page_title: Central railway station, Sydney
section_title: Sydney Terminal building
hierarchical_section_title: Central railway station, Sydney / Station layout / Sydney Terminal building
caption_attribution_description: English: Central Station Concourse Hall
context_page_description: Central is a heritage-listed Australian railway station located in the centre of Sydney in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales. The station is the largest and busiest railway station in New South Wales and serves as a major transport interchange for NSW TrainLink inter-city rail services, Sydney Trains commuter rail services, Sydney light rail services, State Transit and private bus services, and private coach transport services. The station is also known as Sydney Terminal. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. It recorded 85.4 million passenger movements in 2018.
  Central station occupies a large city block separating Haymarket, Surry Hills and the central business district, bounded by Railway Square and Pitt Street in the west, Eddy Avenue in the north, Elizabeth Street in the east and the Devonshire Street Tunnel in the south. Parts of the station and marshalling yards extend as far south as Cleveland Street, and are located on the site of the former Devonshire Street Cemetery.
context_section_description: The most prominent part of Sydney Central Station, visible from many parts of the City and surrounding area, is the 1906 sandstone main terminal building, referred to as the "Sydney Terminal Building" by railway staff. It is sited to dominate its surroundings and to mark the importance of the railways and its service to the state and the city.
  The main concourse and platforms are elevated above the surrounding roads. This elevated siting also permits the use of the topography to gain road access to more than one level enabling the development of an extensive subterranean luggage network and separation of differing modes of transport.  The commanding position of the Terminus with large areas of open space sloping away from the building continues the public domain of Railway Square whilst maintaining a clear vista of the Terminus from the surrounding area. The Terminus, and in part the Parcels Post Office, create a formal edge to Railway Square.
  On the main Eddy Avenue façade, the Terminus comprises a colonnade and porte-cochère, which originally provided an undercover area for passengers transferring to and from trams. After the removal of the original Sydney tram network, the upper level colonnade was used by motor vehicles, but it is now again used by trams on the Dulwich Hill Line.
  The main concourse, called the "Main Assembly platform", is located on the upper level and is the centre of the Terminus, around which all of the ancillary functions, such as refreshment rooms, waiting rooms and the booking hall, were arranged.  As originally built, the main terminal building also had terraces or "decks" on the east and west sides, which were accessible by vehicles. The main concourse "platform" was accessed from both the East and West deck. The main concourse is dominated by a large vaulted roof over the concourse and elaborate masonry, primarily Sydney sandstone.
  The station opened on 5 August 1906 with 11 platforms, but was soon expanded to 15, and by 1913 had 19. As part of the construction of the electrified city railway in the 1920s, the existing station was cut back to 15 platforms with new platforms built to the east of the existing station. As part of the project, platforms 10 to 15 were electrified, with platforms 1 to 9 following in 1956.
  The current 15 Sydney Terminal platforms run perpendicular to the main station concourse and all are dead ended with the buffer stop. They are arranged as seven double platforms and one single platform, each with an awning, servicing a total of 15 tracks.  Platforms 1–3 are for country and interstate services, while the remainder are for interurban services.
  Platforms 1–10 have a centre run-round track, which was for locomotive-hauled trains.  It enabled the locomotive to uncouple from its train and either depart or re-couple on the other end to pull the train to the next destination.  There was extreme pressure on the speed to ready a train for the next destination due to the lack of platform space and a steady growth of rail patronage.  These centre lines are now used for storage of electric rail car sets in off peak times.  The platforms feature long timber-framed canopies over some of the platforms (incorporating Howe trusses).  Timber was used in lieu of steel because of the high cost at the time of importing steel.
  The only locomotive hauled trains now using Sydney Terminal are the Indian Pacific and special trains which usually use Platform 1.  Platform 1 has always been the main out of Sydney Station with the longest platform.  Platforms 1 and 2–3 were lengthened to their present length in 1962 covering the skylights to the Devonshire Street Subway for diesel hauled trains like the Southern Aurora.  All long-distance NSW TrainLink XPT and Xplorer services and the Great Southern Rail Indian Pacific terminate at Central. These generally use Platforms 1 to 3, although when the Indian Pacific is in the station occupying both Platforms 2 and 3, some NSW TrainLink regional services use Platforms 4 to 12.
caption: Grand Concourse departures board and information stand
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "244", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "S", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[33, 52, 2869/50]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[151, 12, 2343/100]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "1", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[4, 42, 32]", "GPS GPSDOP": "8627/500", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "[65, 83, 67, 73, 73, 0, 0, 0, 102, 117, 115, 101, 100]", "GPS GPSDate": "2018:11:17", "Image GPSInfo": "29319", "Image ImageWidth": "4032", "Image ImageLength": "3024", "Image Make": "Google", "Image Model": "Pixel 2 XL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "HDR+ 1.0.220943774z", "Image DateTime": "2018:11:17 15:42:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "252", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "189", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "29699", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10479", "EXIF ExposureTime": "7993/1000000", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "55", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:11:17 15:42:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:11:17 15:42:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "697/100", "EXIF ApertureValue": "17/10", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "453/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/10", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4111/1000", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "4459/1000", "EXIF SubSecTime": "515704", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "515704", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "515704", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4032", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3024", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "29289", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "27/25", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}