 This video is sponsored by Nebula. Check out the link in the description or stay tuned to learn more. One of the rail networks that first sparked my interest in public transportation was Sydney's. The system is historic, but it's also really unique with its large double-decker multiple unit trains, complex web of rail lines, and its beautiful natural surroundings. You might even say it's like Zurich, but hot. That's not entirely accurate though. Sydney is actually a pretty big city, and it's growing its network in big ways, and transitioning away from the way things have been done in the past. But how does the Sydney trains network work, and how's it laid out? What can we learn from it? Let's dive in and find out. Before I talk about Sydney or the Sydney trains network, I really need to mention the trains themselves. They're really quite unusual in that all of them are double-decker multiple units, which run on 1500 volt DC power and standard gauge tracks. Well, I really like the A and derivative B and NIF sets. The T-set will always have a special place in my heart, as will the unique flippy seats on most of the trains, which allow you to change the direction most seats are facing simply by sliding them over. I also want to mention, as you're probably seeing from the lovely footage, the good folks from Transport Vlog and Tate Set, who graciously provided some of the footage in this video. Any introduction to Sydney inevitably needs to get into the quite crazy geography of the city, which is located on Australia's southeast coast in the state of New South Wales. Sydney's often known as the Harbour City, and this is for good reason. Sydney Harbour is probably the defining geographic feature of the city, and is crossed by the iconic Harbour Bridge, which yes carries trains and is fronted onto by the famous Opera House. Sitting just south of the Opera House is the city centre, or very specifically in Sydney's case, the CBD. Heading west, the harbour gives way to the Paramatta River, which like the main portion of the harbour has numerous inlets and bays on it. To the south of the river west of the CBD, we have the Sydney Olympic Park, which played a central role in the games of 2000. Further west still, we have Paramatta itself, which is being coined locally as Sydney's second CBD, and which provides a large dense node in the city's suburbs, as well as substantial rail connectivity. Now, if you thought Sydney Harbour was the only major water feature of Sydney, you'd be wrong. There's also the Middle Harbour, North Harbour, Botany Bay, and George's River, not to mention the Hawkesbury River to the north, and the Tasman Sea to the east, which many famous beaches like Bondi and Manley face. Sydney itself is also hemmed in by mountains on all sides. Sydney's international travel hub is the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, which is Sydney's only major airport and extends out into Botany Bay. Unfortunately, while the location of the airport just seven or so kilometers south of the CBD does make accessing it very convenient, this means it's hemmed in by development on all sides and thus has a curfew. Because of this, as well as broader geographic barriers and trends and growth, Sydney is building a new airport in the sprawling suburban area of western Sydney, known simply, or not so simply, as Western Sydney International Nancy Bird Walton Airport. But you didn't come here for airports, you came here for trains, and so let's look at Sydney's rail network, starting at its main hub, Central, which is located at the south end of the CBD. Central, like many great stations, consists of two main sections. One, a rail terminus for terminating longer distance trains to other parts of New South Wales and other cities in Australia, which is known as Sydney Terminal, and another where suburban trains can through run at the station, though admittedly some suburban trains do still use the terminal as well. Talking about the suburban trains, let's look at the various lines. The T1 North Shore and Western Line is the first line in the system, naturally, and is also the most used. The line at its furthest extents, which only some trips connect to, runs from emu plains and Richmond in the west, south and east of Blacktown where they come together. Further east, the services pass through Parramatta before continuing parallel to the Parramatta River along the main western line, Sydney's most important, into Central at the CBD. This line is six tracks from Stratfield to Sydney. I do have to mention, service patterns do vary a bit from day to day and time to time, so these are mostly just the prevailing patterns. Just north of Central, the T1 enters old tunnels under Sydney's Central Business District, where it passes through the important stations of Town Hall and Winniard, which were influenced by the New York subway. From here, the services continue north across the Harbour Bridge to northern suburban destinations like Chatswood, Gordon and Hornsby. The T1 is a total of 128 km long, which is really long. The T2 inner western Leppington line is the third most used on the system, and for a large part duplicates T1, running from the CBD to Central and then along the main western line. These portions of the T2 stop at all stations, while this portion of the T1 runs express. Now it's worth asking how the T2 actually navigates the CBD, and this happens via what is known as the City Circle, which sounds and operates somewhat like Melbourne's City Loop. The City Circle is a two track line which forms a loop from Central North through Town Hall and Winniard and then east to the Fairy Hub and Light Rail connection at Circular Key, which is actually above grade with boarding from the streets below, which goes to show the quite crazy topography of Central Sydney. That said, the vibe is heard by the fact that on top of the rail