Town Hall railway station is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

underground

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

station located in the centre of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The station opened on 28 February 1932. It is named after the

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings and ...

, located directly above the station.

History

Town Hall railway station Concourse under renovation 201708

The station is built on the site of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

's earliest colonial cemetery, the

Old Sydney Burial Ground The Old Sydney Burial Ground is the site of Sydney's inaugural permanent cemetery, located near the current corner of George Street and Druitt Street. Established in September 1792, the cemetery was closed in 1820, when the Devonshire Street C ...

. In 2008, part of this cemetery was being excavated from under the Town Hall. The station opened on 28 February 1932 and was built with six platforms, which were split over two levels with three platforms on each level. When the station opened, only four of the platforms were in use: platforms 1, 2 and 3 on the upper level and platform 6, served by escalators, on the lower level. The other two platforms were built in preparation for a proposed western suburbs line from the city to

Gladesville Gladesville is a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gladesville is located 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde a ...

, as envisaged under the Bradfield scheme. This line was never built, and the platforms (4 and 5) remained disused until incorporated into the Eastern Suburbs line when it opened in June 1979. The station concourse had a major restructure in 2005 when the shops inside were closed to make way for the increasing crowds. During a refurbishment of the station in 2014, a sign pointing to an

air-raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

was uncovered on a staircase leading to Platforms 1 and 2. It has been encased in a

Perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

casing."Town Hall Station upgrade" ''

Railway Digest ''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways of Australia. Overview The magazine's publisher is the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was published in M ...

'' January 2015 pages 44-45

Station configuration

Town Hall has two platform levels, each with three platforms – physically two island platforms, but set up so that one faces two tracks and the other faces the other track. Each platform has one

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

in the centre connecting the concourse with the platforms, providing

Easy Access Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

for

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

s. These facilities were constructed during 2003–2004. The lower-level platforms (4-6) have 4

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s to the concourse. As the platform is not wide enough, the escalators are in a cross configuration, with two at either end of the platform and another two at the centre. The escalator directions can be changed by staff throughout the day as the passenger flow dictates. The upper-level platforms have stairs up to the concourse. There are also small staircases linking the two platform levels. The concourse is above the two platform levels and immediately below street level. The station is linked to nearby shopping centres including the

Queen Victoria Building The Queen Victoria Building (abbreviated as the QVB) is a heritage-listed late-nineteenth-century building designed by the architect George McRae located at 429–481 George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the Australian st ...

, The Galeries, Town Hall Square, Pavilion Plaza and,

Woolworths Supermarket Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known in Australia as "Woolies") is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a ma ...

. There are also several exits up to each side of George Street. When opened in 2024, the

Sydney Metro The Sydney Metro is a fully automated rapid transit system serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Currently consisting of one line that opened on 26 May 2019, it runs from Tallawong to Chatswood and consists of 13 stations ...

line will include another station located at

Pitt Street Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...

Platforms and services

Transport links

Town Hall station is served by bus routes operated by

Busways Busways is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis ...

Forest Coach Lines Forest Coach Lines is an Australian bus and coach operator. Founded in 1930 in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, since 2016 it has expanded with purchases in the Mid North Coast and North West Slopes regions in New South Wales. It is a subsidiar ...

Hillsbus Hillsbus is an Australian bus company that operates services in the Hills District, New South Wales, Hills District of Sydney. Founded in 2004 when National Express merged its Glenorie Bus Company and Westbus (Hills District operations only) sub ...

Transdev John Holland Transdev John Holland Buses is a bus operator in Sydney, Australia. A joint venture between Transdev and John Holland, it operates services in Sydney Bus Region 9 in the Eastern Suburbs under contract to Transport for NSW. It is a separate comp ...

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of V ...

and

Transit Systems Transit Systems Group is an Australian-based public transport company, which also operates overseas through its subsidiary Tower Transit Group. Transit Systems Group is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group, formerly SeaLink Travel Group. History ...

Trackplan

References

External links

Town Hall Station
at Transport for New South Wales (Archive
2 May 2020

Town Hall station map
Transport for NSW {{Transport for New South Wales railway stations, North Shore & Northern=y, Northern=y, Western=y, Inner West & Leppington=y, Bankstown=y, Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra=y, Airport & South=y, Central Coast & Newcastle=y, South Coast=y, state=collapsed Easy Access railway stations in Sydney Railway stations located underground in Sydney Railway stations in Australia opened in 1932 George Street, Sydney North Shore railway line Eastern Suburbs railway line Bankstown railway line City Circle