Central ↔ Convention and Zone 2 was Pyrmont Bay ↔ Dulwich Hill. Day and weekly tickets which also allowed travel on the Metro Monorail were available. Initially ticket machines were installed at some stations. These were replaced at some point in the early 2000s with conductors onboard the trams, who issued tickets in the form of receipts.

On 27 June 2011, light rail was partially integrated into the broader Sydney ticketing system. A "TramLink" ticket, which allowed travel on light and heavy rail, was added. All MyMultis, Pensioner Excursion and Family Funday Sunday tickets were also accepted for the first time. The integration led to a 30 to 40 percent increase in patronage on the line in the first months after introduction. All these tickets could not be purchased on light rail but could continue to be purchased at retailers and train stations. The older light rail only tickets were still valid and conductors were kept to issue these and to check other tickets.

Opal smartcard ticketing was enabled on light rail around the end of 2015. The Opal system charges by straight line trip distance, using the same fare table as buses. Card readers are located on platforms at all stations and conductors were given new devices to check cards. As these readers can be confused with train station Opal readers at Central, they have a sticker on them that indicate that they are for the light rail only. On 1 August 2016, MyZone and light rail only tickets were phased out, making Opal the only payment method accepted and conductors redundant. Over time, Opal top-up (Phase 2) machines have been installed at some stations.

Infrastructure[]

Signalling[]

The line has its own signalling system, which is different to ones used by Sydney Trains and the other light rail lines. The signals are arranged in a triangular shape, similar to Sydney Trains shunt signals. The top and bottom right lights are white, while the bottom left light is red. This allows for three aspects:

White with letter above - Proceed, points set in indicated direction
White - Proceed
Red + White - Permissive Stop (can theoretically be passed cautiously, watching for a tram ahead)
Red - Absolute Stop (cannot be passed, as the points ahead may be set against the tram)

There are different signals used at traffic lights, which are triggered by onboard transponders and use similar aspects to those for cars:

White T - Proceed
Amber T - Signal about to change to red T, stop if possible
Red T - Stop
Red T with white triangle - Tram detected, signal will change to white T soon (added for compatibility with the Citadis 305s)

Track[]

The track is standard gauge (1435mm). All points on the line are railway standard and not tramway standard, as it is a converted railway line. Because of this, Citadis trams from the L2/3 lines are limited to 15km/h through all points. Up until 2022, due to other incompatibilities, they were not allowed on the line, except when travelling empty to Lilyfield Maintenance Centre. After testing, this rule was changed to allow Citadis trams to run L1 services in the Urbos' absence.

The line is primarily double track, except for the two termini. The line ends in a single track loop at Central (Railway Colonade), while at the other end - Dulwich Hill, the line merges into one track for the last 200m. There are also various terminating facilities along the way:

Central Grand Concourse (single track loop)
Lewisham West (2 crossovers)
Lilyfield (2 crossovers)
Wentworth Park
John St Square
Exhibition Centre (crossover)
Dulwich Hill (turnback platform)

There are maintenance and stabling facilities at Exhibition Centre and Lilyfield. All track and fleet maintenance is contracted out to Alstom.

Speed Signs[]

Fixed speed signs consist of white numbers on a blue sign, with a white outline (and a tram symbol for on-street sections). Speeds are shown in km/h. Speed limits can be as high as 70km/h, dropping to 10km/h for on-street sections and 20km/h around stations (as the level crossings do not have warning equipment).

There are also temporary speed restriction (TSR) signs, which have black numbers on a yellow sign, with a black dashed outline. These signs show temporary speed limits that must be followed just like a normal speed sign. The end of the TSR is shown by a similar sign that says 'END TSR'. Upon reaching this sign, trams can resume the previous fixed speed limit. There are TSRs of 15km/h over all crossovers, due to defects identified following the derailment of 2 trams in 2013.

Overhead wiring[]

The trams are powered by overhead wires electrified at 750V DC for the entire route. The electrical system can sustain enough trams for a 6 minute service frequency.

Fleet[]

The line was originally run with a fleet of 7 Adtranz Variotrams. They were numbered from 2101-2107 as the last Sydney Tram was numbered 2087, so numbering restarted from the next hundred.

With the opening of the line to Dulwich Hill in 2014, 4 trams were leased. These were second hand Urbos 2 units, numbered 2108-2111, leased to cover the lack of rolling stock while the Urbos 3s were being built. They were returned to Spain by the end of 2014.

The Urbos 3s were ordered as additional rolling stock for the Dulwich Hill extension. At first, 6 units were ordered. These trams (numbered 2112-2118) entered service in July 2014. Another 6 units were ordered soon after, entering service in May 2015. With the introduction of these units, the Variotrams were withdrawn. Four extra units are currently being ordered, which will arrive around 2023.[1]

The Alstom Citadis 305 trams, used on the L2/L3 CBD and Southeast Light Rail lines, have run the line since 12 February 2022, due to the ongoing issues with the Urbos 3s.