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| Sydney Freight Network | |||
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 New South Wales Metropolitan Rail Area with Sydney Freight network highlighted in black. | |||
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TheSydney Freight Network is a network of dedicated railway lines for freight inSydney,Australia, linking the state's rural and interstate rail network with the city's main yard atEnfield andPort Botany. Its primary components are theSouthern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) and a line fromSefton toEnfield andPort Botany (known as theMetropolitan Goods railway line). The Network has been managed by theAustralian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) since 2012.[1] Prior to the completion of the SSFL, it was managed byRailCorp as theMetropolitan Freight Network.
One arm of the network starts behind theFlemington Maintenance Depot while another starts atSefton with both merging atEnfield. Services from the state's north and west approach via the former and from the south via the latter.
From Enfield, the line heads south toCampsie where it turns east and runs parallel to theBankstown passenger line as far asMarrickville. From here, a connection to theIllawarra line provides a link to a sea terminal atPort Kembla, south of Sydney. From Marrickville, the line continues on its own alignment to the Cooks River andPort Botany container terminals.
There was previouslya loop line that completed a circuitous route of the inner suburbs. Diverging atDulwich Hill, it headed north beneath theMain Suburban line atLewisham toLilyfield before heading east toRozelle andPyrmont, and then south underRailway Square through NSW's oldest tunnel[2][3] to join the Main Suburban line outsideCentral. This line served the ports atGlebe Island (diverging via a spur from Lilyfield) andDarling Harbour.[4][5]
With the exception of the Marrickville to Port Botany and Lilyfield to Central sections, the network was electrified in stages. The Dulwich Hill to Rozelle section was electrified in October 1967[6][7] while the Marrickville toTempe section was completed in 1985. But with electric haulage of freight trains ceasing in the late 1990s, this infrastructure is no longer used and has been removed in parts. As of December 2018, the only remaining sections of overhead wires are a short section from the tunnel under the Bankstown line to Tempe, along the Down line from Dulwich Hill to Campsie and both tracks from Campsie to where the line separates from the Bankstown line.
The line had connections to allow suburban passenger services to operate on it including accessing theCanterbury Park Racecourse sidings on race days but these were out of use by the mid-1980s and have since been removed.
From the time when the Sydney Railway Company was formed in 1848, it had been the intention of the company to build a freight terminal atDarling Harbour. To this end, a railway line was constructed between the Sydney Railway Station (the predecessor toCentral railway station) and Darling Harbour, which opened on 26 September 1855.[8] Initial traffic was spoil for the construction of theMain Suburban Line between Sydney andParramatta, then for the carriage of departmentalcoke for steam engines, and a small amount of timber from 1860. Initial reports of the traffic on the line suggested that freight revenue amounted to only £20 a year, and there was only 60 tonnes of coke carriage a week.[8]
Other problems beset the line in the 1860s. Darling Harbour had begun tosilt up by 1863, and the 3d. charge per person, each way on the nearbyPyrmont Bridge (at that time privately owned) was a turnoff to traders looking to use the railway for the transport of their goods. Other factors combined to offset these problems: a plan to convey goods byhorse tram toCircular Quay turned out to be a failure; traffic inhay,straw andchaff was transferred to theDarling Harbour yards in 1878; and by 1881, the main goods terminal in Sydney had become overcrowded, leading to directions that traffic for Sydney was to be directed to Darling Harbour. The Pyrmont Bridge was later purchased by theNew South Wales Government for £48,600. By 1891, all outwards goods traffic was also being dispatched from Darling Harbour.[8]
By 1908, goods traffic on the line to Darling Harbour and the neighbouring suburban lines had become excessive, with 592 wagons arriving each day and 512 being dispatched.[8] It was decided to construct separate goods lines fromSefton to Darling Harbour viaEnfield,Dulwich Hill andRozelle, with extensions toBotany and the StateAbattoirs atHomebush Bay. The initial scheme, approved by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Works, approved the initial line from Dulwich Hill to Darling Harbour. To avoid an opening rail bridge alongside the existingGlebe Island Bridge, a circuitous route was built aroundRozelle Bay through the suburb ofPyrmont. The proposal, which included two tunnels under Pyrmont andGlebe, was approved on 23 November 1914, and the line opened on 23 January 1922.[9]
On 14 October 1925, the line opened fromMarrickville toPort Botany.[10][11]
An additional Goods Yard was established at Cooks River in 1947.[12] This yard connects with the Port Botany line to the east of the Princes Highway overbridge. From May 1982 until July 1995, a weighbridge existed on the westbound track betweenCanterbury andCampsie stations.[11]
The Rozelle branch was used in 1998 for filming of the television mini-seriesThe Day of the Roses, and depictingChicago in the filmThe Matrix.[11]
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The Darling Harbour branch experienced widespread use throughout the early 20th century. With the use of containers and the decentralisation of freight terminals in Sydney to places such asChullora,Port Botany andPort Kembla, Darling Harbour traffic reduced considerably, with the yards closing in October 1984.[8][13] In January 1996, the Lilyfield to Central section closed.[14] Much of the trackbed was used for thelight rail that opened toWentworth Park in August 1997[15] and was extended toLilyfield in August 2000.[16][17]
A spur of the branch was retained fromCentral to connect thePowerhouse Museum to the network.[18] A section of the spur fell into disrepair and wasconverted to a park and pedestrian pathway in August 2015.
In 1995, the freight only network was extended north with a dedicated bi-directional single freight line constructed fromFlemington toHomebush where it joined a refurbished existing line toNorth Strathfield andRhodes.[19]
During the 1990s, the section between Dulwich Hill and Rozelle also saw a considerable decline in traffic after handling of bulk grain moved to Port Kembla, Enfield yard was remodelled and marshaling of trains consolidated there, and operations at theGlebe Island andWhite Bay ports wound down.Rozelle yard became overgrown but was used intermittently for the storage of disused railway wagons and passenger carriages. Eventually, the sole traffic was a service to deliver cereals to Mungo Scott's flour mill atSummer Hill. In 2009, the mill relocated toMaldon and all traffic on the line ceased.
In 2010, the NSW Government announced theInner West Light Rail would be extended along thedisused section from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill.[20][21] The extension opened on 27 March 2014.[22]
In August 2004, theAustralian Rail Track Corporation andRailCorp entered into an agreement for the ARTC to lease the Metropolitan Freight Network,[23] specified as being the dedicated freight lines within the rail corridors:
In August 2012, RailCorp leased the Metropolitan Goods line fromPort Botany toEnfield to the ARTC for 50 years.[24][25]
In January 2013, the ARTC opened theSouthern Sydney Freight Line; an extension to the dedicated freight network from the end of the Metropolitan Goods line atSefton toMacarthur.[26][27]
The loop betweenNorth Strathfield andRhodes has been duplicated with an underpass as part of theNorthern Sydney Freight Corridor works. The underpass opened in June 2015.[28]
Until their cessation in 1996, railway workers' trains operated fromCanterbury toEnfield South,Enfield Loco,Delec andHope Street.
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