Sydenham railway station is a heritage-listed suburban and rapid transit railway station located at the junction of the South Coast, Bankstown and North West & Bankstown lines, serving the Sydney suburb of Sydenham. It is served by Sydney Trains T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line and T8 Airport & South Line services, intercity South Coast Line services, as well as Sydney Metro North West & Bankstown Line services.
It was designed by New South Wales Government Railways and opened in 1884, with William Robinson having built the original station buildings. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Sydenham was built on a duplicated line from Illawarra Junction to Hurstville and opened as Marrickville on 15 October 1884. The western platform contained a major 3rd class brick station building having a detached toilet block at each end separated by walled courtyards while the eastern platform contained a large 2nd class brick station building. The station was renamed Sydenham on 19 January 1895 with the opening of the Belmore branch line.
The impressive station was obviously intended to serve the Marrickville township proper but it was distant, surrounded by industrial and rural estates and only grew as a station by reason of the need to cope with the branch line junction. In 1907, the line from Edgeware Road to Sydenham was quadruplicated to serve the Belmore to Bankstown extension when it opened in 1909. This resulted in confining both buildings on island platforms so that passengers had to reach the platforms by an extended footbridge, whereas the substantial platform building on the current platform 2/3 island previously faced the street. A new timber overhead booking office on a steel support frame was built between platforms 3 and 4 and steel footbridges were eventually extended to all platforms 1914. This plan was never completed, although partial platforms were erected at St Peters and Erskineville in preparation. Because of this, Bankstown line trains continued to run on the same tracks as East Hills services, and the result of the additional platforms was that the Bankstown line's junction with the Illawarra line was moved merely from the south of Sydenham station to the north.
Mid-1980s: Ticket office fire and reconstruction
thumb|Gleeson Avenue entrance
The weatherboard ticket office on the overhead footbridge burnt down in the mid-1980s. In the late 1980s a new brick overhead booking office and a new metal-clad shop were built on the existing 1914 footbridge structure, and new canopies built over the stairs and connected to platform buildings. The upgrade also included new ticketing facilities, a new family accessible toilet and staff facilities.
Immediately south of the station, the Metropolitan Goods Line to Port Botany crosses via a pratt truss bridge that opened in 1925, while beyond lies the XPT Service Centre.
thumb|Sydenham Road entrance
2024: Sydney Metro
As part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project, the station was upgraded with a new concourse on the northern end of the station, and platforms 1 and 2 upgraded and converted into use for the Sydney Metro. When conversion of the Bankstown Line from commuter rail to a rapid transit line is completed in 2026, Metro through services will run on these tracks, taking commuters from Bankstown to Tallawong and vice versa.
Metro services to Sydenham were originally planned to commence on 4 August 2024, but was postponed due to failure to secure an approval from safety regulators. Metro services to and from Tallawong commenced on 19 August 2024.