2010 CityRail timetable

Effective Sunday 10 October 2010

• New timetable for Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra and South Coast Lines
• Minor changes to other CityRail lines

On 10 October 2010, a new CityRail timetable for Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra and South Coast Lines will be introduced.

Benefits

The benefits to customers are a direct result of the NSW Government's $436 million investment in new assets to unlock capacity and improve reliability for rail passengers on the South Coast, Illawarra and Eastern Suburbs lines.

These benefits include:

• More direct electric services between Kiama and Wollongong/Sydney
• Faster weekend services from Kiama - North Wollongong to Sydney, including direct services to Town Hall and Bondi Junction (between 6-10 minute savings). All services will be modern air-conditioned Oscar trains.
• Improvements to late night services from the city to the South Coast, including service gap reductions and with the last three services departing Bondi Junction.
• Some journey time improvements (2-3 minutes) are gained on weekday South Coast services by reviewing speed signs and recovery time.

The new rail assets that make these improvements possible include the Cronulla branch line duplication project, which is part of the Rail Clearways Plan. This project has involved building a second track along two sections of the branch line. They also include the Sutherland - Oatley - Loftus Area Resignalling project, involving installation of new overhead wiring structures and replacing signalling equipment installed more than 70 years ago.

Customers at Cronulla will receive an additional 42 weekday services, and an additional 52 weekend services to/from Bondi Junction. These include new services as well as current services extended to/from Cronulla.

Key benefits for customers on the Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line include:

• More services between Cronulla and the city during the peak, off-peak and on weekends
• For customers between Cronulla and Kirrawee, four new express morning peak services. These services will stop at all stations from Cronulla to Sutherland, then Hurstville, Redfern and all stations to Bondi Junction.
• A new express afternoon peak service to operate from Bondi Junction to Cronulla. This service will depart Bondi Junction at 5.02pm, Town Hall at 5.13pm, and stop at all stations to Redfern, then Hurstville, Sutherland and all stations to Cronulla, arriving at 6.05pm.
• A new semi-fast afternoon peak service to operate from Bondi Junction to Waterfall. This service will depart Bondi Junction at 5.58pm, Town Hall at 6.09pm arriving at Waterfall at 7.06pm.
• A new all stations afternoon peak service to operate from Bondi Junction to Hurstville. This service will depart Bondi Junction at 6.18pm, Town Hall at 6.29pm arriving Hurstville at 7.00pm.
• More weekend services with a 10 minute service frequency at Bondi Junction

RailCorp has liaised with local bus companies providing a copy of the new timetable so that adjustments can be made if required.

For the majority of timetables operating across the CityRail network, changes are mostly minor and customers will receive the same level of service, frequency and stopping patterns as provided in the October 2009 CityRail timetable.

The 2010 timetable will provide an additional two services an hour on weekends between approximately 7.30am and 5.30pm on the South Line. This change will see increased frequency for customers at stations between Glenfield and Granville, Auburn, Lidcombe, Strathfield, Croydon, Ashfield, Redfern, Central and the City Circle.

Waratah safety and reliability testing will continue, and the 2010 timetable will progressively introduce new Waratah trains into passenger service. The new timetable will also incorporate the delivery of additional Oscar trains from October 2010.

Consultation about the new timetable

In developing the new timetable, RailCorp carried out extensive community consultation to ensure the proposed timetable was widely available for comment by the community.

It received a total of 701 submissions, (most via the website) and made the following service improvements to the timetable based on customer feedback:

• Extended more services between Kiama and the City including the morning peak service arriving at Central Station at 8.30am
• Additional stops at North Wollongong for selected weekday services and all weekend services to/from the City
• Reduced service gaps on selected services at Penshurst, Unanderra, and stations between Otford and Austinmer
• Restored stops at stations between Hurstville and Sutherland on the afternoon peak service departing Bondi Junction at 5.32pm

What next?

Timetable booklets will be available at stations in the lead up to the introduction date.

CityRail will be running a comprehensive communications program in the lead up to the introduction of the new timetable to ensure customers are aware of the changes and can plan their travel.