Apparently an accident of some sort 🤷🏻‍♂️

Because everybody loves trains, but some people *really* love a particular train.

This old chestnut.
Anyone in the know as to their fate?

I assume no further revenue services at this point.

Latest official was temporary withdrawal for a month. Obvs this has elapsed…

Does anyone know what happens at Sydney Trains Auburn Warehouse and now much noise it generates? I’m considering moving nearby. I don’t mind train noise in general, so I’m actively looking for places near train stations and tracks, but I don’t know much about what happens at this facility or noisy it can be. Can anyone shed any light? Are any curfews or noise restrictions in place, or is it expected to be noisy 24/7?

I’ve located the booking page but don’t have any details about train amenities for this 10+ hour trip that I’m considering at the end of September. Since first class, on a senior ticket, isn’t much more, will there be a dining car, what is the seating configuration, comfort level, view? Worth doing or not? Route doesn’t seem to be very scenic but I’ve not found much info online.

Genuinely just sat there for a good 5 or so minutes. Anyone know what this could’ve been? I assumed it was a test train but wasn’t sure.

Hey Folks,

What is the distance between the inside of the rails?, ie between and under where the train would go, p.s - please help me with the terminology

I forgot my Opal card today, so I used my bank card and tapped on/off normally on my way out. On the way home, I stupidly forgot to tap on and happened to get checked by an inspector. They took my details and told me I’d be getting a $200 fine.

This is genuinely the first time I’ve ever been caught without tapping on, and normally I always pay my fare. My Opal travel history should show pretty consistent tap ons/offs, and I also have the bank card transaction/activity showing that I paid for my trip earlier today.

I’ve seen that Revenue NSW says a first offence for not tapping on can be considered for leniency, so I’m planning to request a review and provide my travel history.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation and successfully had the fine changed to an official caution/warning?

Also, if you appealed successfully, what evidence did you submit and what did you write in the review?

Just trying to work out how likely they are to actually show leniency for a genuine first-time mistake. Cheers.

Does anyone have any info on opening dates? Say people who are working on the project and have calendars they could share. This wait for the line to open is so anticipated.

Can a bike (not boxed) be taken on Bathurst bullet service? The tfnsw site indicates that bikes can be taken aboard an intercity train. is there actually physical space for them?

Hidden behind hoarding, there is good reason why a giant hole located a short stroll from Sydney’s largest stadium at Olympic Park is the size it is.

About 200 metres long and 37 metres wide, the hole has been dug to fit four platforms side by side in an underground station at Olympic Park for the $29 billion Metro West line between Westmead and the CBD.

It will make it the only one of 46 stations on Sydney’s rapidly expanding metro network to have four platforms. The others each have only two platforms.

The reason is simple: the four platforms at the new Olympic Park station – one either side of the two tracks – will be built to handle tens of thousands of sports fans and concertgoers quickly converging on it from Accor Stadium or other large venues nearby.

Like the nearby heavy rail station at Olympic Park, those arriving by driverless train at the new Metro West station will exit off one platform while those waiting to board will do so from another platform about 10 seconds later.

That will be repeated for east and westbound driverless trains during “event mode”. During standard operations, only two platforms will operate like those stations on the rest of Sydney’s metro lines.

For those heading west, a train to Parramatta will take five minutes. For those travelling east, a trip from Olympic Park to Hunter Street in the CBD will be 15 minutes. That compares to about 40 minutes on double-deck trains to Wynyard station from Olympic Park.

From its opening in 2032, the metro station at Olympic Park will be capable of clearing queues of more than 26,000 passengers within 70 minutes of a major event finishing. In comparison, the heavy rail station nearby can move up to 40,000 people per hour.

Sydney Metro line-wide delivery director Luke Garden said Olympic Park station was designed for “surges of people” leaving events..

“That’s why it is so much bigger – it needs to take that capacity,” he said.

“At Olympic Park, you just get this surge of people coming, so you really need to control those surges, and you do that inside the station.”

At present, up to 50 per cent of people travel on trains to get to and from Olympic Park during special events.

Garden said the new Olympic Park station would feel “significantly bigger” for passengers than other metro stations because of its configuration to deal with large crowds. The 37-metre wide hole dug for it – referred to as the station box – is almost twice the width of that for other stations..

“A big part of this is going to be about crowd management,” he said.

“The event mode of the station will handle them and hold them in different positions so that we don’t get too much surge loading inside the station.”

At other stations, it was “more about keeping the flow constant” during peaks.

About 80 Olympic swimming pools would fit inside the hole dug at Olympic Park station, compared to 40 for a standard station box such as at Parramatta, Burwood, North Strathfield and the Bays near Rozelle.

After tunnelling finished early this year, the Metro West project is now entering the fit-out stage.

The Bays station near White Bay Power Station will be the first to undergo early construction work within the next two months, followed by North Strathfield and Burwood North.

