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 Richmond Station is the terminal stop on the Blacktown to Richmond single bi-directional line. This standard gauge railway line was opened in 1864. It is a branch line of the Main Western line. This electrified line is predominantly used by passenger trains and is a single track for much of its length. The line is duplicated at multiple positions along the track. Passing loops also exist at various stations, allowing for trains to pass.

Train movements on the Richmond line are controlled by Sydney Trains under network rule NSY 500 Rail Vehicle Detection system. This system of safeworking prescribes the rules used in axle counter territory and continuously track-circuited territory on the network. Train movements on the metropolitan network, including the Richmond line, are authorised by a Train Controller from the Rail Management Centre in Sydney. These movements are controlled in conjunction with local signal control rooms. At the time of the incident, the movements for Richmond were controlled by the Area Controller located in the Blacktown signal box. Both the Rail Management Centre and the Blacktown Signal Box are now in the Rail Operations Centre at Green Square.

Richmond Station consists of an island platform, incorporating Platform 1 and 2, which has an effective length of approximately 168 m. A dead-end line runs on each side of this island platform. A third dead-end siding line (The Up storage siding) is used to stable trains for storage purposes. All three lines were terminated with an identical buffer stop involved in the incident.

The single line from East Richmond Station to Richmond Station curves to the right for 160 m before straightening after the Moray Street pedestrian crossing. Once past this crossing, the line diverges into three separate lines to Platform 1, Platform 2 and the Up storage siding line. There is a clear line of sight to the buffer stop for Platform 2. The buffer stop also had a functioning light signal, which displayed a red light, centrally located on top of the buffer stop (Figure 8).