The Minns government will inject an extra $458 million into the heavy rail network over four years, in the wake of today’s scathing report.
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The heavy rail network, which carries the vast bulk of Sydney’s train passengers, is often regarded as the poor child of the system when compared to the tens of billions being pumped into building new metro rail lines.
The government says the extra $423 million will go towards upgrading rail tracks signals, overhead wiring and drainage in flood-prone areas.
Of that, just over $41 million will be spent this financial year. A dedicated $35 million reliability program is also being spent this financial year to fast-track repairs in high-priority areas, covering overhead wiring, track, signalling and power systems.
As part of a maintenance overhaul, Sydney Trains will declare “maintenance critical zones”, starting with the Homebush-Strathfield corridor where multiple lines converge.
The rail operator will move from time-based to risk-based maintenance, targeting areas with the greatest impact on network reliability. Two new rapid incident response teams will be set up – one based at Redfern by late this year, and Homebush by early next.
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