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CityRail is the name of the extensive system of urban, suburban and intercity railways based on metropolitan Sydney, the capital city of the State of New South Wales in Australia. Its intercity lines also extend outside of metropolitan Sydney to the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, Wollongong, the Shoalhaven River, the Central Coast, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Despite the extensive service, CityRail is frequently criticised because it is not up to standard with other cities (especially those in Europe and the wealthier countries of Asia), and CityRail is often perceived as having outdated infrastructure, old trains, poor customer service, unreliable timetables, pervasive crime and low levels of cleanliness.
Most of the system is electrified with power supplied by means of overhead wire; however, some isolated sections outside the Sydney metropolitan area are still operated by diesel railcars. All electric trains in CityRail's fleet are double decked.
CityRail is owned by the New South Wales State Government and is a "product group" of RailCorp, the State Government enterprise which operates the entire New South Wales railway network.
CityRail: a hybrid system
CityRail is a very unusual passenger railway system, in the sense that it is a hybrid of three different types of passenger railway - it is a combination of a metro-style underground railway system; a suburban commuter rail system and an inter-city rail system.
This is in contrast to railway systems in many other large cities around the world. For instance, a person living in Oakville thirty kilometres west of Toronto, Canada who works in downtown Toronto approximately two kilometres from Toronto's Union Station will need to catch a commuter rail train service operated by GO Transit to Union Station, where he/she will have to change to a subway train service operated by the Toronto Transit Commission to complete his/her journey to work. This commuter will have to buy two different tickets from two different railway operators.
Meanwhile, a person who lives in Blacktown thirty kilometres west of Sydney and works in the city centre two kilometres from Sydney's Central Station can catch a CityRail suburban service from his/her local station. However, the train does not terminate at Central Station; the train then proceeds onward into the underground portions of the network which criss-cross Sydney's downtown area and some inner city neighbourhoods without the need to change trains or buy tickets from two or more different railway organisations.
CityRail also operates several intercity services which terminate at Central Station (though some services operate in the metro-style portions of the system in the peak hours). These lines stretch over 160km (100 miles) from Sydney, as far north as Scone, as far west as Lithgow, as far south-west as Goulburn and as far south as Bomaderry-Nowra.
CityRail's subway system
Main article: Sydney subway system
Sydney has at present three main underground lines; a fourth is currently under construction. The oldest is the main city loop, the City Circle, which runs between Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St. James and Museum stations. The second line was constructed in the 1970s. It runs between Redfern, Central, Martin Place, Kings Cross, Edgecliff and Bondi Junction stations. The third underground line is the Airport Line, which opened in the year 2000, just in time for the Sydney Olympics. This runs between Central, Green Square, International (underneath International terminal at Sydney Airport), Domestic (underneath the Domestic terminal), and Wolli Creek. After Wolli Creek it joins the above-ground East Hills line. The fourth line underground line is currently under construction between Chatswood and Epping and is due for completion in 2008.
CityRail's suburban network
The hub of the CityRail system is Central Station the adjacent City Circle, a large balloon loop that circulates around downtown Sydney. Trains on the East Hills, Airport and South Line (commonly colored green), as well as trains from the Bankstown and Inner West Lines (dull purple) lines proceed northwards from Central Station and travel either clockwise or anti-clockwise around the City Circle and then arrive back at Central Station, ready to start an outbound journey along any one of the Green or Purple lines. The five stations on the City Circle, heading north from Central Station in the clockwise direction, are:
- Town Hall
- Wynyard
- Circular Quay
- St. James
- Museum
Trains from the Western Line (yellow) and Northern Line (red) from the western and north-western suburbs proceed north from Central Station and stop at Town Hall and Wynyard underground stations. They then proceed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and continue to the suburbs on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour, forming the North Shore Line. Conversely, trains from the North Shore continue through Central Station and on to either the Western or Northern lines.
The Illawarra Line (blue) trains from the southern suburbs delve underground west of Redfern station, and then stops at Redfern and then Central Station. Trains then continue to Bondi Junction, approximately 5km east of Sydney, along the underground Eastern Suburbs Railway (technically part of the Illawarra Line).
There are two suburban lines within the Sydney metropolitan area which do not go to Central Station or the City Circle. One is the Cumberland Line (usually coloured bright lilac), a cross-suburban service from Campbelltown to Blacktown via Parramatta that was opened in the late 1990s. The other is the Carlingford Line (coloured indigo), a short single-track branch in the western suburbs with infrequent train services that connect to citybound South or Western Line services at Clyde Station.
