Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line

The Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line is a commuter railway line in the eastern and southern suburbs of Sydney. The line runs between Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east and Eveleigh, just south of the Sydney central business district. It is mostly underground, and consists of 7 kilometres of bored tunnels and 1. 5 kilometres of cut and cover tunnels, with only 2 kilometres above ground. In March 1926, it became the first railway in New South Wales to run electric train services.

About Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line in brief

Summary Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra LineThe Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line is a commuter railway line in the eastern and southern suburbs of Sydney. The line runs between Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east and Eveleigh, just south of the Sydney central business district. It is mostly underground, and consists of 7 kilometres of bored tunnels and 1. 5 kilometres of cut and cover tunnels, with only 2 kilometres above ground. In March 1926, it became the first railway in New South Wales to run electric train services. Since 1989, the suburban services to Waterfall and Cronulla have been marketed as the Eastern Suburns & Illwarra Line and interurban services south to Wollongong and Bomaderry as the South Coast Line. The entire line from the Illawarr Junction at Redfern to its terminus in Bomaderries was known as theIllawarra line. It was constructed in the 1880s to take advantage of agricultural and mining potentials in the Illawarra area. The track continues south from here as theSouth Coast Line through the Royal National Park towards the IllAWarra region. The railway consists of three connected lines: Operationally and historically, the entire line is known as ‘The Illawarras’ The line is coloured an azure blue on Sydney Trains timetables and other promotional materials and is used by all trains on the Sydney suburban rail network. The Eastern SubURbs Line is used for peak hour all-stations trains from Bondi to Eveleigh. It also serves Waterfall, the last suburb in the Sydney metropolitan area, as well as Cronulla and the Airport & South Line.

It runs on a double track throughout, with turnback sidings at Martin Place and Bondi junction for citybound trains, and at Central for trains from bondi Junction. A dive tunnel allows Intercity services from the South coast Line to cross underneath the main suburban lines to access Central station. The main line then heads in a southerly direction, parallel to the Princes Highway to the west and bordering the RoyalNational Park on its eastern side until Wolli Creek, where a junction to the East Hills line exists. It then continues as two tracks south towards Sutherland, crossing the Georges River via the Como railway bridge between Oatley and Como. At Sutherland the Cronulla line branches in an easterly direction. At Sydenham, the Bankstown railway line branches off, but the Airport and South Line trains continue along the Illarra line until W Holli Creek. The four track section ends at Hurstville. This is the present route of the present suburban route of 109 kilometres. The present route comprises the present-day section of the Macdonaldtown-to-Waterfall section of. the present Sydney suburban railway line, constituting approximately the present 37 kilometres of suburban route. The first section of this railway line was completed by 30 September 1884. On 6 April 1881, Governor Augustus Loftus assented to a bill providing £1,020,000 for the construction of this section of railway.