There's not much room for increased rail services
Re-reading Luke Chell's letter of June 24 about missing train services: There's not much room now on the Northern Line for increased services from Newcastle and the Central Coast.
The reason for that is a decision made by the then NSW government in 1952 to cancel quadruplication of the Northern Line between Strathfield and Hornsby on the advice of British train "experts" from London Transport.
(Having ripped up London's tram system, they then advised the NSW government to rip up Sydney's tram system, but that's another story.)
As a result of this very short-sighted decision, that section of line is at capacity now.
Passenger and freight services have greatly increased since 1952, but that should have been foreseen.
The problem is that successive governments have put it in the "too hard" basket and done nothing about it.
Pressure for increased services will come from people in the new high-rise developments between Strathfield and Meadowbank, but there's nowhere to put these needed extra trains.
Some Central Coast trains go along the North Shore Line but that line is also at capacity.
Until the NSW government bites the bullet and completes quadruplication of that section of line, there is no room for extra services for the Central Coast.
SOURCE:
Email, 24 Jul 2024
Bruce Stafford, Tascott