CityRail's intercity network
In addition to the above suburban services which operate only within the Sydney metropolitan area, there are also express services linking Sydney to neighbouring regions outside the suburban area. There are four intercity lines radiating from Sydney:
There are also two intercity lines based on Newcastle called the Hunter Lines (dark purple) with trains operating between Newcastle and its satellite city of Maitland, where the line continues to either Dungog or Scone.
CityRail also operates several bus routes along corridors where the railway line has been closed to passenger traffic or fallen into disuse altogether. These bus services appear in CityRail timetables and accept CityRail tickets, however they are provided by private sector bus companies contracted by CityRail. As of 2004 these CityRail bus services were:
- Wollongong to Moss Vale via Robertson
- Picton to Mittagong via Thirlmere
- Lithgow to Bathurst via Medowie
- Fassifern to Toronto shuttle service
CityRail's fleet
CityRail operate, as of 2004, several distinct types of trains for suburban services:
- Comeng/Goninan manufactured R sets (six cars) and S sets (four or eight cars)
- "Chopper" sets consisting of six cars (C sets)
- Goninan manufactured Tangara trains (T sets)
- EDI Rail manufactured Millennium trains (M set)
On the intercity services, different style trains usually operate with extra comforts (such as armrests and on-board toilets) to cater for longer distance journeys:
- Comeng manufactured V sets
- Goninan intercity Tangara "Odyssey" style trains (G set)
- "Chopper" sets consisting of two cars (K sets) used for Newcastle local services
- Comeng/Goninan manufactured two-car sets (L sets) used for Wollongong local services
History of CityRail
CityRail's origins go as far back as 1855 when the first railway in New South Wales was opened between Sydney and Parramatta, now a suburb of Sydney but then a major agricultural centre. The railway formed the basis of the "New South Wales Government Railways" and was owned by the Government from the commencement of operations. Passenger 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 the State, 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 railcars powered by petrol were introduced for minor branch lines with low passenger numbers, both in metropolitan Sydney and rural areas.
Electrification
Electrification came to Sydney's suburbs in 1926 with the first suburban electric service running between Sydney's Central Station and the suburb of Oatley approximately 20km south of Sydney. In the same year, the first underground railway was constructed from Central Station to St. James in downtown Sydney. Electric trains that previously terminated at the Central Station continued north, delving underground at the Goulburn Street tunnel portal, stopping at the 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 with two downtown stations - Town Hall and Wynyard.
The CityRail system as it exists today is really the result of the vision and foresight of Sir John Bradfield, one of the most respected and famous civil engineers Australia has had. While he was involved in the design and construction of downtown Sydney's underground railway system in the 1920s and 1930s, he is far more famous for the design and construction of Sydney's greatest icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
World War Two interrupted programs for further electrification, however, the following extensive electric network was in place in 1948 spanning the suburban area:
- St. James to Cronulla via Hurstville
- St. James to East Hills
- Wynyard to Bankstown via Sydenham
- Wynyard to Bankstown via Strathfield
- North Sydney to Hornsby via Strathfield
- Hornsby - North Sydney - Parramatta
- Hornsby - North Sydney - Liverpool via Granville
- Lidcombe to Liverpool via Regents Park shuttle service
The City Circle was completed in 1956 with the construction of the railway between Wynyard and St. James via Circular Quay completing the loop beneath downtown. The Eastern Suburbs Railway was completed as far as Bondi Junction in 1979, around 100 years after it was first planned and 31 years after construction began - construction took place at a rate of approximately 250 metres per year on average. Recent additions to the network include the extension of the East Hills line to Glenfield in the south-western suburbs opened in 1987, a short branch to Olympic Park completed in 1999 in time for the 2000 Olympic Games and a new underground line, the Airport Link, opened in 2000.
Another underground line, the Chatswood-Epping Link in the northern suburbs, is currently under construction, and is due to open in 2008. This line will provide much-needed transport services for an area of intensive information technology industry, the Macquarie University, a major regional shopping mall and many recent office developments. It will also provide a handy cross-suburban link between the North Shore Line and the Northern Line. The second stage of this project - an extension from Epping to Parramatta by the little-used Carlingford Line - is yet to be formally approved. There is also the possibility in the future of building a branch of this new line from Epping to the rapidly growing new residential and commercial precincts in the outer north-western suburbs, a region of metropolitan Sydney notorious for its inadequate public transport.
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