Woonona railway station

Woonona railway station is a station located on the South Coast Line. The station consists of 2 platforms, in a double side formation. Access to the station is provided from Park Road.

History
The first railway to be built in this location was a horse drawn tramway operated by Thomas Hale, which transported coal from his colliery and a small jetty at Bellambi Point to be loaded onto a boat for Sydney. This was abandoned in 1863, but was soon reopened by the Bellambi Coal Company in 1887 as a steam tramway.

By this time, the South Coast line was under construction. The crossing point between the tramway and the South Coast line became known as Woonona. The South Coast line through Woonona opened on 21st June 1887. A signal box to control this crossing was opened on 13th May 1889.

Over the next few decades, the rail line around this area was expanded several times due to the increase in demand. On 14th June 1898, the crossing became a triangle junction to allow trains from the colliery to go to Wollongong. A siding was also added to serve local businesses. The single track South Coast line was also becoming inadequate and so the line south of the Woonona crossing was duplicated on 25th September 1913.

A station was opened on 25th August 1919 to the north of the crossing. The station gained an extra platform when the line to the north was also duplicated on 20th May 1923. But soon the former tramway became disused. The colliery had closed in 1903 and the other user of the line, a brickworks, stopped using rail transport in 1940. So the crossing was removed, along with the signal box.

Platforms and Services
For most of the day, only local services stop at Woonona, with (express) services to Sydney passing through without stopping. However, some morning and late night Sydney services stop.