The Southern Highlands line will be upgraded next month as part of annual maintenance work.

From Friday, September 2 until 6pm on Tuesday, September 6 ARTC employees and its contractors will deliver about 50 projects at worksites across the rail network from the Southern Highlands right through the Riverina to Albury.

An ARTC spokesperson said it was hoped the disruptions to commuters would be minimal.

“While most of the work will be delivered during daylight hours, the nature of some projects means some work will unavoidably take place overnight,” they said.

“This work is critical to ensuring the safety and reliability of the rail network, and is part of our annual maintenance program.”

The spokesperson said similar maintenance work usually took place over the Christmas period but based on feedback from customers, the ARTC decided to do the work in September this year to minimise disruptions.

The $7 million maintenance will include re-railing, bridge works, turnout replacements, track undercutting and signalling maintenance.

The  ARTC will also have heavy rail grinding track machines operating in a continuous basis from the Sydney metropolitan area right through to Albury.

Visit www.nswtrainlink.info or www.sydneytrains.info for specific information on what train services may be replaced with buses.  

For more information on the track work planned, visit http://www.artc.com.au/community/track-work/.