Berala railway station

Berala railway station is on the Bankstown Line of the Sydney Trains network. It serves the suburb of Berala. Station entry is accessed through a set of stairs and lift from an overpass on Woodburn Road.

Berala is staffed from 6:00am to 7:00pm on weekdays only.

History
The original Berala station opened on 11 November 1912 when a line opened from Lidcombe to Regents Park. When it was decided to extend the line from Regents Park to Cabramatta as a branch of the Main South line, a deviation was built and the current Berala station opened on 6 December 1924.

An accessibility upgrade, including lift access to the station, was announced in 2015, and was later completed in August 2017.

The axing of the Liverpool via Regents Park route on the Inner West Line in 2013 has naturally been criticised, with petitions being pushed by activist groups Restore Inner West Line and Save T3 Bankstown Line, due to the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor being converted for Sydney Metro and leaving stations west of Bankstown with no train access to the City without forced interchanges at Bankstown (Metro), Cabramatta (T2 Leppington Line) or Lidcombe (T1 Western Line and T2 Leppington Line).

Roydon Ng, one of the leaders behind the Restore Inner West Line and Save T3 Bankstown Line activist groups, is a local resident of Berala. Mr Ng has criticised the NSW Government's constant discrimination towards commuters living near the stations on the western parts of the T3 Bankstown Line, and he fears that the Sydney Metro City & Southwest is only going to make the problem worse by causing extra overcrowding on other lines, or forcing the affected commuters to drive and deal with road congestion.

Historically Berala was served by services from the city and Lidcombe operating to Bankstown and Liverpool on an alternate basis. This changed in the early 2000s, when most services to Liverpool were altered to operate via Bankstown. Today Berala is served by T3 Bankstown line services terminating at Lidcombe. With the terminus of services to Museum changed to Homebush on the 20 October 2013, Platform 1 operates 2 daily City services via Strathfield and otherwise operates Lidcombe services.

Berala was expected to close down permanently in 2024 due to the opening of Sydney Metro City & Southwest, with feeder buses originally planned to permanently replace all T3 Bankstown Line trains between Bankstown, Lidcombe and Cabramatta. The plan was rejected as of 4 February 2020, with Berala to be served by direct City Circle to Liverpool services that will divert via Regents Park instead of Bankstown.