station is an elevated expressway. Continuing east, the tracks turn back underground before looping back south and running through St. James and Museum, but not that museum, back to Central. This does enable some changes from one service to another as well. I do have to point out that the signs at some of the CBD stations as well bear a striking resemblance to another railway city. With the two tracks from the Harbour Bridge and the two from each of the directions on the City Circle, the main surface suburban platforms at Central are served by a total of six approach tracks that widen to eight at the platforms. Just to the south, there is an incredibly complex series of flyovers. I'd attempt to explain them in their great complexity, but Tate Set already has a great explainer video that I'd suggest you watch for that. Suffice to say, designing this thing must have been quite of a puzzle, a puzzle which has only become more complex as more infrastructure and lines have been added. Continuing with the T2 along the main western line service splits at Granville where it runs with one branch terminating at Paramatta and another running south. The southern branch continues through Liverpool and Glenfield before turning west onto the south west rail link to Leppington, which opened in 2015. This project created two new stations and a majorly rebuilt Glenfield, resulting in some of the most modern stations on the entire network and a very unique fully greenfield corridor that at least initially was truly surrounded by green fields. T2 is a total of 55 kilometers long. The T3 Bankstown line starts similar to T2, running from the CBD through to Central and then through Redfern, a major shoulder station hub that nearly every route that runs into the CBD also runs through. This would be a great location for a ton of intensification in the future which is happening already, but not at nearly the scale it someday might. From here if the line continues southwest to Sydenham, where it diverges from the larger four-track rail corridor to head west. Like a lot of junctions in Sydney, like the one that carries T2 east of Paramatta, this is a sprawling Y with a footprint not unlike a highway interchange and that reminds me of the dense rail lines around London. Such connectivity has allowed for a lot of service pattern changes over the years, and really makes the system a true network rather than a simple collection of lines. From here the service continues west to serve areas like Dulwich Hill where connections can be made to Sydney's light rail, Belmore and Punchball, before arriving at its namesake, Bankstown. From here the line splits into two branches, one travels west through Chester Hill and Villawood to the main south line alongside the T2, which it travels with to Liverpool, paralleling the South Sydney freight line. A dedicated freight corridor built adjacent to this portion of the Bankstown and main south lines. Traveling north from the split of the Bankstown line, which is unsurprisingly also a Y, we have a short run up to Lidcombe on the main western line, where this service terminates. It should be noted that this connection is once again a Y. This line is a total of 47km long. I should mention that the Bankstown lines days as is are numbered, but we'll discuss that in more detail later. The second most used line in the Sydney Trains Network is the T4 Eastern Suburbs line. This line starts at Bondi Junction, though it was planned to go much further and might still do so someday. Destinations as far south as Kingsford, which are now served by Sydney's light rail, have been planned in the past. From Bondi Junction, which is about 2.5km west of the famous beach, the line runs west via Kings Cross, but not that Kings Cross to the CBD, where it serves the very nicely named Martin Play Station, which has tracks crossing the city's circle just north of St. James. From here, the line continues alongside the others through Town Hall, Central, and Redfern, but on a deeper tunneled alignment. It actually shares part of the lower level at Town Hall with one of the tracks from the city's circle. From Redfern, the T4 continues alongside the Bankstown line, continuing beyond Sydenham through many suburbs to the west and south of the airport. Around Coghra, the line turns west before turning back south and crossing the Georgia's River beyond Penhurst. To the south, the line winds along before splitting in two at Sutherland, with one branch traveling straight east to near the coast in Cronulla, and another which travels south between the Princess Highway and Natural Wooded Area to the suburb of Waterfall, which indeed does have some waterfalls. The T4 is a total of 55km long. The T4 is basically entirely isolated from other lines, and our next line, the T5 Cumberland line, exists entirely as a mash-up of other railway lines. The service starts at Schofields and at Richmond late at night alongside the T1, traveling south to Parramatta before the line makes a big turn south to run alongside the T2 service all the way to its southern terminus at Leppington. The T5 is one of only two lines, which does not enter the CBD and is the least used main service on the network, though this will hopefully change as Parramatta and Western Sydney continue to develop. The T5 is a total of 67km long. Now, you're expecting the T6 to exist, but the bad news is that it does not. The T6 was previously the designation given to the Carlingford Railway line, which split off the main western line at Clyde to head all the way up to Carlingford, which provided some infrequent services. This line has since been closed to passenger service and will be taken over in large part by a new light rail line, which City is a big fan of these days. If you were expecting T7 to be an impressive cross-city jaunt, you'll be disappointed. As much like T6, T7 is quite short. In