Railways in Sydney
- This article is a general one on railways in Sydney. For a specific article on the organisation responsible for running the passenger railway in Sydney, see Cityrail.
Sydney, the largest city in Australia, has an extensive network of passenger and freight railways. The passeneger network is a hybrid metro-suburban railway with a central undergound core running at metro style frequencies, which branches out into a suburban commuter type network. The system also carries freight, and there is a separate network of freight lines, some of which are disused.
History
The first railway in Sydney was opened between Sydney and Parramatta in 1855. This railway formed the basis of the New South Wales railways and was owned by the government. Passenger and freight services were operated from the beginning.
The State's railway system quickly expanded from the outset with lines radiating from Sydney and Newcastle into the interior of New South Wales, with frequent passenger railway services in the suburban areas of Sydney and Newcastle along with less frequent passenger trains into the rural areas and interstate. All services were powered by steam locomotives, though in the 1920s petrol railcars were introduced for minor branch lines with low passenger numbers, both in metropolitan Sydney and rural areas.
The railway system as it exists today is really the result of the vision and foresight of John Bradfield, one of Australia's most respected and famous civil engineers. He was involved in the design and construction of Sydney underground railways in the 1920s and 1930s, but he is more famous for the associated design and construction of Sydney's greatest icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The electrification of the passenger network began in 1926 with the first suburban electric service running between Sydney's Central Station and the suburb of Oatley approximately 20 km south of Sydney. In the same year, the first underground railway was constructed from Central Station to St James in Sydney's CBD . Electric trains that had previously terminated at the Central Station continued north, diving underground at the Goulburn Street tunnel portal, stopping at Museum underground station and then terminating at St James.
Other lines were quickly electrified soon after. Also, in conjunction with the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which opened in 1932, an additional underground line in downtown Sydney was constructed, connecting the North Shore line with Central Station via two downtown stations - Town Hall and Wynyard.
Organisation
The rail network in the metropolitan area of Sydney is currently owned, maintained and operated by RailCorp, a NSW State Government owned corporation. RailCorp operated passenger trains under the Cityrail brand, and long distance trains run through Sydney under the Countrylink brand. RailCorp was formed on 1 January 2004 by the merger of the former State Rail Authority (SRA) and the metropolitan functions of the Rail Infrastructure Corporation. Until 1972, the railways in NSW were operated by the New South Wales Government Railways until this department was replaced by the Public Transport Commission (PTC), which was also responsible for bus and ferry services. However in 1980, the PTC was broken up into the State Rail Authority, responsible for rail services, and the Urban Transit Authority (UTA) responsible for bus and ferry services. The UTA later became the State Transit Authority.