Belmore railway station

Belmore railway station is a station on the T3 Bankstown Line of the Sydney Trains network, located in the suburb of Belmore. Station entry is accessed through stairs and a lift from an overpass on Burwood Road. It is the nearest station to Belmore Oval, the home ground of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, and Canterbury Leagues Club.

Belmore is staffed from 6:00am to 7:00pm on weekdays, and 8:00am to 4:00pm on weekends and public holidays. 

History
Belmore station opened on 1 February 1895 when the opened from Sydenham. It served as the terminus of the line until it was extended to Bankstown on 14 April 1909.

Belmore is located on the Sydenham to Bankstown line and was opened as the initial terminus station on 1 February 1895. Its initial construction name was Burwood Road but it was named Belmore on opening. There is no evidence that the station was to be named St. George as suggested in some sources. However it was not unusual for a number of names to be publicly canvassed in the lead-up to opening of a station and this was probably the case in this instance. The locality and station were named after the Earl of Belmore, Governor of New South Wales between 1868 and 1872.

The station was built when Belmore was still rural. The station layout featured a typical brick station building on an island platform. A station master's residence was also built in 1895 and is still extant at 346 Burwood Road, opposite the station, but is now in private ownership.

The line had its origins in Railway Commissioner Goodchap's 1882 recommendation that an additional line was needed between Newtown and Liverpool to relieve traffic on the Southern Line and to encourage agriculture and suburban settlement. Lobbying by local interests and land speculators achieved Parliamentary approval by 1890 and construction commenced in 1892. The most important stations on the line, Belmore, Canterbury and Marrickville, were built with impressive near-identical brick buildings, the other intermediate stations (Campsie, Dulwich Hill and Hurlstone Park) receiving more modest timber buildings (later replaced), possibly reflecting economies of the depression of the 1890s.

The depression suppressed the profitability of the line and the extension to Liverpool did not proceed. However, suburban development followed in the early twentieth century, particularly during the interwar period when many War Service homes were built west of Canterbury. The line was extended to Bankstown in 1909 (and then to Regents Park in 1928, making it part of a loop line through Lidcombe), its justification by then being the servicing of suburban development.

Prior to 1909 there were sidings for the storage of locomotives due to the railway terminating at Belmore. Suburban development intensified post World War I when many War Service homes were built in the area. Sidings at the station were extended during the 1920s for Belmore and Canterbury Councils for the purposes of unloading timber and other material for house construction and municipal works.[3]

In 1925-26 a number of works were undertaken in preparation for electrification of the line including a sub-station and platform extension. The sub-station is now used as a signals training facility.

The overhead timber booking office at Belmore was constructed c.1937 at the top of the steps fronting onto the down side of Burwood Road to take the ticket selling and parcel functions. The change was also made to most other stations built to a similar configuration. The station master's office remained in the platform building for another forty years, but this function too has now moved to the street level building and the platform building remains largely unused.

Sydney Metro conversion
Belmore will cease operation of Sydney Trains heavy rail services by the end of 2023 as the Sydenham to Bankstown bracket of the Bankstown Line will undergo conversion to serve the Sydney Metro City & Southwest single-deck driverless rapid-transit rail network. The station will close for 6-7 months in late 2023 in order to undergo work while it reopens as a Metro-only station in 2024. These works will include straightening the platform by cutting back the curved edges, building a new accessible concourse to the east of the current entrance, and new platform screen doors to prevent accidents and fatalities. The ovehead booking office and platform building are heritage listed and will not be removed.

Starting in December 2019, the Bankstown Line stations between Sydenham and Bankstown will also undergo partial closures during the December/January school holiday periods (including New Year’s Eve) up until 2023. Preliminary works will be done during these closures to prepare for the main closure in 2023.

Other Bankstown Line stations undergoing Metro conversion include Sydenham (platforms 1 and 2 only), Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Canterbury, Campsie, Lakemba, Wiley Park, Punchbowl and Bankstown. Sydenham will then connect to other new metro stations at Waterloo, Central, Pitt Street, Martin Place, Barangaroo, Victoria Cross and Crows Nest, which then connect to the Sydney Metro Northwest line from Chatswood to Tallawong.

Platforms and Services
Belmore is served by all stations services on the Bankstown line, usually at a frequency of 4 per hour, with additional services during the peaks.