T9 Northern line

The T9 Northern Line is a railway line that runs between Hornsby and Gordon. It is identified by the code .

History[]

This line has undergone many changes over the past twenty years. It was originally known as the Main North Line (after the physical rail line that it runs on) and had a route of Cowan ↔ Hornsby ↔ Epping ↔ Strathfield ↔ City ↔ North Sydney. It was assigned the colour red.^[1]

Due to the branding change when CityRail was introduced, the colour was changed slightly and the line was renamed to the Northern Line. At the same time, the limit of suburban services was cut back to Berowra and Cowan became an intercity station, no longer served by Northern Line services.^[2]

The Epping to Chatswood Rail Link was opened in 2006 and was integrated into the Northern line. The route became Epping ↔ Strathfield ↔ City ↔ Chatswood ↔ Epping ↔ Hornsby, with the section between Berowra and Hornsby now exclusively served by the North Shore line.

In 2013, Sydney Trains was formed and many lines were merged together, including the Northern Line, which was merged into the T1 North Shore, Northern and Western Line. Line numbers were also introduced at this time. The T1 group of lines was assigned the colour yellow.

With the service changes on 28th April 2019 to prepare for the opening of Sydney Metro Northwest, the Northern line was separated from the T1 again into a new line called the T9 Northern Line. As the ECRL became part of Sydney Metro Northwest, the routing again changed to Hornsby ↔ Epping ↔ Strathfield ↔ City ↔ Chatswood ↔ Gordon. The T9 was assigned the colour red, but again a slightly different shade to the colour used by CityRail.

Route[]

The T9 starts at Hornsby on the Main North line. It then run south through Sydney's northern suburbs to reach Epping, a major transport interchange. There is a siding here for trains to terminate. The line continues south to reach Strathfield, where it merges into the Main Suburban line, the main trunk line that most trains use to enter Sydney's city centre.

The line between Strathfield and Hornsby alternates between two, three and four track sections. These extra tracks are important for ensuring on-time running, as they allow faster trains to overtake slow ones. Intercity and regional trains skip most stations and so need to overtake T9 services, which mostly stop all stations. T9 services also need to overtake frieght trains, because the line is fairly steep and so heavy trains don't move very fast.

T9 trains generally use the middle pair (named 'Suburban') of the six tracks of the Main Suburban line. Services terminating at Central (intercity platforms) use the northern pair (named 'Main') instead. This is neccessary since the Suburban tracks reach their maximum capacity being shared by two lines (T1/9) during the peaks. Trains generally only stop at Strathfield, Burwood and Redfern in this section, with stopping services being provided by T2 trains.

At Central, T9 trains continue onto the North Shore line and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They run northward through North Shore region of Sydney and back to Hornsby.

Service[]

There are generally two off-peak stopping patterns on the T9:

Hornsby to Hornsby via City, stopping all stations (4 trains per hour every 15 minutes)
Hornsby to Berowra via City, stopping all stations (2 trains per hour)

Stopping patterns are more varied during the peak and trains run at much higher frequencies. Some trains will skip stations and start/terminate at various intermediate stations, including Epping, Central (intercity platforms), North Sydney, Lindfield and Gordon.

Note that most trains don't actually terminate at Gordon as shown on maps, but continue following the T1 route to Hornsby or even Berowra.

Platforms screens also never show T9 trains to Hornsby/Berowra via North Shore correctly to avoid customer confusion as the map shows that T9 trains terminate at Gordon. Between Hornsby and Epping, such trains are shown with a destination of Gordon, with a small note that 'Service continues to T1 North Shore line'. The stations after Gordon are hidden because it is faster to change for the Metro at Epping if you are travelling to those stations. After Strathfield, such trains are shown as T1 trains, as passengers need to see the stations after Gordon.

Trains screens will also never show this correctly, but for a different reason. The software driving the screens only knows the train's current run number and will list all the stops from the timetable for that run number. However T9 trains switch from being 'up' (citybound) trains to 'down' (outbound) trains at Central and so also change run numbers. So all stops after Central are not displayed on the internal train screens until the train actually reaches Central.

Services on the T9 Northern Line are run by Waratah A and B Sets and Tangara T Sets. Trains rostered for this line are mostly stabled at Hornsby depot, while some T sets are regularly swapped with Mortdale.

Trackwork services[]

Whenever the North Shore Line via Gordon is closed due to trackwork, services that normally travel to Hornsby via Strathfield continue onward to Berowra.

Stations[]

Name	Code	Distance from Central	Opened	Terminating Facilities	Serving Suburbs	Interchange for
Gordon to Central (North Shore railway line)
Gordon	GRD	17.10 km	1890	Loop platform	Gordon	(peak hours only)
Killara	KIL	15.90 km	1899		Killara, East Killara
Lindfield	LFD	14.60 km	1890	Dock platform	Lindfield, East Lindfield
Roseville	RSV	13.27 km	1890		Roseville
Chatswood	CWD	11.65 km	1890		Chatswood	(peak hours only)
Artarmon	ATM	10.30 km	1898		Artarmon	(peak hours only)
St Leonards	STL	8.41 km	1890		St Leonards, Naremburn, Crows Nest, Greenwich	(peak hours only)
Wollstonecraft	WSC	7.18 km	1893		Wollstonecraft, Greenwich	(peak hours only)
Waverton	WVT	6.11 km	1893		Waverton	(peak hours only)
North Sydney	NSY	4.80 km	1932	Double loop platforms	North Sydney	(peak hours only)
Milsons Point	MPT	4.44 km	1893		Milsons Point, Kirribilli	(peak hours only)
Wynyard	WYN	2.05 km	1932	Crossover	Sydney CBD, Barangaroo	(peak hours only)
Town Hall	TWH	1.20 km	1932		Sydney CBD	(peak hours only)
Central	CEN	0.00 km	1855		Central, Strawberry Hills, Ultimo, Surry Hills, Haymarket
Central to Strathfield (Main Suburban railway line)
Redfern	REF	1.30 km	1855		Redfern, Waterloo, Darlington, Eveleigh
Burwood	BWD	10.62 km	1855		Burwood
Strathfield	SFD	11.81 km	1876	Crossovers	Strathfield
Strathfield to Hornsby (Main Northern railway line)
North Strathfield	NST	13.38 km	1918		North Strathfield, Concord, Homebush
Concord West	CDW	14.54 km	1887		Concord West, Liberty Grove
Rhodes	RDS	16.58 km	1886	Crossover	Rhodes, Liberty Grove
Meadowbank	MEB	18.19 km	1887		Meadowbank, Ryde, West Ryde
West Ryde	WSR	19.20 km	1886		West Ryde, Denistone
Denistone	DST	20.16 km	1937		Denistone, Denistone East, Denistone West
Eastwood	EWD	21.39 km	1886		Eastwood
Epping	EPG	23.32 km	1886	Loop platform and siding	Epping
Cheltenham	CHA	25.38 km	1898		Cheltenham
Beecroft	BCF	26.90 km	1886		Beecroft
Pennant Hills	PNT	28.58 km	1886		Pennant Hills
Thornleigh	THO	29.43 km	1886		Thornleigh, Westleigh
Normanhurst	NOR	31.72 km	1895		Normanhurst
Hornsby	HBY	33.86 km	1886	Crossover and loop platform	Hornsby