Punctuality of Sydney Trains Has Fallen Below Target On All Lines

All major Sydney Trains suburban and intercity lines have fallen below punctuality targets over the past twelve months, underperforming compared to previous financial years.

In the 2025 fiscal year, 83.5 percent of Sydney Trains suburban services ran on time, defined as arriving within five minutes of schedule. This is a drop of more than five percentage points from FY 2024.

The punctuality target for suburban services is for 92 percent to arrive at their destination within five minutes of the timetable, a benchmark which was last exceeded in FY 2022. The target for intercity trains is for the same percentage to be on time within six minutes. According to Transport for NSW, these goals are in line with national and global standards.

Just over 70 percent of intercity services ran on schedule, a 10-point drop in one year leading to a considerably worse result compared to previous fiscal years in this decade.

Not all the lines the same

Punctuality rates varied by ten percentage points across suburban lines. At the top end, almost 90 percent of T8 Airport & South Line services were on time. The T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line, formerly the T3 Bankstown Line, came second with a rate of around 86 percent.

Just above 84 percent of T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line trains were on schedule, a significant drop from the line’s recent performance which is typically bolstered by its physical segregation from the rest of the suburban network. 

The T1 North Shore & Western Line and the T9 Northern Line both recorded about 79 percent punctuality, the latter’s result being nearly eight percentage points below its performance in the fiscal year preceding.

The T1 and T9 are the longest lines on the suburban network. They share tracks with intercity trains from the Blue Mountains, Newcastle and the Central Coast, as well as with regional and goods trains. Timetable enhancements implemented in 2024 have resulted in most trains from the Central Coast and Newcastle now overtaking suburban services between Epping and Hornsby.

Figures were not available for the T5 Cumberland Line, the T6 Lidcombe & Bankstown Line, the T7 Olympic Park Line and the intercity Hunter Line.

Disruptive twelve months for Sydney trains

The 2025 fiscal year was a rough one for Sydney Trains, which faced disruption from strikes, severe weather and infrastructure failures. The year’s final week opened with passengers being advised to allow extra travel time after a mental health incident required the attendance of emergency services.

Travellers were, incidentally, exempted from fares that day, as an apology from the New South Wales Government for chaos the week prior.

More services added

A silver lining is that, while punctuality has worsened, service increases have reduced nominal wait times across Sydney.

The Bankstown line was closed for conversion to metro in September 2024. This resulted in broadly increased service frequencies elsewhere as trains were freed up and the bottleneck caused by converging lines near Central was alleviated. The Inner West has seen a noticeable uptick in service frequencies as trains to and from Liverpool now travel via Lidcombe.

Some peak hour services were cut back at the same time.

Meanwhile, Sydney Metro has added a shine to Sydney’s 170 year-old railway network. The automated services, which operate on their own tracks, have proven to be highly reliable and have reduced travel times, allowing passengers to interchange from suburban or intercity trains particularly if they are coming into the city centre from the north.