Proposed Railways in Sydney - Sydney Area Transportation Study, 1974

Sydney Area Transportation Study, 1974

In 1968, the State Planning Authority of New South Wales released the Sydney Region Outline Plan, which was to guide the development of Sydney for the period 1970–2000. In particular, it aimed to develop new growth corridors to areas such as Green Valley, Campbelltown and Blacktown. This was followed in 1974 by the Sydney Area Transportation Study which proposed several new rail lines in the new growth areas as well as several new lines to ease congestion in the established areas of Sydney. The proposed lines were:

• a line linking Parramatta and Windsor via the Hills district,
• a line between Merrylands and Green Valley,
• a line to the Northern beaches, including a new underground section through Crows Nest,
• the complete Eastern suburbs line to Kingsford, already under construction at the time but later truncated to Bondi Junction (opened 1979),
• an extension of the East Hills line from East Hills to Glenfield (later constructed and opened in 1987),
• an express line between Redfern and Parramatta, running parallel but north of the existing Main Suburban line,
• a line connecting the Bankstown line at Sydenham with Redfern via Mascot and Alexandria, with a possible future branch to the airport,
• an extension of the Carlingford line to meet the Main North line at Beecroft, with an intermediate station,
• a connection between the Carlingford line at Rosehill and Parramatta

The rail plans also involved significant duplication and quadruplication of existing lines. Despite extensive modelling, the vast majority of the proposals outlined were not constructed.