Sydney Underground Railways - Underground Lines

Underground Lines

Sydney has four underground lines.

• The oldest is the main city loop, the City Circle, which runs between Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St James and Museum stations. Central and Circular Quay are above-ground stations (Circular Quay is elevated, directly underneath the Cahill Expressway), while the remainder are below ground. The City Circle was built in stages. The first stations to open were St. James and Museum, in 1926. Next was the "western limb" through Town Hall and Wynyard, which opened in 1932, in conjunction with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This section contains four tunnels. Two connect to the Harbour Bridge, while the other two terminated at Wynyard. In 1956 the dead ends at St. James and Wynyard were joined and Circular Quay was opened.

• The second, the Eastern Suburbs line, opened in 1979. It runs between Redfern, Central, Town Hall, Martin Place, Kings Cross, Edgecliff, Woollahra (Unused Platforms) and Bondi Junction stations. All these are underground, but there are three above-ground sections, two on viaduct and one in cutting. Most of the platforms at Redfern and Central stations are above ground, including the platforms for the City Circle, but the Eastern Suburbs line is underground. Originally the line was to extend to Kingsford but was finished at Bondi Junction due to a lack on money. There were later plans to extend the Eastern Suburbs line from Bondi Junction to Bondi Beach, but the plans have since fallen through.

• The third underground line is the Airport Line, which opened in 2000, prior to the Sydney Olympics. This serves Central, Green Square, Mascot, Domestic Airport (underneath the Domestic terminal), International Airport (underneath International terminal at Sydney Airport), and Wolli Creek. After Wolli Creek it joins the above-ground East Hills line at Turrella.

• The newest underground line is the Epping to Chatswood rail link. It links Chatswood to Epping, with new underground platforms at Epping and new underground stations at Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde. The line was intended to continue from Epping to Parramatta, incorporating the existing Carlingford line, but this section has been postponed indefinitely, though a stub tunnel has been constructed at the northern end of Epping station.

There are also plans for:

• a metro line between the CBD and Rozelle - The Metro plan was invested heavily in though it was politically unstable from the outset with strong opposition, all tenders related to the Metro Network were cancelled and is very unlikely to go ahead.

There were previously plans for other lines, such as:

• a new underground line to travel from Central to Chatswood under the city and the harbour.
• A new metro line to extend from Epping to Castle Hill, and possibly later to the new development underway between St James and Rouse Hill known as the North West Metro.
• A metro railway line that would start at St James, continue through to the CBD and onwards to Maroubra. Its tentative name was the "South East Metro"