Sydney Rail Line Picked up and Moved in 48 hours

The section of track between Chatswood and Artarmon on the northbound side of the 130-year-old year-old Sydney Trains T1 North Shore Line was cut and relocated to connect with new tracks 20 metres to the west.

The move was necessary to allow the new Sydney Metro line to be extended from the city’s north west into the CBD and beyond to Bankstown in the south-west.

In total, 250 workers were involved in the operation which took 48 hours to complete.

The workers had to cut, slew and join the existing suburban line with almost 900 meters of new track and about 2.5 kilometres of overhead wiring.

The works were completed as part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project, which will deliver a new dedicated metro service with new trains from Chatswood just north of the CBD through to Bankstown in the south-west under Sydney Harbour and via the CBD.

All up, the project will deliver 31 new stations and 66 new kilometres of track.

Once the southwest section opens in 2024, the number of train services which will be able to run into the Sydney CBD will increase from around 120 per hour to 200 per hour.

The northwest section opened in 2019 whilst the extension to Parramatta will open in 2030.