New South Wales (NSW) minister for transport and infrastructure Andrew Constance has announced plans for a new rail nerve centre at Green Square, Sydney.

Estimated to cost A$276m ($203.2m), the new Sydney Trains Rail Operations Centre will allow centralised train and track management, incident response, customer communication and monitoring of customer safety to minimise train delays and offer faster information to customers.

All these functions are currently being done from different locations and in different ways.

The facility, expected to open in 2018, will be equipped with advanced technology to manage train movements and customer safety.

Constance said: “This new centre will ultimately improve train reliability for customers and when there are delays, information will be communicated much more quickly. This is a massive commitment to a transformational project that will help ensure Sydney Trains can continue to improve the service it provides to customers.”

Sydney Trains CEO Howard Collins added: “The new centre will mean each of these parties are informed the moment the issue is reported and because they will all be in the same location, receiving more information, they can ensure the best response to get our customers moving again.”