Sydney City Railway - Historic Engineering Marker #40 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 16-Oct-15. Waypoint GA7621

Sydney City Railway - Historic Engineering Marker #40

Sydney's City Railway is the 15th city railway constructed in the world out of the 17 built before World War II. Of the total of 65 city railways in the world, most were built after World War II.

Sydney had its City Railway operating in 1926 ahead of other major cities such as Moscow (1930), Chicago (1943), Rome (1955), San Francisco (1972) and Hong Kong (1979).

Although a relatively small city railway, Sydney's is comparable to many other city railways in size, engineering infrastructure and use of technology.

Without the city railway, the City of Sydney would have choked on the congestion in its streets, seriously affecting its long term survival as a major trading centre for Australia. The railway enabled Sydney to remain a major business and commercial centre which brought enormous economic rewards to Australia.

It was the first underground city railway in Australia and the only one for 55 years. It set the pattern, eventually followed by Melbourne with the opening of its city loop railway in 1981. Other Australian capital cities have railways stations only on the fringes of their Central Business Districts.

The city railway has also been of significant social benefit for people working in the city, for shoppers and for visitors and tourists because of the ease of mobility it provides for moving around the city centre.

The City Railway allowed suburban rail services to be separated from the country services which greatly reduced the passenger train congestion at Sydney Station. This separation and the link into the city allowed significant improvements to be made to the suburban rail services.

The sound planning and construction combined with improving railway technology has enabled the City Railway to cope with patronage that has virtually doubled during its 70 years of operation.

Contents of the plaque:

This is Australia's first underground city railway, comprising a city circle completed in sections - Central to St James (1926), Circular Quay (1956), Wynyard to Central (1932) - and the North Shore line through Wynyard (1932), which brought the suburban population to the city centre. It was built by the Metropolitan Railway Construction Branch under the direction of Dr J J C Bradfield. The work includes bridges, tunnels, stations and the Circular Quay viaduct. This project has contributed significantly to Sydney's growth as an international city.
 
DEDICATED BY THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA, AND THE STATE RAIL AUTHORITY, NSW 1997.

When logging this virtual, please add a photo of yourself or your GPSr at the plaque.

For more information, please see this page at the Heritage Register at the Engineers Australia website: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/heritage/sydney-city-railway-1926

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