Railways in Sydney

Sydney's suburban passenger service was severely hampered by the inconvenient location of its city terminus, at a site south of Devonshire Street. Most of Sydney's population was well served by trams, and the suburban railways had a relatively small initial role to play. This was to change in the 1920s.

The railway system as it exists today is really the result of the vision and foresight of

New South Wales uses an overhead electrification system at 1,500

Electrification came to Sydney's suburbs on 9 December 1926 with the first suburban electric service running between Central station and

It was only in 1956 that the two tracks terminating at Wynyard were linked to the line terminating at St James via the Circular Quay viaduct. This new arrangement, dubbed the City Circle, allowed services to make a continuous run through the city and return to the suburbs without having to terminate.

Electrification timeline

• 1926 –
  Illawarra line to Royal National Park, Bankstown line, City Circle
• 1927 – North Shore line
• 1929 –
  Western line to Parramatta
• 1929 –
  Northern line (Strathfield to Hornsby
  )
• 1929 –
  South line to Liverpool
• 1936 – Carlingford line from Clyde to Rosehill
• 1955 – Parramatta to Penrith
• 1957 – Penrith to Lithgow
• 1959 – Rosehill to Carlingford
• 1959 – Hornsby to Cowan
• 1960 – Cowan to Gosford
• 1968 – Liverpool to Campbelltown
• 1975 – Blacktown to Riverstone
• 1980 – Loftus to Waterfall
• 1982 – Gosford to Wyong
• 1984 – Wyong to Newcastle
• 1985 – Waterfall to Port Kembla.
• 1985 – Macarthur station opened
• 1991 – Riverstone to Richmond
• 1996 – Coniston to Dapto
• 2002 – Dapto to Kiama^[15]

New electrified lines were built:

• 1926 – line from Central to St James station and Museum opened
• 1931 – line opened to East Hills
• 1932 – line from Central to Town Hall, Wynyard, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Milsons Point station and North Sydney station opened
• 1939 – Line to Cronulla built and connected with the Illawarra line at Sutherland
• 1956 – Circular Quay station opened completing the City Circle
• 1979 – Eastern Suburbs railway completed to Bondi Junction
• 1987 – East Hills – Glenfield line opened
• 1996 – Y-link built between Harris Park and Merrylands allowing the introduction of
  Cumberland line
  services from Campbelltown to Blacktown
• 1998 – line from
  Flemington and Lidcombe to Olympic Park
  .
• 2000 – line to
  public-private partnership by the Airport Link Company
• 2009 –
  Epping to Chatswood railway line
  opened
• 2015 – South West Rail Link opened
• 2019 – Sydney Metro Northwest opened

Organisation

The rail network in the metropolitan area of Sydney is owned, maintained and operated by Transport Asset Holding Entity, a NSW State Government owned corporation. Third party access to their tracks by other freight operators is allowed under an open-access arrangement. Track outside the Sydney metropolitan area is operated and maintained by the Australian Rail Track Corporation. Suburban passenger trains within Sydney are operated by Sydney Trains and long-distance trains that run through Sydney are operated by NSW TrainLink.

RailCorp was formed on 1 January 2004 by the merger of the State Rail Authority (SRA) and the metropolitan functions of the Rail Infrastructure Corporation (RIC). Until 1972, railways in NSW were operated by the Department of Railways New South Wales until this department was replaced by the Public Transport Commission (PTC), which was also responsible for bus and ferry services. In 1980 the PTC was broken up into the SRA, responsible for rail services, and the Urban Transit Authority (UTA), responsible for bus and ferry services. The UTA later became the State Transit Authority in 1989.

In 2001, the SRA had its 'above track' operations separated from its track ownership and maintenance operations. The track maintenance operations and track ownership were moved to the new RIC. However this separation into a horizontally operated rail system was criticised for the passing of blame for rail delays and accidents between authorities, and in 2004 railways in Sydney became a vertically operated system again with the creation of RailCorp, a fusion of the SRA and the urban sections of the RIC.

