Main Suburban railway line

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Main Suburban railway
Transport Asset Holding Entity
Termini
Stations17
Service
Services
Operator(s)
standard gauge
ElectrificationOverhead 1500 V DC[1]
Operating speed
  • Track speed varies between 50 km/h (on local) and 100 km/h (on main)[2]
  • 43.3 km/h (network average)[3]
Route map

Main Suburban line through Croydon
Legend
km
To Sydney Harbour Bridge or City Circle
0.00
 Central
1.30
 Redfern
Illawarra line to Bomaderry
2.48
 Macdonaldtown
3.10
 Newtown
4.67
 Stanmore
5.50
 Petersham
6.25
 Lewisham
Inner West Light Rail
7.03
 Summer Hill
8.38
 Ashfield
9.42
 Croydon
10.62
 Burwood
11.81
 Strathfield
Main Northern line to Armidale
12.74
 Homebush
14.32
Flemington
Olympic Park line
16.61
 Lidcombe
Main Southern line to Albury
18.63
 Auburn
20.66
 Clyde
21.22
 Granville
Old Main South line to Cabramatta
Main Western line to Dubbo
Note: most crossovers not shown
This diagram:

The Main Suburban railway line is the technical name for the trunk railway line between Redfern railway station and Parramatta railway station in Sydney, Australia, but now generally refers to the section between Redfern and where the Old Main South Line branches off at Granville Junction.[4] The railway line then continues on as the Main Western line towards the Blue Mountains. This term distinguished this trunk line from the Illawarra Line which branched south from the Illawarra Junction to Wollongong, and later the North Shore tracks which carried trains north over the Harbour Bridge.

History

Former Petersham railway station on the Up Main. Replaced by a station on the local tracks.

The Main Suburban line between Redfern and Granville was the first railway line to be constructed in New South Wales. The first company to start rail transport in New South Wales was the Sydney Railway Company

shares were sold, and a route was surveyed. The first sod was turned by Mrs Keith Stewart (daughter of the Governor) at Cleveland Paddocks (an area between the southern end of the current Central station and Cleveland Street
) on 20 May 1850.

The original engineer appointed was

Victoria and South Australia
and some rolling stock ordered.)

The Sydney Railway Company encountered many troubles: engineers came and went; real estate required became expensive and difficult to acquire; money, supplies and manpower ran short, partly because of a gold rush. Eventually the property of the Sydney Railway Company was transferred to the government of New South Wales on 3 September 1855.

The line opened on 26 September 1855, from Sydney to Parramatta Junction (near Granville Station), with stations at Newtown, Ashfield, Burwood and Homebush.[6][7] The Sydney terminal station was on the south side of Devonshire Street, just south of the current Central Station. Although the vicinity was sometimes referred to as Redfern, it was not near the current Redfern station.

Sextuplication works at Newtown station in 1927

The line was quadrupled to

Flemington in 1892.[8] The line saw its most dramatic change in the period 1926–1927, when the section from Redfern to Homebush was expanded from 4 to 6 tracks by the addition of 2 tracks initially intended for non-electric express trains. Prior to 1926, all stations on the line had platform faces to all four tracks, and the tracks were labelled as 'fast' and 'slow'. After the completion of works in 1927, only Redfern and Strathfield had platform faces on all six tracks.[9]
The four tracks now known as the 'Up and Down Local lines' and the 'Up and Down Suburban Lines' were electrified in 1928. It was not until 1955 that the 'Up and Down Main Lines' were also electrified to coincide with the opening of the Blue Mountains electrification programme.

