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Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Blue Mountains rail services

posted Monday 17 October 2016
Action for Public Transport has written to the NSW Minister for Transport:
We refer to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 October 2016. Entitled "New intercity trains too wide for rail line to stations in Blue Mountains" it says in part:
The NSW government will need to modify station platforms and rail lines in the Blue Mountains because the new fleet of intercity trains it is spending $2.3 billion on will be too wide to make trips as far as Lithgow and Katoomba.

...

Transport for NSW confirmed it was finalising where modifications such as platform extensions, track work and signal changes would need to be made to allow the new trains to run.

"The new trains are being custom-built to our specifications. It's always been our intention to carry out some modifications to the rail infrastructure so that we can run these trains and deliver our customers the comfort they deserve," it said in a statement.

"These modifications are a part of the overall project to deliver the new trains."

The cost of alterations to the Blue Mountains Line to handle the new trains has yet to be finalised.

Is it Government policy to carry out the modifications? We note that funds have not yet been voted. If the modifications are not carried out, what will happen to passenger rail services between Springwood and Lithgow?





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