Unanderra railway station

Unanderra railway station is a station located on the South Coast Line. The station consists of 2 platforms, in a single island formation. Access to the station is provided from Berkeley Road.

History
Unanderra opened on 9th November 1887, together with the line through to North Kiama (now called Bombo). It had a platform and a goods siding. A passing loop was added on 19th August 1925. Sidings were added on 21st August 1928 to service the steelworks near Port Kembla.

Unanderra was and is still an important junction station. There are junctions to the Illawara, Port Kembla, Inner Harbour and Bluescope Steel lines to the north. To the south, the line splits into the Moss Vale-Unanderra and South Coast branch lines.

Over the years, Railcorp/Cityrail/NSW TrainLink have closed most of their signal boxes. Unanderra is now controlled from Wollongong signal box.

As part of the Transport Access Program, planning is underway for a station upgrade at Unanderra to improve accessibility. The upgrade is expected to be completed in 2022.

Accidents
On 28 June 2003, a northbound Pacific National frieght train, passed a Stop signal and derailed on catchpoints just north of Unanderra. The accident was caused by the driver assuming the signal was clear based on other indicators and not realising the signal was at stop until it was too late to stop.

On 24 January 2009, an northbound interurban Tangara G set, set number G4, derailed at the exact same signal. Contributing factors were a passenger disturbance just before, a fatigued driver and the guard working from the wrong cab. G4 was later converted to a suburban T set (with most G set features left intact) while undergoing repairs, being renumbered to its current set number T104.

Platforms and Services
The line through the station actually consists of three tracks, two for the Moss Vale-Unanderra line and the other for the South Coast branch line. Platform 1 is on the Down Moss Vale track and platform 2 is on the South Coast track. All 3 tracks are bidirectional.