Rail Clearways Program

This route did not change from the pre-Clearways Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line. The projects undertaken on this route have increased passenger capacity.

After the Airport Line opened in May 2000, most trains from the East Hills line used the new line to approach the city, easing congestion on the older line between Sydenham and Erskineville, where tracks are shared with Bankstown Line services. Under the programme, new dedicated tracks for the Bankstown Line between Sydenham and Erskineville were to be constructed to the west of the existing four tracks to allow express East Hills Line trains from Clearway 3 to again run via Sydenham. The Airport Line would be served by all-stops East Hills Line trains from Clearway 4.

St. Peters and Erskineville railway stations were expected to continue to be served by the Bankstown Line. This would have required platforms—partially completed in the 1970s from the Eastern Suburbs Line construction—to have been activated at these two stations. The works were cancelled in November 2008, and the plan for frequent operation of express East Hills Line services via Sydenham was abandoned.

A second Bankstown Line project involved the construction of a new turn-back platform at Lidcombe, separating the Bankstown Line's operations from the former Inner West Line (later part of the Airport, Inner West & South Line). This works in concert with the Homebush turn-back project, which provides a terminating point for all stations trains on the Airport, Inner West & South Line. This separation was enacted in the October 2013 timetable. The turn-back platform at Lidcombe was also marked in 2012 as a terminal for Sydney Metro Southwest, with original plans to convert the Bankstown Line through to Lidcombe and Cabramatta into rapid transit.[4] This plan has since been altered to have Bankstown as the terminus of the Metro line.

The Campbelltown Express Clearway would have separated the section of the East Hills Line east of Revesby by quadruplicating between Kingsgrove and Revesby and sending express trains to the City Circle via Sydenham. This was to allow more frequent express services to the city, relieve pressure on other parts of the network and improve the distribution of passengers.

On the Airport & South Clearway, express services would have begun at Glenfield and made their way through Liverpool, Cabramatta, Granville, Lidcombe and Strathfield stations to the City Circle, while all-stations services to the City started at Homebush.[5] After passing through the City Circle, trains would have headed south-west via the Airport Line to Revesby (running parallel with the Campbelltown Express line from Wolli Creek to Revesby).

In the October 2013 timetable, these two clearways were merged to create the Airport, Inner West & South Line. Differences from the original plan include via-Revesby and via-Granville trains sharing tracks between Glenfield and Macarthur, and all-stations and express trains via-Revesby sharing tracks between Revesby and Central. Most trains from Macarthur via Revesby use the local (pre-existing) tracks between Revesby and Wolli Creek, and make a number of stops along the route. These trains approach the City via the Airport. The route via-Sydenham and the express tracks between Wolli Creek and Revesby are only used by a limited number of peak-hour services as well as NSW Trains services to Goulburn, Canberra, Griffith and Melbourne.

In the November 2017 timetable, in addition to peak-hour trains from Macarthur via Sydenham utilising the express tracks between Wolli Creek and Revesby, most Macarthur via Airport services throughout the day now operate via the express tracks, resulting in the full separation of Macarthur express trains from Revesby all-stations trains which continue to use the local tracks. This has resulted in the removal of express trains for Padstow and Riverwood as the express tracks are unable to serve those stations where there are no platforms.

The North West Clearway provides an independent corridor for the North Shore & Western Line and Northern Line to improve reliability and capacity. Trains from the west start from the Richmond, Penrith or Epping branches, meet up at Strathfield and travel through the city to Chatswood. Here trains used to split, either continuing up the North Shore Line to Berowra, or via the Chatswood to Epping Line to Hornsby, prior to its conversion to Sydney Metro Northwest in 2018.