City Circle

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The City Circle is a system of underground passenger railway lines located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that make up the heart of the Sydney passenger railway network. The lines are owned by RailCorp, a New South Wales government agency, and operated under RailCorp's CityRail brand. Despite its name, the City Circle is actually a horeshoe shape, with trains operating in a U-shaped pattern. The constituent stations of the Circle are (clockwise): Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St. James, Museum and back to Central.

[edit] History

The original railway network for the Sydney CBD planned by John Bradfield. The City Circle is in grey. The yellow and blue lines as depicted were never constructed, although the Eastern Suburbs railway was built in the 1970s to a different alignment.

The City Circle was designed in the 1920s under the supervision of John Bradfield. The line was originally built in two halves: St. James and Museum stations were constructed in 1926 under Hyde Park corresponding with the initial electrification of Sydney railways, and Town Hall and Wynyard stations opened later in 1932 in association with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was not until 1956 that Circular Quay opened as the "missing link". It has one of the best views of Sydney railway stations.

Several unused railway tunnels also exist. The former tram tunnels at Wynyard, and other stub tunnels at St. James are well known.

[edit] Services and operations

The CBD lines as built.

Current service patterns generally consist of trains from the South and Inner West lines operating around the City Circle in a clockwise manner via Town Hall station and proceed onto the Airport & East Hills, and Bankstown lines. Trains from the Airport & East Hills and Bankstown lines generally operate around the City Circle in an anti-clockwise manner via Museum station and proceed onto the South and Inner West lines, although a set of flying junctions at Central enable this pattern to be varied.

Prior to the completion of the Eastern Suburbs line in 1979, the Illawarra Line also operated around the City Circle.

Trains on the Western and Northern lines usually do not proceed around the City Circle but instead proceed across the Harbour Bridge to the North Shore line and vice versa.

[edit] Gallery

Platform 18 and 19 at Central station.	Town Hall - platform 2 (Western and Northern Line platform) & platform 3 (North Shore line platform).	Wynyard station entrance, Department of Railways building, York Street.	Circular Quay station as viewed from the water.
St James platform 1.	Museum platforms.

[edit] External links

• CityRail Network site
• City of Sydney webpage about City Circle
• NSW rail City Circle