In July 2013, RailCorp was reduced to become the owner of the infrastructure and rolling stock, with the service provision that it operated under the CityRail and CountryLink brands transferred to Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Gauge

All trains in Sydney use

Terminology

The railways in Sydney generally use British-derived terminology.

• Points refers to what in American English are known as railroad switches, or crossovers.
• Up refers to the direction "towards Sydney", where 'Sydney' is generally defined as Central Station.
• Down refers to the direction "away from Sydney", or "towards the country".
• Signal box refers to the signal control installation (tower in American terminology).

Railway lines

Mainlines

Four main 'trunk' lines radiate from Sydney to the north, south, west, and southwest:

• The Main Southern railway line from Lidcombe to Albury.
• The South Coast railway line from Illawarra Junction to Bomaderry.
• The Main Western railway line from Granville to Dubbo.
• The Main North railway line from Strathfield to Armidale.

Other suburban lines

Other passenger lines branch from or interconnect with the four main lines:

• The Main Suburban railway line, from Redfern to Granville.
• The Airport Link, an underground line linking the airport to the city.
• The Bankstown railway line, from Sydenham to Lidcombe.
• The City Circle, a mostly underground loop in central Sydney
• The Cronulla railway line, from Sutherland to Cronulla
• The East Hills railway line, from Tempe to Glenfield via East Hills.
• The Eastern Suburbs railway line, a mostly underground line from Central to Bondi Junction
• The North Shore railway line, from Central to Hornsby via the Harbour Bridge
• The
  Old Main South railway line
  , from Granville to Cabramatta.
• The Olympic Park railway line, a balloon loop line between Lidcombe and Olympic Park
• The Richmond railway line, from Blacktown to Richmond
• The South West Rail Link, from Glenfield to Leppington.

Rapid transit lines

• The Sydney Metro Northwest, from Tallawong to Chatswood
  • Includes the converted Epping to Chatswood rail link, an underground line connecting the North Shore and Main Northern lines, and serving the Macquarie Park employment area.

Light rail lines

Lines with light rail specifications:

• The
  Dulwich Hill Line
  (otherwise known as the Inner West Light Rail), from Central to Dulwich Hill. Mostly runs along a former section of the Metropolitan Goods Railway.
• CBD and South East Light Rail (abbreviated to CSELR) from Circular Quay to Randwick and Kingsford. The Randwick branch opened in December 2019, whilst the Kingsford branch opened in April 2020.
• The Royal National Park line, operated by the
  Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra railway line
  .

Goods lines

Several railway lines carry goods only:

• The
  Metropolitan Goods Railway
  from Flemington/Sefton to Port Botany, with former branches from Dulwich Hill to Rozelle Yard and from Lilyfield to Sydney Yard via Darling Harbour.
• The Southern Sydney Freight Line between Macarthur and Sefton, where it connects with the Metropolitan Goods Line.
• Northern Freight Pass between Thornleigh and Epping turning onto Strathfield line.

Closed lines

There are several closed lines in Sydney:

• The Camden Line, from Campbelltown to Camden
• The
  Carlingford Line
  , from Clyde to Carlingford
• The Potts Hill Line in Potts Hill
• The
  Richmond-Kurrajong Line
  from Richmond to Kurrajong
• The Rogans Hill Line from Westmead to Rogans Hill
• The Rookwood Cemetery Line serving Rookwood Cemetery
• The Ropes Creek Line from St Marys to Ropes Creek
• The Sandown Line from Rosehill to Sandown.
• The Warwick Farm Racecourse Line from Warwick Farm to Warwick Farm Racecourse

Parts of the Carlingford and Sandown lines will be converted to become a dedicated corridor for the Parramatta Light Rail, most of the Carlingford Line as part of the light rail service, and Sandown Line being used in part to connect it to a light rail depot.^[20][21]

Proposed and under construction

The following lines are under construction:

• Parramatta Light Rail between Westmead station and Sydney Olympic Park scheduled to open in stages from 2023
• Sydney Metro City & Southwest, the second stage of Sydney Metro network, between Chatswood and Bankstown scheduled to open in 2024.
• Western Sydney Airport line, between St Marys and Western Sydney Airport
  .
• Sydney Metro West, between the Sydney CBD and Westmead via Inner West suburbs.

