Town Hall railway station is a

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

underground

suburban rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

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 ...

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, 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 States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

'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 ...

. 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 ...

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

Perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bran ...

casing.

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, mobile ...

in the centre connecting the concourse with the platforms, providing

Easy Access Easy is an adjective describing something that is not difficult to do. It may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Easy'' (film), a 2003 American romantic comedy film *'' Easy!'', or ''Scialla!'', a 2011 Italian comedy ...

for

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

s. These facilities were constructed in 1999. The lower-level platforms (4 to 6) have 4

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

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-19th-century building located at 429–481 George Street, Sydney, George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. D ...

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

Woolworths Supermarket Woolworths (colloquially known as "Woolies") is an Australian supermarket chain owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths is currently Australia's largest supermarket chain with a market share of 32.5% as of 2023. Woolworths spec ...

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

Sydney Metro Sydney Metro is a fully automated rapid transit rail system in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It currently consists of the Metro North West & Bankstown Line, running between Tallawong and Sydenham and consisting of 21 stations on of t ...

line includes another station located at

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Platforms and services

Transport links

Light rail services

Above the underground concourse on George Street is the Town Hall light rail stop, which is the serviced by the L2 Randwick and L3 Kingsford lines.

Bus services

Town Hall station is served by bus routes operated by

Busways Busways is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney, and in the Central Coast, Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales and Adelaide. It is the largest privately owned bus operator in Australia. History The origins of Busw ...

CDC NSW CDC NSW is a bus operator in New South Wales, Australia. It is an umbrella brand of ComfortDelGro Australia established in 2017 to cover the latter's New South Wales operations, some of which had been owned by ComfortDelGro since 2005. It was sub ...

Keolis Downer Northern Beaches Keolis Downer Northern Beaches is a bus operator in Sydney, Australia. A subsidiary of Keolis Downer, it operates services in Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts, Sydney Bus Region 8 on the North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore and Nort ...

Transdev John Holland Transdev John Holland Buses is a bus operator in Sydney, Australia. A joint venture between Transdev Australasia, Transdev and John Holland Group, John Holland, it operates services in Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts, Sydney Bus Regio ...

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 ...

, under

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is a Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government transport services and roads List of New South Wales government agencies, agency established on 1 November 2011. The agency is a different entity to the NSW ...

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, Leppington & Inner West=y, Liverpool & Inner West=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 City Circle North Shore railway line Eastern Suburbs railway line Light rail stations in Sydney