Epping to Chatswood railway line, Sydney

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The Epping to Chatswood line (originally to be the Parramatta Rail Link) is a railway line under construction in the Northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It was originally intended to run from Parramatta to Chatswood, via Epping. It is mostly underground, with new subway stations being constructed at:

North Ryde (originally Delhi Road)"New-style stations", Brendan Berecry, Northern District Times, 14 June 2006, pg 3.
Macquarie Park
Macquarie University

New subway platforms at Epping (in addition to the three existing above ground platforms) are being built as well as a complete redevelopment of Chatswood station.

Construction

Diagram of Epping to Chatswood Line. The line is marked in green.

Construction of the 13 km Epping-to-Chatswood section commenced in November 2002, and is expected to be completed by mid 2008. Thiess is delivering this project in joint venture with Hochtief. It includes designing and constructing of driven railway and four fully mined stations.

The tunnel is mainly being constructed using a tunnel boring machine, with a section underneath the Lane Cove River being constructed by the cut and cover method (next to where Delhi Road crosses the River). Originally, there was to be a bridge over the Lane Cove River, instead of a tunnel beneath it, but the government adopted the tunnel option due to community and environmentalist pressure. This required the elimination of the planned station at the University of Technology, Sydney, Kuring-gai Campus; the required increased depth of the tunnel to go under the river made a station at that point impractical, due to the required depth of the escalator shafts.

Feb 2005: Inside the cavity that will become North Ryde (Delhi Road) Station.

The railway line was originally intended to continue from Epping to Parramatta, partially travelling along the existing Carlingford surface line which would be widened from single-track to dual-track. However, in August 2003 the NSW Transport Minister, Michael Costa, announced that the Epping-Parramatta section would be postponed indefinitely.

The abandoning of the Parramatta-Epping section was justified on the grounds that the expected daily patronage of 15,000 passenger trips did not justify the project's $1.2 billion cost. The government feared that the line would be under-utilised, much as the Airport Link has been. There also had been community protest against the routing of the line through Parramatta Park.

A major benefit of the Epping-Chatswood line is, by diverting four trains per an hour from Hornsby or the Central Coast on the main Northern Line at Epping to the North Shore Line at Chatswood, the load on the Main Western Line between Strathfield and Central is lessened, and the North Shore Line is better utilised.

External links

[Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation] - NSW Government department responsible for the Epping to Chatswood Line
[Theiss Pty Ltd Homepage]

Lines of Sydney CityRail

Suburban services
Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney>Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line \| Bankstown Line \| Inner West Line
Airport_and_East_Hills_railway_line,_Sydney>Airport & East Hills Line \| South Line \| Cumberland Line
Western_railway_line, Sydney>Western Line \| North Shore Line \| Carlingford Line
Olympic Park railway line, Sydney>Olympic Park Line \| Northern Line
Intercity & Regional services
South Coast railway line, New South Wales>South Coast Line \| Southern Highlands Line \| Blue Mountains Line
Newcastle and Central Coast railway line, New South Wales>Newcastle & Central Coast Line \| Hunter Lines
Under Construction
Epping to Chatswood railway line, Sydney>*Epping to Chatswood line*
List of Sydney railway stations

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