Local families and commuters are the big winners from the opening on Sunday of the South West Rail Link, says State Member Melanie Gibbons.
Ms Gibbons joined NSW Premier and Minister for Western Sydney Mike Baird and Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian to officially open the South West Rail Link – Sydney’s newest rail line running 11.4 kilometres from Leppington to Glenfield via Edmondson Park.
“The South West Rail Link is now open to customers more than one year ahead of schedule and $300 million under budget, thanks to the NSW Liberals and Nationals Government,” Ms Gibbons said.
“When you live in one of Sydney’s fastest growing regions, you need the infrastructure to support it and we have delivered just that.
“After years of broken promises from Labor, local residents can now catch air-conditioned trains every 30 minutes from Leppington to Liverpool, from 5am to midnight, seven days a week, stopping at Edmondson Park and the upgraded Glenfield Station.
“The new Leppington and Edmondson Park stations are state of the art with lifts, CCTV, modern amenities, bicycle racks, kiss and ride drop off facilities, bus shelters and free parking.
“Getting to these new stations is also easy with four connecting bus routes providing a total of 897 weekly services to Leppington Station and Edmondson Park Station, and 1,250 commuter car parking spaces.
“The days of driving to Holsworthy, Glenfield or Liverpool and circling around trying desperately to find a car park before even starting your train journey should be a thing of the past for customers across the region.
“The popularity of this new line will be monitored to determine future scheduling for services on this line, so I encourage everyone to take advantage of the South West Rail Link.
“The South West Rail Link has also been a great project for employment, creating about 3,000 jobs a year during the construction phase and now that it’s up and running, thousands more jobs and families are expected in the region,’’ Ms Gibbons said.
The brand new service is the latest in a long list of transport improvements delivered in the local area in the past four years.
“I am pleased to see this project come to fruition, giving commuters in South West Sydney more options to get to and from work via our public transport network,” Ms Gibbons said.
SOUTH WEST RAIL LINK FACTS:
• The first track was laid by the NSW Liberals & Nationals government on the South West Rail Link in 2011.
• Construction of Edmondson Park Station and Leppington Station started in March 2012 and was completed in September 2014.
• Glenfield Station was transformed with four new lifts and a new concourse in September 2012.
• A new train stabling facility at the end of the line at Rossmore was built.
• The Glenfield flyover was finished in June 2014. The flyover allows two trains to cross at the same time through the busy Glenfield Junction, delivering more reliable services for customers.
• 14 bridges were constructed as part of the project – all were completed by September 2014.
• 53,000 rail sleepers, 31 kilometres of track and 100,000 tonnes of ballast have been used (crushed rock that assists drainage and maintains stability of sleepers and rail).
• The South West Rail Link created around 3,000 jobs a year during construction.
• More than 7,300,000 hours have been worked on the project across 50 different trades.
• Final project cost of $1.8 billion is $300 million under the original budget of $2.1 billion.
• Timetable information for the South West Rail Link is now available at transportnsw.info or on real time apps. Twitter updates are also available by following @SWRailLink.
