Town Hall railway station is the second-busiest railway station on the Sydney Trains network (after Central station), located in Sydney, Australia. Located underground, it is situated in the Sydney central business district, under George street in front of the Sydney Town Hall, about 1.2 km north of Central.
Town Hall is the 2nd most patronised railway station in Sydney (out of a total of 176 stations), with an average of 84,030 passengers boarding per day.
History
The station is built on the site of Sydney's earliest colonial cemetery, the Old Sydney Burial Ground. In 2008, part of this cemetery was being excavated from under the Town Hall.
The station opened on 28 February 1932. It was built with six platforms, which were split over two levels with three platforms on each level. When the station opened, only four of the platforms were in use: platforms 1, 2 and 3 on the upper level and platform 6, served by escalators, on the lower level. The other two platforms were built in preparation for a proposed western suburbs line from the city to Gladesville, as envisaged under the Bradfield scheme. This line was never built, and the platforms (4 and 5) remained disused until they were taken over for use for the Eastern Suburbs line when it was constructed in the 1970s.
The station concourse had a major restructure in 2005 when the shops inside were closed to make way for the increasing crowds.
In April 2006, Transport Minister John Watkins announced plans for a $2 million inquiry into concept designs for upgrading the station. The station requires upgrading due to a large number of people using the station per day (70,000), and needs congestion relief to cater for an expected 2% yearly increase in commuters using the station. Clyde Livingstone, a former Mayor of Burwood Council has been the Station Master since 1982.
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