The line travels west from Sydney to the major town of Katoomba and on to Mount Victoria, Lithgow and Bathurst.

Due to electrification limits at Lithgow, the Bathurst Bullet is run using the Endeavour railcars, which operate on diesel.

As such, the tracks are also traversed by the Central West XPT, Outback Xplorer and Indian Pacific passenger services and by freight trains.

[2][3] The line originally ascended the eastern and descended the western sides of the Blue Mountains via a series of zig-zag track sections.

In the 1950s, the line was electrified primarily as a means of easing the haulage of coal freight from the western coalfields to the coastal ports,[4] but a by-product of this programme was the introduction of electric interurban passenger services as far west as Bowenfels, later cut back to Lithgow.

As the V sets are being replaced by the New Intercity Fleet, which are wider, the loading gauge of the line past Springwood will be increased.

This will be done by a combination of carving notches into tunnel walls and reducing required clearances by lowering speed limits.