Western Express "Blue Sky" proposal: an extra 50 trains per hour

(This post follows on from my first post on Bays Precinct and creating a heavy rail corridor in the Rozelle Railyards.  For more detail on the Rozelle Railyard rail corridor that I propose, read my earlier post: goo.gl/hM8R5h)

I promised in my previous post to explain how my "Blue Sky" Western Express proposal will add 50 trains per hour capacity.  I've drawn a Sydney Trains network diagram to show how by joining the Rozelle Railyards to the West Main line at Ashfield, there are now **four** track pairs entering the CBD from the Main West rail lines:

These four track pairs are used as follows:

a.  City circle to Ashfield (Sector "T2A"): these pair of tracks can be used for all stops services in the inner west to the CBD.  At present, all stops services share tracks with the South line services, which ends up limiting capacity to 12 trains per hour because local and express services are mixed onto the same track pairs.  In my proposal, the all stops trains from Ashfield have their own dedicated tracks and so can run at a full 20 trains per hour per direction.  This all stops service through the city circle to the Airport line and then onto the Revesby line all stops track pair is also very suitable for metro single deck conversion, resulting in 30 trains per hour in each direction - ie: 60 trains per hour, versus the current 32-40 trains per hour.  Also, the latent capacity of Museum (as a substitute station for Town Hall) is better utilised, as 30 trains per hour will stop at Museum as the first CBD after Central. (Additionally, the East hills express track pair can continue to run alongside the Revesby metro tracks and then use the Illawarra local tracks to terminate at Central - which is potentially another 20 trains per hour into the CBD.  However, I leave this off my base case for now, as it's unclear if Central can turnback all 20 trains per hour from East Hills plus 20 trains per hour on West main line.)

b.  Harbour bridge to Strathfield platforms 7/8 (Sector "T2B") and then through to Granville before branching to South line and to Blacktown before further branching into Richmond and St Marys.  As a double deck service, I would split the 20 trains per hour capacity as follows:

- South line to Liverpool and then potentially to Leppington: 10 trains per hour

- Richmond line: 5 trains per hour

- St Marys line: 5 trains per hour

c.  Central to Strathfield (platforms 4/5/6) (Sector "T1A") and then branching at Strathfield's grade separated junction into Western intercity services (ie: Blue mountains) and into Northern intercity (ie: Hornsby/Central coast).  Given that much of most of this line's Western Sydney catchment already will have access to Central station via sector T1B trains, whereas much of the Northern line's catchment would have access to the North Shore line and hence Wynard rather than Central directly, I would split the 20 trains per hour into:

- Hornsby/Central coast to Central: 15 trains per hour

- Blue Mountains/Penrith: 5 trains per hour

d. Barangaroo to Strathfield (platforms 1/2/3) (Sector "T1B"): as a newly constructed track pair, there is potential with an advanced signalling system to target 20-26 trains per hour.  At Strathfield, these tracks would then branch to go into the Northern line suburban and Western line suburban services, with the split being 15-20 trains per hour from Penrith, and 5-6 trains per hour from Epping.

Altogether this achieves ~90 trains per hour on the 4 tracks into the CBD from the west, with a good balance between northern CBD (ie: Wynyard/Barangaroo 60~70 trains per hour, of which 20+ trains per hour is on a dedicated, direct northern route) vs southern CBD (ie: Central 60~70 trains per hour).  In contrast, the existing rail network only has 3 track pairs along the Western line into the CBD, and is limited to ~50 trains per hour into the CBD, with northern CBD (Wynyard) access limited to well under 40 trains per hour (none of which is dedicated solely to direct northern CBD access).  So from the west, my proposal adds 40 trains per hour.  Then from the south, if single deck metro conversion of the Revesby/Airport/City Circle/Ashfield (Sector T2A) takes place, then the trains in the reverse (anticlockwise) city circle direction increases from 20 to 30 trains per hour, or an extra 10 trains per hour.  Altogether, there will be an additional 40 + 10 = 50 trains per hour!

So in summary, my 4 track pairs proposal is better than previous proposals for a CBD Relief Line (with only 3 track pairs into CBD), yet avoids expensive CBD tunnelling and largely avoids needing underground stations except at Barangaroo.  It adds 50 trains per hour capacity, with only a very small amount of tunnelling, where a second harbour single deck metro crossing would require 12km of tunnelling, pass through the CBD, require a number of new underground CBD stations, yet would only add 60 trains per hour of capacity.