Schofields railway station is located on the Richmond line, serving the

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 ...

suburb of Schofields. It is served by

Sydney Trains Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The network is a hybrid urban- suburban rail system with a central underground core that covers over of track and 170 ...

T1 Western and T5 Cumberland line services.

History

Schofields station opened in 1870. It was named after John Schofield, a local pioneer who was a former convict who later settled in the area after building a saw mill beside the railway line. The former station was originally opened as a siding stop with a platform made from railway sleepers in the early 1870s on the western side of the track, which was later rebuilt in brick in 1888 along with a goods loop after the Richmond line was upgraded by

John Whitton John Whitton (1820, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England – 20 February 1898), an Anglo–Australian railway engineer, was the Engineer-in-Charge for the New South Wales Government Railways, serving between 1856 and 1890, considered the Father of ...

the then Engineer-in-Chief. The History of the Station and surrounding local area have been highlighted through signs placed near the entrances to both former and present station sites.

Former station

The old Schofields station consisted of a single side platform with street level access on the eastern side of the track. A pedestrian

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

to the north of the platform allowed access to the other side of the track. An interesting feature of the station was the adjacent grain and produce facility that protruded into the railway platform. The old station closed on 3 October 2011.

Current station

Background

From 2009 to 2011, the track between

Quakers Hill Quakers Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is westnorth-west (WNW) of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown. Quakers Hill is part of the Grea ...

and Schofields was duplicated for more than three kilometres as part of the

Rail Clearways Program The Rail Clearways Programme was conceived in 2004 with the aim of easing congestion of Sydney's suburban railway network, by reducing the amount of infrastructure shared by multiple services. The disparate projects at pinch points througho ...

. This was intended as the first stage of a broader plan to duplicate the line as far as

Vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

. In order to be able to continue the duplication towards Richmond, it was proposed re-align a short section of track and relocate Schofields station to a site with fewer space constraints, 800 metres south of the existing station. The proposal to relocate the station was a controversial one and raised concerns amongst residents and businesses located near the former station, in relation to accessibility and

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

. Despite opposition to the plans from

Blacktown City Council Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...

and the government's own local representative, John Aquilina MP, construction commenced and the station opened on 29 October 2011. The new station is located in a minimally developed area foreseeing future residential development and is designed to support a dramatic increase in patronage.

Design

The station features a distinctive colour scheme of maroon and cream as seen on the tin roofing, inspired by the Station Master's residence at Riverstone station and reflecting on the European heritage of the local Richmond area and consists of an island platform. The station also includes indicator screens on the platforms and network status screens indicating trackwork or service interruptions on the concourse. The station is equipped for disabled access with lifts from street level to the concourse and to the platform levels. 230 parking spaces are available at the station with 110 on the Railway Terrace side and 120 on the Bridge Street side (opened in mid December 2011), with both including disabled parking spaces. Although claimed to be three times the size of the previous station car park,New Schofields Station and timetable adjustments to trains and Busways services from 29 October
131500 October 2011 issues have arisen concerning the size of the area. 40 bicycle racks are available. A "Kiss-and-ride" zone is located parallel to the bus interchange. As part of the relocation, a shared pedestrian and cycling path was built between the former station to the current site and a footbridge was constructed at the site of the former station to replace the pedestrian level crossing.

Future

A scoping study into rail investment to service

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and the proposed

Western Sydney Airport Western Sydney International Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, also known as Western Sydney Airport or Badgerys Creek Airport, is a new international airport currently under construction within the suburb of Badgerys Creek, New South Wales, Australia. ...

was announced by the New South Wales and Australian governments in November 2015. The study's final report was released in March 2018. There was a plan to extend the Sydney Metro from Tallawong to Schofields, St Marys and the new Western Sydney Airport. There is also a plan to build a multi-deck carpark by 2020 to further serve the growing community and add extra train services to the T1 Richmond branch.

Platforms & services

During the week, T5 Cumberland Line services terminate at Schofields. Late night services throughout the week however, extend to Richmond, replacing T1 services at these times.

Transport links

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 ...

operates two route via Schofields station: *734: Blacktown station to Riverstone via The Ponds *751: Blacktown station to

Rouse Hill Rouse Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rouse Hill is located in the Hills District, 43 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and 19 kilometres north-west of the Parramatta cent ...

via

Marsden Park Marsden Park is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marsden Park is located north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Blacktown local government area and is part of the Greater Western Sydney ...

Schofields station is served by one NightRide route: *N71: Richmond station to Town Hall station

References

External links

*
Schofields station details
Transport for New South Wales {{Transport for New South Wales railway stations, Western=y, Cumberland=y, state=collapsed Easy Access railway stations in Sydney Railway stations in Sydney Railway stations in Australia opened in 1870 Railway stations in Australia opened in 2011 Richmond railway line City of Blacktown