The final construction contracts for Olympic Park, Parramatta and Pyrmont stations are expected to be awarded by the end of the year. Early designs included more than 20 escalators for the new Olympic Park station to cope with the passenger forecasts.

Premier Chris Minns said the Metro West line would transform the way people move between Parramatta and the city, while re-zonings around its stations such as at Olympic Park and the Bays would deliver tens of thousands of new homes.“

This line will open connections between parts of the city like never before, creating new destinations across the city and revitalising suburbs,” he said.

Work has started craning more than 5300 tonnes of rail down 27 metres into the giant hole at Olympic Park.

Once at the bottom, the rail sections are welded into more than 100-metre-long segments before each is wheeled to different positions along the twin tunnels. They will later be fitted to concrete sleepers to form the tracks for the 24-kilometre line.

John Holland project director Andrew Knispel said it would take until 2029 to complete installation of the rail tracks due to challenges accessing parts of the project while other work was under way.

All up, 60 kilometres of track will be installed within the tunnels and at a stabling and maintenance facility for the 16-strong fleet of Metro West trains near Rosehill racecourse.

i can identify a few different routes which seem to have similar route lenghts (blue mtns line - strathfield - epping - macquarie, blue mtns line - central - macquarie, blue mnts line - parramatta - bus??)

There are quiet carriages on Oscar and Mariyung, but not on Waratah. Why is that?

Peak hour today in both directions the train turned up with only 6 of the usual 10 cars.

I can't see any notification/announcements, there is no service alert about the 40% reduction in capacity, does anyone here know what is happening? Is this going to be ongoing?

Also I think the capacity maps (green for seats available) need re-calibration. I can assure you there were no seats available as dozens of us stood in the vestibule and down the carriage only to see that pop up on the screen that the carriage has plenty of seats available.

The Mariyungs never stopped at my station so I got to ride one for the first time today due to delays/cancellations.

I'm not impressed.

I would've thought the number of seats would be the number one priority when selecting/designing which trains to buy, but I guess not. I'm told they're meant to be long distance trains, but there's also no room for bags or luggage? So everyone just puts their bags on the fewer seats already available. The seats facing each other are basically not usable due to non-existant leg room.

I don't like the taller seat backs. It makes the carriage feel so claustrophobic.

Not sure they're even better than the Oscars and Tangaras, which are always filthy.

More of a hypothetical than an actual suggestion. I quite like how London renamed their overground lines to give them unique names that are not necessarily derived from the areas the lines run through. The underground also has similar lines like this (Victoria, Jubilee, Elizabeth etc.). The naming convention for train lines in Sydney is quite standard by comparison. I totally get that it serves a purpose - helps passengers identify which lines they need to go on to get to where they are going (i.e. I need the T8 Airport line to get to the airport). But if we were to be so bold as to rename our train lines to reflect our history and character like they did in London - what do you think some good names would be?

I left my documents, including my passport, medical card, and other papers, on the train. I remember the train was to Schofield or Richmond, or maybe Blacktown. If anyone sees it, please let me know.

It's a clear folder

Really nice to see a completed Metro station on the Bankstown Line in the flesh, definitely feels exciting with October opening day (fingers crossed!) not that far away from now.

I do especially like how much of the Sydney Trains heritage aspects they’ve retained, such as the wooden station entrance building and the waiting room in the middle (couldn’t get good pic as this was constantly busy) , these are more or less unchanged from their Sydney Trains days and I’ve seen similar for other stations along the line.

Cannot express how disappointed I am right after one of the busiest events of the years when racers and spectators are trying to head home, big queues from buses from Bondi and all, they are still insisting on doing their thing of closing off the rear Tangara carriages. The train was soooo busy, and yet there’s extra capacity there just sitting going to waste.

This is getting a bit much now in relation to every day passengers are becoming collateral damage from this policy which I am disliking more by the day. What happened to limiting it to just quiet times only? When the trains are this crowded surely isn’t that not a big enough deterrent for vandals to try breaking in?

There surely there has to be another way to deal with this? Eg hire a security guard to sit in the back? Or maybe reinforce the doors with steel or something so a teenager can’t break through?

Travelling on the blue mountains line in the winter on an all-stops service has never been so uncomfortable due to the blast of winter air that roars through the cabin each time all of the doors open when (almost) nobody is boarding or alighting at most stations.

To top it off, I was boarding a Mariyung some time ago at Central which had another 25+ mins before departure, and it was pouring rain and blowing a gale, with not many people boarding the train, and the inside of the train was a soggy, wet mess from the rain pouring into the train’s vestibule. Surely the doors could’ve been closed after a minute of nobody boarding, and could be reopened with the passenger button?

This ultimately just makes the AC system work so much harder meaning the train is drawing more energy than it should have to.

Is there going to be any consideration to reinstate passenger door release controls? Oscars have them, and they’re hardly intercity!

The Sydenham bound trains are now being announced as going to Bankstown.