Well the very first railway in Sydney was opened in 1855 and as most of you would have guessed, like most things in the colony it was the line between Sydney and Parramatta.
This line actually formed the basis of the NSW network and it was used for both Passengers and freight.
The line began to expand and in 1884 the Strathfield to Hornsby line opened.
1893 saw the North Shore line open that went down to the original Milsons Point Station, now occupied by Luna Park.
The Bankstown line was built in 1896 and originally stopped at Belmore but extended to Bankstown soon after opening.
All trains terminated at Central and the rest of the city was accessed by trams until the 1920s.
John Bradfield, the man with a highway named after him, was famous for his involvement in the design and construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge but also for the design and construction of the Sydney Underground railways, which I touched on in an earlier blog.
1926 saw the Central to St James underground line and in the same year they began to electrify the network beginning with the Central Station to Oatley line.
The construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 paved the way for the second underground line that would connect Central to the Bridge and hence the new north shore line. Milsons Point Station was moved higher towards North Sydney and became the first stop on the north side of the bridge. After crossing the bridge towards the city the line plunged underground to a new city stop Wynyard and then Town Hall which then saw the line rise back out from the underground at Goulburn street and linked to Central.
It wasn't until 1956 when Circular Quay was finally constructed that both of the city lines became linked and so the trains could circle the city and return to the suburbs without having to terminate.
Today there is much talk of extending the lines further and there have been many broken promises by the government and many ridiculous ideas for metro services that were poorly planned and wasted millions of dollars.
The newest line now links Chatswood to Epping via Macquarie University and North Ryde in a new underground line that begins at Chatswood.
But will they ever build a line to the hills district? Will they ever complete the Chatswood to Parramatta via Epping line? Will the Bondi Junction line extend to the beach? Will we eventually get a new metro system one day? Will old lines be re-ignited?
Who knows.
But now you know where it all began.
Toot toot.
J G S
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