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The T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line (formerly 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 T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line. Services run between Liverpool and City Circle via Lidcombe (formerly services between Lidcombe and Bankstown)
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 later this year 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.
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. On 30 April 2024, it was announced that the T6 Lidcombe and Bankstown Line would operate between Lidcombe and Bankstown branded with the colour brown, and that the Liverpool-Lidcombe-City would remain on the existing T3 branding.
The line in its original state closed for the final time in Oct 19 2024, with buses replacing trains between Bankstown and Sydenham for around a year, with Metro services to commence in mid-2025. The replacement bus network is currently named South West Link, with three routes SW1, SW2 and SW3.
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. However, due to the Metro conversion, T3 trains do not run on the Bankstown railway line, as the new T6 line operates the railway.
Services[]
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 formerly displayed 'Birrong' as the destination. As the train turns back toward the City after Birrong, the train received a new run number after Birrong. Therefore, the train displayed 'Birrong' as its destination as that was the last stop on its current run. The exterior displays could be manually overriden by the guard to display 'Lidcombe', but the interior displays could not. In January 2024, following a reconfiguration of Sefton Park Junction, the run number change at Birrong was eliminated and trains now display the full stopping pattern to Lidcombe.
Historical[]
As far back as 2000, there were generally 6tph 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
- Lidcombe, all to Hurlstone Park, Sydenham, all to City (Inner) at 2tph
- Lidcombe, all to Sydenham, Erskineville, all to City (Outer) at 2tph
- City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
Afternoon Peak Stopping Patterns
- Lidcombe, all to City (Outer) at 4tph
- City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
Off Peak Stopping Patterns
- Lidcombe, all to City (Outer) at 4tph
- City (Outer), all to Lidcombe at 4tph
- 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
Branding[]
| Year | Colour | Notes/Other Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Magenta | |
| 1986 | Brown | Shared colour with Inner West |
| 1998 | #625591 | Shared colour with Inner West |
| 2004 | #FF7800 | |
| 2014 | #F26726 | T3 line number added |
| 2018 | #F37121 |
Stations[]
Gallery[]
Stations[]
Fleet[]
