NSW government commits to Central Coast rail upgrades including new passing loops

The NSW government has committed $220 million to capacity upgrades on the Central Coast rail corridor, including new passing loops at Gosford and Wyong to address the bottleneck that causes chronic delays for commuters on the busiest regional rail line in the state.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the upgrades would allow the timetable to add six additional express services between the Central Coast and Sydney per weekday, reducing peak travel times on the busiest services by an average of nine minutes. The passing loops would also improve reliability by reducing instances where trains were required to wait at signals for opposing services on the single-track sections north of Gosford.

The Central Coast commuter population has grown significantly over the past decade, with an estimated 34,000 residents now making daily rail journeys to Sydney employment. Surveys of those commuters consistently ranked reliability as the single most important improvement they sought, ahead of frequency and travel time.

Infrastructure NSW identified the Central Coast as one of five regional corridors requiring urgent capacity investment to avoid functional failure under projected population growth. The business case for the passing loops showed a benefit-cost ratio of 2.8, among the strongest in the regional transport program.

Works on the first passing loop at Gosford are scheduled to begin after the summer peak period, with the second at Wyong targeted for completion before the end of the financial year. The additional timetabled services are planned to commence with the next major timetable change.

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