Double-deck trailer cars were introduced between 1964 and 1967 replacing old wooden trailer cars in the Iine's electric multiple unit passenger trains.[10]

Description of route

The line commences at the

Illawarra railway line. The line consists of three pairs of electrified tracks, six in total, which head west through the Inner Western suburbs of Sydney to Strathfield. The tracks are named 'Up' and 'Down' Main', 'Up' and 'Down' Suburban, and 'Up' and 'Down' Local. The 'Main' lines are express lines which have no intermediate platforms between Redfern and Burwood, and usually carry Intercity, Interstate, Heritage, or express suburban trains. The inner 'Suburban' pair of tracks have some intermediate platforms and generally carry express or limited stops suburban train services (usually North Shore & Western Line suburban services). The southernmost 'Local' pair of tracks have platforms at all intermediate stations and carry all-stations and some limited stops services (usually Inner West & Leppington Line
suburban services).

At Strathfield, there is a grade separated junction with the Main North Line. Northern line trains on the suburban tracks switch onto the Main North, along with Central Coast & Newcastle Line trains on the main tracks. There is also a single track link that takes freight trains from the Main North west, joining onto a goods line that runs parallel to the Main Suburban. At the next station, Homebush, the local tracks end. Generally, trains on the suburban track merge onto the main, while trains on the local either terminate or merge on the suburban track. The line then continues to Flemington, where there is a complex double triangle junction around Flemington Maintenance Depot, which provides access from the main tracks to the Olympic Park line and the Sydney Freight Network. The goods line turns into the Sydney Freight Network (also known as the Metropolitan Goods Line) here.

A bit further down is Lidcombe, where there is another triangle junction, connecting the suburban tracks to the

Old Main South line
.

Speed limits on the route vary between locations and tracks (main, suburban or local). The main generally has the highest speed limits, around 80 km/h (50 mph), with some 90 or 100 km/h (56 or 62 mph) sections. The suburban and local tracks vary between 50 and 80 km/h (31 and 50 mph) limits. The limits on the suburban and local reduce to 50 km/h (31 mph) around bridges on curves at Newtown and Ashfield, as the bridges have their supports between the running lines, with a risk of bridge collapse if a train were to derail at high speed, similar to the Granville rail disaster.[11]

Stations

Sydney Trains Tangara at Newtown
Station Platforms Served by
Macdonaldtown 2
Newtown 2
Stanmore 3
Petersham 2
Lewisham 2
Summer Hill 3
Ashfield 5 (inc 1 turnback)
Croydon 5
Burwood 6
Strathfield 8
Homebush 6 (inc 1 turnback)
Flemington
 4
Lidcombe 4 (plus 1 turnback for Olympic Park line & 1 for Bankstown line)
T7
Auburn 4
Clyde 4 (plus 1 fenced off, 1 formerly for Carlingford line)
Granville 4

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Asset Standards Authority (19 March 2014). RailCorp electrical system general description, version 1.0 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  2. ^ Sydney Trains, Drivers Route Knowledge Diagrams (Main South Line) (PDF)
  3. ^ Saulwick, Jacob (24 July 2013). "Smallest stations are biggest losers in new rail timetable". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. ^ Sydney Electric Trains from 1926-1960, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, April 2001.
  5. ^ "Sydney Railway Company". State Records.
  6. ^ "William Webster - the first railway engineer". www.warrenfahey.com. The Iron Road. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2006.
  7. ^ "FIRST RAILWAY FIREMAN". The Evening News. No. 11, 948. New South Wales, Australia. 25 September 1905. p. 5. Retrieved 9 October 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ Australian Railway History, Vol 56, No. 810, April 2005
  9. ^ Sydney Electric Trains from 1926-1960, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, April 2001.
  10. ^ Cooke, B.W.C., ed. (May 1964). "Double-Deckers in Sydney". Railway Magazine. Vol. 110, no. 757. pp. 418–419.
  11. ^ Sydney Trains (October 2019). "Drivers Route Knowledge Diagrams (Main South Line)" (PDF). Railsafe. Retrieved 26 October 2019.

Sources

  • Hagarty, Don; Australian Railway Historical Society. New South Wales Division (2005), Sydney Railway 1848-1857, The building of the first railway from Sydney to Parramatta, Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Wales Division,
    ISBN 0-9757870-1-2
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