Blacktown Railway Station - History

History

Blacktown station opened on 2 July 1860 as Black Town Road with the construction of the Main Western railway line. Captain Martindale, the colony's chief engineer was not happy with work done by contractor John Gibbons and refused to issue a certificate for work done. Not happy with the decision Gibbons told his men to remove 3 portions of the track near Parramatta. He was arrested and placed in the Parramatta Watch House before being released on bail which soon settled the matter. Two days later the first train did run into the new Black Town Road Station tooting hip, hip hooray. The 'road' was dropped from the station name on 1 August 1862.

In the beginning steam hauled trains were the norm passing Black Town Road and latter Blacktown Station then in the 1940s, 50s and 60s steam was giving way to firstly diesels and when the lines were electrified, electric multiple units were the norm. Today all suburban and Intercity trains are of double deck design, with the exception being Countrylink's XPT and Xplorer services to and from Dubbo and Broken Hill respectively and the Indian Pacific.

Access to Blacktown Station before the major rebuild was via a footbridge on the eastern end or Sydney end of the station. The only example of the former footbridge at Blacktown can be found at Clyde station and even then it's built a little different. The track layout around the station has changed a little with the inclusion of an extra side platform on the old Up Loop on the site of the old Trackfast Parcels Office & Building. An extension of the former Up Siding outside the old Blacktown Signal Box it's now known as the Up Richmond line continues for a distance of 1.681 km from the old sidings dead end to points that connect it to the Up Main just before Seven Hills and was built to alleviate congestion of up trains from Richmond proceeding to the Up Main just after the station waiting for Down Richmond trains coming off the flyover entering platform 2.

The station received a major rebuild in the 1990s to a modern glass and steel structure with the addition of an extra platform and the provision of lift access to all platforms. The opening of this new upgrade was attended by dignitaries such as then Prime-Minister of Australia, Paul Keating (who officially opened the station).

The new footbridge also has a mezzanine level which is home to Cityrail offices, these offices include Station Managers Office, Train Crewing Sign On/Off and Meal Rooms for station staff and train crews which include toilets and locker rooms. The station is known as the "Mother Ship" as it looks like a UFO when lit up at night. Also in the upgrade, Blacktown also received 3 escalators one from the footbridge to the bus interchange and two for access to Main Street on the southern or down side of the station.

Included in this major upgrade was a new bus interchange constructed between the Main Western & Richmond Lines with a new bus only road between the interchange and George Street on the eastern end of platforms 1 & 2.