Region. Rail commuters face changes

More commuters would have to change trains to get to the city centre under a planned overhaul of Sydney's train system that will attempt to make trains run more frequently and reliably. The overhaul would mean commuters from a clutch of stations in Sydney's west and north-west would lose direct services to the city, but they would be promised better and more regular services on the express line when they change trains.

The principles behind the planned redesign, which remain controversial inside the transport bureaucracy, are expected to be laid out in the coming weeks, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, which put its understanding of the rail plan to the office of the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian.

She said: "Transport for NSW is undertaking the most fundamental rewrite of the rail timetable in a decade to ensure we get the most out of the current network for customers. There is a lot of work to do and plans have not been finalised. The new timetable will be implemented late next year to improve service reliability and increase capacity,'' she said.