Lidcombe-Homebush rail upgrade

[Michael Edge <medge@sia.net.au>]

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