Northern Line (Sydney)


The Northern Line is a commuter rail line operated by Sydney Trains in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It serves some of Sydney's Inner West and Northern suburbs. It was spun off from the old T1 North Shore, Northern & Western Line as a separate line in April 2019, to distinguish and make it more easily identified from the other T1 services. It is also a reincarnation of the older Northern Line which was under operation until 2013.

History

Original incarnation (until 2013)

The traditional Northern Line was the suburban portion of the Main North railway line which opened in 1886 and was electrified in 1926. When the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened, it connected railway services from the Main North line and the City underground onto the North Shore line.
Passenger services used to operate as the Main North Line and was colour coded red on railway maps. It operated all the way to Cowan, until the service was truncated to Berowra in January 1992. The service, along with the North Shore Line service, later also ran along the North Shore railway line towards the City via the Harbour Bridge, forming a continuous loop via Strathfield, Epping and back to Hornsby.
In later years, the line operated as the Northern Line and ran from Hornsby to North Sydney via Strathfield and the City, with the North Shore line replacing services between Hornsby and Berowra. In February 2009, the Epping to Chatswood rail link was opened. In October 2009, the Northern Line service was integrated with the shuttle service between Epping and Chatswood. As a result, the traditional Northern Line was split in two, with trains from north of Epping operating via the new link, approaching the city via the North Shore Line and rejoining the traditional route before terminating at Epping.

Part of T1 (2013 to 2019)

In October 2013, the Northern Line, North Shore Line and Western line were merged to form the T1 North Shore, Northern & Western Line, which was colour coded yellow.
On weekdays, trains from the upper Northern Line joined up with the Western Line trains towards Richmond or Emu Plains, while trains from the lower Northern Line joined up with the North Shore Line trains towards Hornsby or Berowra. On weekends, trains ran similar to prior to merger, where the lower Northern Line trains from Epping continue onto the upper Northern Line trains at Chatswood into Hornsby via Macquarie University.
In September 2018, the Epping to Chatswood line closed in order to be converted to metro standards as part of the Sydney Metro Northwest project. As a result, the traditional Northern line branch from Hornsby to Central via Strathfield was reinstated.

Reincarnation (since 2019)

On 28 April 2019, as part of the integration with the Sydney Metro Northwest, the Northern Line branch was spun off from the T1 Line and became a separate T9 Northern Line, though using the same rolling stock. The new line runs from Hornsby to Hornsby or Berowra via Epping, Strathfield, Central, Chatswood and Gordon. Officially, the line runs and "terminates" at Gordon, however, it always continue on the upper-North Shore, to Hornsby and Berowra. The separated line runs a similar route to the pre-2009 incarnation of the line. It is also similarly colour coded red.

Route

The line begins at Hornsby - a junction station with the North Shore Line. The line heads south to Strathfield via Epping using the Main North Line, crossing the Parramatta River between Rhodes and Meadowbank. At Strathfield, trains usually head onto a flyover over the 'Main lines', before heading east onto the Main Suburban Railway, usually using the middle 'Suburban' pair of the six tracks between Redfern and Strathfield. Trains pass through Redfern and Central, then through the western limb of the City Circle before heading across the Harbour Bridge. Then trains continue north along the North Shore before terminating at Gordon. The T9 Northern Line route is different in terms of stopping pattern when compared to the rest of the network.
During the morning peak, trains travel in the following pattern:
- All stops from Hornsby to Epping, all stops to Strathfield except for Denistone, Concord West and North Strathfield, then Burwood before terminating at Central.
- All stops from Epping to Strathfield, then Redfern, Central, and all stops to Hornsby or Berowra.
Trains travel in the same manner during the afternoon peak but just in the opposite direction.
NameDistance from
Central
Opened
Railway lineServing suburbsOther lines
Gordon17.1 km1890North ShoreGordon
Killara15.9 km1899North ShoreKillara, East Killara
Lindfield14.6 km1890North ShoreLindfield, East Lindfield
Roseville13.3 km1890North ShoreRoseville
Chatswood11.7 km1890North ShoreChatswood
Artarmon10.3 km1898North ShoreArtarmon
St Leonards8.4 km1890North ShoreSt Leonards, Naremburn,
Crows Nest, Greenwich, Artarmon
Wollstonecraft7.2 km1893North ShoreWollstonecraft, Greenwich
Waverton6.1 km1893North ShoreWaverton
North Sydney5.1 km1932North ShoreNorth Sydney
Milsons Point4.4 km1932North ShoreMilsons Point, Kirribilli
Wynyard2.1 km1932North ShoreSydney CBD, Barangaroo
Town Hall1.2 km1932North ShoreSydney CBD
Central0 km1855North ShoreHaymarket, Chippendale,
Ultimo, Surry Hills
Redfern1.3 km1878Main SuburbanRedfern, Waterloo,
Darlington, Eveleigh
'
Burwood10.6 km1855Main SuburbanBurwood
Strathfield11.8 km1876Main SuburbanStrathfield, Burwood
North Strathfield13.4 km1918Main NorthNorth Strathfield, Concord West,
Concord, Homebush
Concord West14.5 km1887Main NorthConcord West, Liberty Grove
Rhodes16.6 km1886Main NorthRhodes, Liberty Grove
Meadowbank18.2 km1887Main NorthMeadowbank,
West Ryde, Ryde
West Ryde19.2 km1886Main NorthWest Ryde, Denistone
Denistone20.2 km1937Main NorthDenistone, Denistone East,
Denistone West, West Ryde
Eastwood21.4 km1886Main NorthEastwood
Epping23.4 km1886Main NorthEpping
Cheltenham26.8 km1898Main NorthCheltenham
Beecroft28.3 km1886Main NorthBeecroft
Pennant Hills30 km1886Main NorthPennant Hills
Thornleigh30.8 km1886Main NorthThornleigh, Pennant Hills, Westleigh
Normanhurst33.1 km1895Main NorthNormanhurst, Thornleigh, Hornsby
Hornsby'''35.3 km1886Main NorthHornsby, Waitara

Patronage

The following table shows the patronage of Sydney Trains network for the year ending 30 June 2019.