Tempe railway station

Tempe is a small railway station on the Illawara railway line of the Sydney Trains network. It serves the suburb of Tempe, and the southern parts of Marrickville. The station has a footbridge at the northern end, with stairs down to Richardson Crescent and Griffiths Street. There is a commuter carpark on the western side of the station.

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

History
Tempe station opened on 15 October 1884 on the same date as of the Illawarra line from Redfern to Hurstville with two side platforms. It was referred to during the planning stages as Cooks River, but opened under the Tempe name. It was built as a double-track station (as at Sydenham) to service what was planned to be a large residential area; however, development of the area was much slower than originally envisioned.

Unlike Sydenham, Tempe had a small goods siding immediately eastward of the station in 1890. The original buildings included brick second class platform buildings on two brick-faced platforms and a brick Station Master's residence (all of which are still extant) as well as a brick Gatekeeper's cottage (since demolished). The former Tempe Station Master's residence is to the east adjacent to Platform 4, but now in private ownership.

The steel overhead footbridge was built in 1918, with steel stairs to the platforms, just prior to the quadruplification of the line in 1919. The lines through Tempe were quadruplicated in 1919, with the western platform converted to an island platform and a new side platform built. In 1926 the line was electrified as far as Oatley. Since 1943, the Platform 4 building (presumably  c.  1919) has been demolished and replaced with a modern platform canopy. c.  1993 the overhead booking office was reclad and reroofed.

Prior the opening of Wolli Creek station and the Airport line in May 2000, Tempe was the junction between the East Hills and Illawarra lines, and local East Hills services stopped at the station utilising Platforms 1 and 2. Most of the East Hills line services now run via the Airport line and those peak hour services running via Sydenham do not stop at Tempe.

To the north of the station lies the junction with the Metropolitan Goods line and the XPT Service Centre.

Services
Tempe is served by Sydney Trains T4 services. There are 6 trains per hour in each direction during the peak, dropping to 2 per hour at other times.