fact, so short that it only has two stations on about 4km of track. The T7 Olympic Park Line indeed is simply a shuttle service from Lidcombe to the Olympic Park, which has a giant station with two tracks, both with Spanish solution platforms, that are used in one direction, allowing massive capacity with Sydney's big trains. This high capacity, as well as a tangle of tracks and flying junctions surrounding the Flemington Maintenance Centre, where the Olympic Park Line meets the main western line, mean that during major events like concerts, services can run frequently direct to and from the CBD, as well as other destinations, which is pretty awesome. With the T8 airport and cell line, we finally get back to really substantial service, and this line starts running from the CBD to Central. South of Central, the T8 almost immediately enters a tunnel, which required modifying the tracks around Central. This service runs south, bypassing the area of Waterloo and stopping at Greensquare and Mascot, which were stations which were built as part of the airport rail link P3 and until a few years ago featured user surcharges which went to the P3 operator, who built and owned the stations themselves, but not the trains or track. The reduction in this high surcharge has really boosted ridership, and Mascot in particular is surrounded by a pretty astounding amount of TOD that is probably among the most of any airport out there. Continuing south, the line features two airport stations, with one at the domestic terminal and one at international, both of which still do have the surcharge. After this, the line continues west through a lower set of platforms at Walleye Creek, where the line provides connections with T4. Walleye Creek is also surrounded by excellent TOD. From here, T8 continues due southwest, passing through numerous suburbs before it eventually arrives at the main self-line, which it runs along, connecting to T2 and T5 at Glenfield, before continuing south to Engelburn, Campbelltown, and MacArthur, where services terminate. Some of the corridors T8 runs on have additional capacity, and thus T8 does run some additional Pico-May services, which bypass the airport and travel via Sydenham. These services supplement T3 services while the T4 runs express from Sydenham to Redfern. T8 is a total of 57 kilometers long. The final line in this system is the T9 Northern Line. This line fully duplicates the T1 from Gordon across the Sydney Harbour Bridge through the CBD, Central, and Redfern, before running express to Burwood and Stratfield, where it diverges to the north to run across the Parramatta River, then through West Ride, Eastwood, and Epping, which we're going to come back to. From here, the line continues north to Terminate at Hornsby. The T9 is a total of 53 kilometers long, and it in particular interacts with a lot of freight trains traveling from the ports out of Sydney, and I'll cover projects designed to help alleviate these interactions in a future video. So, Epping. As it turns out, the Northern Line ended here at one point, looping back on itself, at least for a bit, and that's thanks to a big ol' rail project known as the Epping to Chatswood Rail Link, which was built in the 2000s along with other iconic links we've discussed, like the Southwest Link and the Airport Link. The Epping to Chatswood Rail Link is a rather loopy set of tunnels that leave the aforementioned TOD hub of Chatswood before heading north, before making a giant curve south, and then a giant curve north, stopping at three stations before terminating at Epping. The scale of the whole project is quite impressive, and its stations give me jubilee line extension vibes, but its routing is suboptimal to say the least, in no small part due to the restrictive performance of Sydney's big double-decker EMUs and the difficult geography of the area. Now, naturally, since the line was built quite specifically for Sydney's epic by-level EMUs, it was closed less than 10 years after it first opened, to be converted for use on Sydney's new Metro. Yes, that's right, let's talk about the Metro. Sydney Metro first opened in the middle of 2019 with its northwest line, which connects Chatswood to the suburb of Tallowong via the Epping to Chatswood Rail Link, and a combination of new tunnels and guideways built from scratch as part of the Metro project, alongside pretty opulent new stations, constituting a 36 kilometer line. The Metro features quite attractive automated trains whose blue color contrasts nicely with the warm tones of the suburban sets, although their track gauge and power supply is the same. What distinguishes the Metro are the trains much greater agility, thanks to their lighter weight and single deck, which creates a better power-to-weight ratio and enables steeper climbs into and out of tunnels, as well as operations on modern elevated guideways in suburban areas, as mentioned before. Sydney Metro's trains also feature fully longitudinal seating with three doors on each side of each car, while every station features platform gates on screen doors, as well as level boarding, which is a bit of an issue on Sydney's existing network. Now, the Metro Northwest line is really just an early sign of things to come to the system, and construction is already ongoing on the much more interesting city and southwest leg of the system. Starting from the southwest, the line is taking over the Bankstown line from Bankstown Station East, where the line will be converted for operations with automated trains, as well as with platform gates and level boarding, which will be done with gap fillers, something that's already been done in Hong Kong. Around Sydney, the Metro will dive underground, making one stop at Waterloo before arriving at new platforms beneath Central, which is being totally revamped and expanded, before continuing north to Martin Place, cutting