The T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line: An Honest Review

As someone that lives on the T4, i really wish they would give us newer trains. Dont get me wrong, i love the tangaras but i would be nice to have something a bit more modern and comfortable.

It's funny, when the T4 line (then known as the Illawara line and then Sutherland line) had heaps of Tangaras back in the early 90s, they were considered favoured. Now the tables have turned and the same trains are all old.

My station is Rockdale and so I only take T4 to anywhere, so far it’s been okay not great. I wish the train could be faster but they do need to upgrade the power plant if they wanted to run newer model. Raining seems tend to disrupt the power line frequently.

The problem with the T4 is it tries to service too wide of an area in the southern end of Sydney. Creating two extra lines, one from Wolli Creek to head south along Brighton and interchange at Caringbah to continue to Cronulla and one line to parallel that course but from Hurstville south to Miranda would make more geographical sense. Thay would free up capacity to Sutherland, and the remaining branch in the Shire can terminate at Miranda/Caringbah, so more express services can be run from Wollongong. And for the love of god fix the alignment along the coast towards Wollongong, it needs to follow the Princes motorway and not wind through Helensburgh.

Yeah I think the T4 gets sometimes really crowded, (especially when I was going to Cronulla, a full 60 second stop!)

T4 are getting the most frequent services. Services are mostly reliable and fast. Spare a thought for pockets of sydney which gets infrequent, slow and lousy services. If T4 is upgarding to Waratach fleets, dump your Tangaras to the steelyards, not onto other train lines.

I feel for commuters who have to use the T4 regularly, Only having Tangaras which are now very dated and not the most comfortable. The state government needs to upgrade the power supply capability this would allow Waratahs to service the line which I'm sure would be welcomed by all who use the T4 line regularly.

The #1 reason for building the new rolling stock here was the disastrous d sets which are 4 years old and still not in service because of designs in operation mainly doors Building trains he make sense we are one of the few states that have not built a train here for decades

I dont mind tangaras as a t4 boy i just wish the windows weren't so foggy

Despite what people say about the Tangaras...at least theyre easier to sleep in as you dont have automated announcements waking you every few minutes on the newer trains. Its also the least of its problems...i appareciate its high frequency and ease to get to the city.

Awesome video!! I take the T4 and the T1 line and I'm always wondering why T4 gets tangaras with crusty seats and graffiti-ed end carriages when the T1 gets cleaner trains :P But out of curiosity, do you know why the T4 platform (24-25) at Central station is underground whereas all the other platform are above ground? It always makes me feel like a sweaty mole when I have to wait 10 minutes at platform 25 lol

So the power grid will short out if the 4th generation EMU trains try to go further than Hurstville??

Could you go into a bit more detail about how the More Trains more services program is going to add 30% peak capacity like transport NSW claims? From what I found it looks like that increase is going to come from the Hurstville Crossover Project but I don't understand how adding that crossover will allow for more trains to be scheduled. They said they'll switch the all stops Hurstville to Bondi Junction service from the lcoal tracks to the main tracks but surely that will impact the express services? Any insights on this?

Power. Means we are stuck with the Tangara's. The quicker they can get rid of the Tangara's the better. I have lived on T4 for ever. :face-purple-smiling-fangs:🔱🏳‍🌈

Some Tangaras will graually be removed from service once the H sets start running on that line

Very good educational and research content. Well done.😂

T4 line has the worst train in Sydney no doubt,You can't even see where you are,because there is no display even the announcement is very boring.They only say the station name for one time nothing else.Whenever you are travelling T4 line you must be very careful otherwise you'll have to miss your destination.

Shouldn't be Waratah trains putting less pressure on the grid than the Tangara since they use the newer and more power saving IGBT traction control motors? I think the Tangara will probably last as long as the C151s in Singapore last since they use the same traction control technology and from the same supplier (Mitsubishi Electric).

nah, I lived in Kings Cross for almost a year and the tangaras were a big no-no to me. Besides the awful smell and the old seats, the only thing I enjoyed was the quick access to Bondi Junction. I try to catch the SCO train instead of the T4 ones. Glad I moved to Mascot and the T8 waratahs (and another type whose name i forgot) are a huge improvement.

The fact is they to give SCO there own Tracks, due to it being Express. and Metro coming to Sydenham, Which means most likely more T4 trains stopping at Sydenham, and SCO being stuck Behind. what they need to do, is make there own tracks for the SCO. and then SCO can run more frequent services. Because SCO is a really used Route for people going up and the down the coast. And with D Sets coming out soon. They need to Upgrade only Wollongong. North Wollongong, Thirroul, Helensburgh, Waterfall, Sutherland, Redfern, Central. Wolli Creek & Hurstville are useless Stops. When they run T4 Services to both Stops anyways!