Sydney's abandoned rail tunnels

These forgotten tunnels and station platforms, built decades ago to accommodate for a much greater suburban network, never had an active train run through them. And never will.

John Bradfield, the man who designed the suburban network, the City Circle underground and the Harbour Bridge, wanted lines to Bondi, Randwick, Balmain and the Northern Beaches, among others. When the current City Circle and Central to North Sydney lines were being built in the 1920s, Bradfield added small sections of tunnel to allow for the these other lines, if they were ever built.

Two single line tunnels run from St James Station, each a kilometre long, lie beneath Hyde Park for the proposed Bondi and Randwick lines. North of St James, a tunnel was built for the Balmain line. It now sits under Macquarie Street and terminates under the Botanic Gardens.

The tunnels run into two centre platforms at St James, complete with tiles, now hidden from the public gaze.

Sydney Trains director of operations Tony Eid, took the 'Today' show on to Central's platforms 26 and 27, built at the same time as the Eastern Suburbs line, which opened in 1979. The platforms, just concrete shells, sit above the underground platforms 24 and 25 on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra lines.

Here is a little sneak peak, behind closed doors!

** Sourced: ABC Radio National, Australia For Everyone

- Tim

Electrification Of Sydney's Trains

John Bradfield devised a plan to electrify Sydney's commuter Railway System. In 1926, the first section electrified was from Central to Oatley on the Illawarra line. the St James Branch line also received the same special treatment when it opened in the same year. Originally, the cables only powered the trains with 1500 volt currents. While this was inferior to and more expensive than modern single phase alternating current equipment, in the 1920s it was sufficient for the operation of electric multi-carriage trains. By the late 1980's, most of the network's equipment had been updated to accommodate for the new "Tangora" type Train, which relied on 2500 volt alternating currents.

Floor Layout of a Tangora Train

~ Cameron

History of Trains In Sydney Bradfield Era

In 1912, the NSW Public Works Department appointed John Bradfield as Chief Engineer for Metropolitan Railway construction. In 1915 he designed a plan to electrify the all Railway Lines and to Build the City Circle Loop as we know today. This didn't take off until after World War 1, once the government had some money to build these large scale capital work projects. The Tunnels were built from central to Museum & St James first, opening in 1926, with the western portal from Central to Wynyard via Town Hall completed by 1932. The Western portal then continued and connected Wynyard with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the same year. Bradfield's original plans to connect the 2 lines and create a city circle Loop wasnt completed until 1956, as the government had run low on cash during the great depression and the outbreak of Word War 2, meaning Bradfield died before seeing his work completed.

~ Cameron

John Bradfield's Original Railway Plans

Proposed railways in Sydney

Bradfield railway scheme, 1920s

The main proponent of electrifying the city and suburban railway was Dr John Bradfield, an important name in the history of Sydney's transport. From before World War I, Bradfield submitted various plans for improving Sydney's railway network. He identified some of Sydney's major transport problems: the need to extend the railway into the city; the need to connect Sydney with North Sydney by either bridging or tunnelling under the harbour, and the 'need' for an eastern suburbs railway. These issues were to be taken up time and again.  

The Christie Report, 2002

The Christie Report advised the extension of the southern rail line to growth areas west of Glenfield, to construct a heavy-rail line linking Chatswood with Parramatta in the one direction and the Hills district linking to Richmond in the other. It also advocated the building of integrated "metro" services linking the CBD with Parramatta, with two further metro lines linking Castle Hill in the north-west with Hoxton Park in the south-west, and Cronulla in the south with Dee Why and the northern beaches.

North West Rail Link (NWRL), Currently in progress

The North West Rail Link, also known as the NWRL, is an $8.3 billion high priority rapid transit rail infrastructure project for the NSW Government that is targeted to open in 2019. The NWRL will initially operate between Cudgegong Road and Chatswood consisting of eight new stations between Cudgegong Road and Epping. There will be approximately 15.5kms of tunnels from Epping to Bella Vista, a 4kms elevated section between Bella Vista and Rouse Hill and conversion of the existing Epping to Chatswood Rail Link (ECRL) to suit the rapid transit system.


- Tim

***ALL IMAGES SOURCES FROM <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_railways_in_Sydney> ***