Re: Lidcombe-Homebush rail upgrade

[paulrw@xa2.com.au (paul)]

On Thu, 28 May 1998 21:15:30 +1000, Michael Edge <medge@sia.net.au>
wrote:

>Todays Sydney Morning Herald (28-5-98) had a news-in-brief article
>stateing that the state govt. is to spend $12.5M on a rail link from
>Homebush to Lidcombe.  Since they just finished building the line from
>Lidcombe to Homebush Bay, I assume they mean the Homebush on the main
>line.
>
>Does anyone know what is proposed?  All I can think of is extending the
>local lines from Homebush to Lidcombe.  That would get the Bankstown
>and  Liverpool via Regents park trains off the suburban lines, and allow
>all other western and Liverpool/Campbelltown via Granville services to
>use the suburban lines, keeping them out of the way of Olympic Park
>trains, which have to use the main lines.
>
>For the sake of 4-5 kms of track, sextuplication should have run to
>Lidcombe in the first place.  The idea of the line dropping back from 6
>to 4 tracks only a few kilometers short of where the trains that use the
>5th and 6th tracks branch off is stupid.  The local lines should run to
>lidcombe and simply peel off from the main/suburban lines to form the
>main south/Bankstown lines (with crossovers to the suburban and main
>lines at the junction.
>
>I must admint $12.5M seems a little small for this, although there is
>quite a bit of space on the southern side of the line through most of
>the Homebush - Lidcombe stretch (except for lidcombe station itself,
>which would need an extra couple of platforms) so land aquisition cost
>would be minimal.
>
>
>======================
>Michael Edge
>Sydney, Australia
>
>email: medge@sia.net.au
My understanding was that they were going to build a new platform,
presumably opposite Platform 1 at Lidcombe which would be dedicated to
Olympic Park trains, with connecting track to the existing line. I
suspect that new lines from Lidcombe to Homebush as posted above would
cost much more than $12.5m.

Paul