Underground sections

Sydney has four underground lines. These sections of railway are extensions of suburban main line commuter services and are not a completely segregated true metro system. The underground sections, especially the City Circle, typically have frequent services. Sydney Metro forms the largest part of Sydney's underground railways and the first subway system in an Australian city.^[22]

• The oldest is the main city loop, the City Circle, which runs between Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St James station and Museum stations. Central and Circular Quay are above-ground stations (Circular Quay is elevated, directly underneath the Cahill Expressway), while the remainder are below ground. The line to St. James station and Museum was opened in 1926, but Circular Quay was a "missing link" until 1956. The "western limb" of the City Circle through Town Hall and Wynyard to Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, in conjunction with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
• The second, the Eastern Suburbs line, opened in 1979. It runs between Redfern, Central, Town Hall, Martin Place, Kings Cross, Edgecliff, Woollahra (Unused Platforms) and Bondi Junction stations. All these are underground, but there are three above-ground sections, two on viaduct and one in cutting. Most of the platforms at Redfern and Central stations are above ground, including the platforms for the City Circle, but the Eastern Suburbs line is underground. At the time of its construction, the line had been intended to finish at Kingsford but it was curtailed at Bondi Junction for political and financial reasons. In the late 1990s, there were plans to extend the line to Bondi Beach, but these have since fallen through.
• The third underground line is the
  Airport Line, which opened in 2000, prior to the Sydney Olympics. This serves Central, Green Square, Mascot, Domestic Airport (underneath the Domestic terminals), International Airport (underneath International terminal at Sydney Airport), and Wolli Creek. After Wolli Creek it joins the above-ground East Hills line at Turrella
  .
• The fourth underground line is the
  Epping to Chatswood rail link, opened in 2009. It links Chatswood to Epping, with new underground platforms at Epping and new underground stations at Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde. The line was intended to continue from Epping to Parramatta, incorporating the existing Carlingford line, but this section was postponed during the railway's construction because of financial reasons. A stub tunnel was constructed at the northern end of Epping station in the event that work on the remainder of the line ever resumed. In 2019, the Epping to Chatswood railway was incorporated into the new Northwest Metro
  , which involved converting the line's commuter rail configuration to a rapid transit system. This ended the possibility of extending the railway to Parramatta as a commuter rail line.

Sydney has several disused tunnels. The best known of these are those leading out of St James station. There are also several disused tunnels and platforms on the Eastern Suburbs line, which like St James station provided for the possibility of four tunnels even though only two are in use. There is a stub tunnel at North Sydney railway station, north of platform 2, for a never constructed Manly to Mona Vale line.^[23][24]

From the top of the northern stairs to platform 10 at Redfern station it is possible to view the unfinished structure for the low-level "up" (toward Central) Southern Suburbs platforms. The associated never-used tunnels are quite complex. Immediately to the left is the (surface level) stub tunnel for the "down" Southern Suburbs track. This short tunnel exits on the northern side of Lawson Street road bridge. There are at least nine railway tunnels under the suburb of Redfern: some in use, some never used.

Platforms 26 and 27 at Central lie above the Eastern Suburbs Railway platforms and have never been used for trains.^[25] Like St James station, these stations have stub tunnels, although they are much shorter.

There are three tunnels for the old Pyrmont goods line, not part of the passenger railway system. One runs underneath

• RailCorp
• Sydney Trains
• Rail transport in New South Wales
  • Rail rollingstock in New South Wales
  • Proposed railways in Sydney

References