“Significantly, the full integration of the ECRL provides an alternative path to the city via Epping rather than via Strathfield,” a spokesperson for Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDC) told Rail Express. TIDC delivered the project on behalf of the New South Wales Government.
By diverting four citybound trains per hour during the peak on the Northern Line, the available capacity of the North Shore Line between Chatswood and the CBD is effectively utilised, the spokesperson said.
“This frees up capacity between Strathfield and the City for additional Main West services catering for an extra 18,000 people per day.”
The project also delivers significant benefits to many thousands of people with the growing education and employment hub of Macquarie Park, home to some 60,000 students and 350 businesses, now enjoying rail services for the first time.
The ECRL is one of the largest infrastructure projects recently completed in Australia, TIDC’s executive program director, Scott Lyall said.
“It is a massive and complex feat of engineering excellence which provides benefits both locally and across the CityRail network,” he said.
“Over 12,500 people worked on the project including more than 300 contractor companies from a wide range of disciplines. Together they worked 13 million hours to deliver the project.”
As part of the $2.3 billion project, three new state of the art stations were built at Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde. In addition, Chatswood Transport Interchange was redeveloped and Epping Station was substantially upgraded, which included the construction of a new aerial concourse and two new underground platforms to accommodate the 12.5 kilometre twin underground tunnels.
“The new stations represent the highest standards in design, safety and passenger comfort marking the ECRL as an impressive and world class piece of transport infrastructure that Sydney can be proud of,” Lyall said.
Station features include lifts and escalators, closed circuit television, passenger help points, fire detection and protection systems bus stops, taxi ranks, bicycle racks and lockers in addition to dedicated passenger drop off and pick up points adjacent to station entrances.
The rail line’s twin underground tunnels, each measuring 12.5 kilometres in length and over seven metres in diameter, were excavated using two tunnel boring machines and roadheaders, taking two years to complete.
“Each tunnel boring machine measured 210 metres in length and weighed 1,060 tonnes – the same weight and length as three fully loaded Boeing 747’s lined up in a row,” the spokesperson said.
“These highly complex machines were operated 24 hours a day, on a six day cycle, in order to get the job done and in the process set a new tunnelling world record by excavating 92 metres of tunnel in one 24 hour period.”
The vast majority of Hawkesbury sandstone excavated during tunnelling was recycled on projects such as the Westlink M7 motorway.
“Feedback from passengers using the new line has been overwhelmingly positive,” Lyall said.
 
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