Sydney 130-year-old train line picked up and moved in two days
One of Sydney’s oldest and busiest railway lines has been picked up and moved in just 48 hours to make way for a brand-new Sydney Metro.
The Trains T1 North Shore Line between Chatswood and Artarmon – first built in 1890 – was permanently moved this week to make room for a new city-bound metro, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance has announced.
The tracks were blocking the site of the new line and were cut and moved to connect with new tracks 20-metres to the west, making way for the Metro North West line to extend into the new twin metro tunnels.
“We’ve essentially picked up and moved one of Sydney’s oldest and busiest railway lines, which was an amazing feat of engineering and required incredibly hard work from the 250 local workers involved,” Mr Constance said.
“The huge operation took 48 hours to cut, slew and join the existing suburban line with almost 900 metres of new track and about 2.5 kilometres of new overhead wiring.
“I want to thank the entire team for safely completing this work in last weekend’s extreme weather conditions, and for getting services back up and running in time for Monday’s peak.
“Work to convert the new tunnels and underground stations into a working metro railway is gathering pace and this is another major piece in the puzzle.”
The trackwork has been completed at Chatswood so that the Sydney Metro can be extended from the city’s northwest into the Sydney CBD and beyond to Bankstown.
