Royal National Park railway station is located in

Audley, New South Wales Audley is a locality on the outskirts of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the Royal National Park and is part of the Sutherland Shire. Geography Kangaroo Creek joins the Hacking River at Audley. A ...

and services travellers to the

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales, just south of Sydney. The national park is about south of the Sydney central business district near the loca ...

. It is the

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

of the Royal National Park railway line, formerly part of the Sydney commuter rail network and now operated by the

Sydney Tramway Museum The Sydney Tramway Museum (operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway) is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney. History Construction of th ...

. The station opened in 1886 and was served by trains on the Sydney network until 1991 when the Royal National Park railway line was closed due to low patronage. The line and station were transferred to the Sydney Tramway Museum and re-opened in May 1993 for heritage tramway operations. The museum operates services on the line on Wednesdays and Sundays, with the first service running at 10:15am. Departures are hourly from then on, with the last one at 2:30pm on Wednesday and 4:30pm on Sunday. It is a popular means of access to the Royal National Park.

History

The station opened as Loftus on 9 March 1886 (the station currently known as Loftus was then called Loftus Junction). It was renamed National Park on 1 May 1889, back to Loftus in January 1890 and back again to National Park on 1 December 1896. It was finally renamed Royal National Park on 16 July 1955.Royal National Park
NSWrail.net The original island platform could accommodate ten carriages. There was also a goods bank and five sidings. Royal National Park was included in the electrification of the

Illawarra railway line The South Coast Railway (also known as the Illawarra Railway) is a commuter and goods railway line from Sydney to Wollongong and Bomaderry in New South Wales, Australia. Beginning at the Illawarra Junction, the line services the Illawarra a ...

in 1926 and remained the southern limit of electrification until 1980 when overhead wiring was extended to

Waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

. At its peak in the 1930s, the line was served by 25 trains a day on weekends. On 4 July 1967, three of the five sidings at the station were removed. In 1978, the original station was demolished to make way for a visitor's centre and a new single platform built. By 1988, the line was being served by only three trains a day. After the Cowan rail accident in 1990, the Royal National Park branch line was used for safety tests. Because of the small number of services running on the line, it was also used for driver training. Following the discovery of signalling faults, services ceased on 11 June 1991. With major expenditure required and average patronage having dwindled to three passengers per train, the line was formally closed. The line was taken over by the

with Royal National Park station re-opening as the line's terminus in May 1993. Due to the design of the heritage trams running on the line, they are unable to use the actual station platform."Disused Line Re-Opened Tramway Extended into Park" ''Railway Digest'' June 1993 page 220 In October 2010 a new low level tram platform was built next to Loftus Oval for the Breakfast Torque event held every October at Loftus Oval. The Sydney tramway museum was hired by Sutherland Council to run a scheduled tram shuttle service from the Tafe car park next to the Tafe level crossing at Pitt street, to Loftus Oval and return picking up or setting down passengers at the other side of Pitt Street for Loftus station. This was in response to the limited availability of parking at Loftus Oval.

Services

References

External links

Royal National Park
on nswrail.net {{Royal National Park Light rail stations in Sydney Railway stations in Australia opened in 1886 Railway stations in Sydney Audley, New South Wales