Sydney, the largest city in Australia, has an extensive network of passenger and freight railways. The passenger system includes an extensive suburban railway network, operated by Sydney Trains, a metro network and a light rail network. A dedicated freight network also exists. Future expansion of the light rail network includes the Parramatta Light Rail. Existing light rail services are the Inner West Light Rail and the CBD & South East Light Rail.
Central station is the major interchange for Sydney Trains suburban services, while Sydney Terminal (now also known as Central Station) serves NSW TrainLink regional and intercity services. Sydney's light rail network also passes through Central. Journey Beyond's Indian Pacific train service to Perth also departs from here.
Sydney's suburban rail network is the busiest in Australia, with over 359 million journeys made in the 2017–18 financial year.
Passenger service
Suburban rail services in Sydney have been operated since 2013 by Sydney Trains. Over 1 million weekday passenger journeys are made on 2,365 daily services over of track and through 306 stations (including interurban lines). Most trains do not operate between midnight and 4.30am. Suburban services operate along the portions of the main lines from Sydney to the north, west, south and south-west, and also along several dedicated suburban lines. All of these lines are electrified at overhead 1500 V DC, starting in 1926. Some of the suburban stations are also served by the intercity and regional trains operated by NSW TrainLink.
Most suburban services operate through central Sydney via the underground City Circle (not a true circle line but a two-way loop extending under the CBD from Central station), the Eastern Suburbs line, or over the Harbour Bridge. There have been long-term plans for a further underground line passing beneath Pitt Street to a new harbour crossing. This is currently under construction as part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest and expected to be completed in 2024.
Timetables are published for all lines, and most lines run on minimum frequencies of every 15 minutes from early morning to midnight, 7 days a week. Frequencies are higher during peak periods and over shared routes. Although frequencies match metro style operation in the city core, few Sydneysiders use the underground network as a metro, most journeys being commuter trips from suburbs into the central city area. An exception to this is the Eastern Suburbs line which serves the high density inner eastern suburbs and opened in 1979.
Rolling stock
All suburban passenger trains in Sydney are electric multiple units.
Upon electrification in the 1920s Sydney operated single-deck multiple units, but these were progressively withdrawn from the 1960s until their demise in 1993. Single-deck automatic trains were reintroduced to Sydney in May 2019, with the completion of the Sydney Metro Northwest.
Double-deck trailer carriages were delivered to the NSW Government Railways in the 1960s, and incorporated into sets with single-deck power cars. When coupled with the double decker trailer carriages, they formed the world's first fully double decker electric multiple unit trains. The majority of suburban passenger trains in Sydney today are double-deck multiple units.
Depots
Electric cars are maintained at depots at Hornsby in the northern suburbs, Mortdale in the southern suburbs, and Flemington in the western suburbs. A depot at Punchbowl in the southwest closed in 1994 and has since been demolished. These four depots were all built and opened with the opening of electrified services in the 1920s.
Heavy maintenance of passenger cars was carried out at the Electric Carriage Workshops, Chullora and Suburban Car Workshops, Redfern. Heavy maintenance is now contracted out to Maintrain, a UGL Rail subsidiary, with workshops at Clyde.
Freight services
Freight services operate over most of the suburban railway lines in Sydney, however due to the high frequency of passenger services and the lack of freight only tracks, there is a curfew on freight movements during peak hours.