across the CBD to Barrangaroo, and then passing under Sydney Harbour in new board tunnels, making it the first line to do so. From here, the line will make a few stops before surfacing just south of Chatswood to form a single line which runs north-south in a wide west-opening arc. If you want to learn more about all of the works going on to build Sydney Metro, you should check out TransportVlog, which has been covering Sydney Transit, and in particular, Sydney Transit Construction in great detail. As it turns out, there are other Sydney Metro lines, but they're a bit unusual. The Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport line, yes that's really what it's called, is meant to connect Western Sydney Airport to the rail network, with a new six-stop line north to St. Mary's on the T1, essentially acting as an airport shuttle, at least for now, which feels less compelling than a direct rail link, which could surely have been built given the greenfield status of the airport. There are plans to build a dense urban centre around the airport, which I'm generally skeptical of, given the noisy places airports tend to be, but mascot is pretty great, so I'll give Sydney the benefit of the doubt here. The final line currently moving forward, and under construction on the metro, is Sydney Metro West. This project is essentially a new independent line from the Sydney CBD to Parramatta, that can provide extra capacity and a more direct route between the two when compared to the more congested legacy line. As you've probably noticed throughout the video, Sydney's legacy suburban rail lines are very windy, and top speeds aren't that high. This line is also going to provide additional higher order transit to areas like Piermont and Sydney Olympic Park, which have huge growth potential. That being said, Sydney Metro does make me wonder sometimes. For one, the station in Parramatta won't have the most direct connection with the existing train station. Riders will either need to walk quite some distance, or change at West Mead, which does provide less services, say if you want to go south. At the same time, the city center terminal at Hunter Street, not being a cross-platform transfer with one of the stations on the under construction Sydney Metro, feels like a missed opportunity, given how close together the projects are being built. I'm also not entirely sure that all lines on Sydney Metro are actually being built to be intercapable, and this seems problematic for the potential of future interlining, and is a major strength of the existing train's network. There are also network gaps, such as between Tallowong and Schofields, that are meant to be closed in the future, but might have been best to never have existed in the first place. There are some more macro-scale questions as well. For one, Sydney Metro's lines have some rather large interstation gaps, of several kilometers or more, in a bunch of different places, which is a lot more than the standard one kilometer or so that you tend to see with a lot of new systems. At the same time, despite the push for express service and more direct routes than existing trains' lines, there are somewhat limited top speeds of the metro trains when compared to the suburban EMUs feels like a missed opportunity, to use one of the high-speed metro-style trains that is available these days and is being used in places from London to Delhi. In many ways, as I've said before, from the parkades at suburban stations to the more metro area-scale transportation ambitions, Sydney Metro feels more like an enhanced version of Sydney train's existing model rather than a more local form of rapid transit, but with all of that said, I won't deny how beautiful and impressively high-capacity it is. Interestingly, Zurich and Sydney do have something in common, besides their big double-decker multiple-unit trains, and that's the incorporation of intercity services. In Sydney's case, this is with NSW train link, and this looks very interesting because to a large extent, the trains running on the Central Coast and Newcastle line to the North, the Blue Mountains line to the West, and the South Coast line to the South are the same electrical multiple units you would see in Sydney's main fleet, though fitted out for longer distances. And, as in Zurich, these trains could be used interchangeably with suburban services, which is really cool. What's also really cool is that soon, some of these electrified intercity services will be operating with the very nice new looking NIF sets, which are derived from the A-Sets you see operating on the Sydney Suburban Network. The consistency, both in design standards and performance, naturally makes these longer distant services operating through the suburban lines in Sydney onwards fit in very nicely. Now, there is more rail transit to talk about in Sydney, and that would be the fast-growing and surprisingly extensive Sydney Light Rail Network, but YouTube videos can only be so long, and that kind of specialized content just really doesn't get a ton of traction. So I've actually gone and made an exclusive video on Nebula, dedicated to Sydney's burgeoning light rail system, which replaces its long-remove tram system. Nebula is the streaming award-nominated streaming platform owned by me and my creator friends, featuring over 14,000 titles that you can watch ad-free, including exclusive and early access videos from educational creators like myself, not just bikes, and CityBeautiful. You can get a monthly subscription to Nebula First, low as $3 a month, or get a whole year with a two-month discount. Check out the link in the video description to watch the exclusive right now. So thanks for coming down under with me to check out the Sydney Trains Network, one of my personal favorite suburban rail systems out there, and one that has a very interesting and promising future.