Sydney's Abandoned Underground Tram Station

Today we'll talk about a mystery that  often puzzles visitors and locals alike   when in Sydney Australia if you've ever been to  Wynyard train station in the center of the city   you might have noticed something odd there are  platforms three and four where you can catch the   T1 line that will take you up the North Shore  line to Hornsby and the Central Coast or West   to Strathfield Parramatta Richmond Penrith End  emu Plains there's also platforms five and six   where you can hop on the city circle line which  would take you to the famous Circular Quay the T2   Inner West and Leppington line the T3 Liverpool  via Bankstown line the T8 line that goes to the   and what does that have to do with trams  hi I'm Marty and welcome to Backtracks that's right trams Sydney used to have one of  the world's largest and greatest tram systems   and by 1961 the trams were replaced by buses and  the tracks were ripped up all paved over and 70   years later there's not much evidence remaining  relative to what once existed but of course some   traces of the network still remain hidden in plain  sight or buried deep underground and one of them   is at Wynyard station so that's the subject of  this video when you railway and tram station to understand how all of this came about we need  to go back in time to before 1932 when Sydney was   divided by its harbor on the Northern side of  the harbour the North Sydney tram lines were a   separate tram network that basically connected  the suburbs of the Lower North Shore with ferry   wharves and these ferries were the main way to  cross the harbour to reach the city center on the   southern side there were several ferry terminals  on both sides of the harbor but the most important   ones were McMahon's Point and Milson's Point  on the north side and circular key on the south   in September 1909 a line was opened from  McMahon's Point that went up to Victoria   Cross in North Sydney and then headed north and  west to Lane Cove and Chatswood while tram's   heading to the north and the northeast started  at Milsons Point Wharf the original location   of the Ferry Wharf and the tram line is pretty  hard to recognize now as the Harbour Bridge's   northern pylon is basically built over the same  spot where the ferry and tram terminal once was   when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was  opened in 1932 the North Sydney lines   were reorientated to cross the bridge and  then terminate on the southern side of   the harbour at Wynyard the Milsons Point and  McMahon's Point tram lines were later closed   Wynyard was a Railway Station built for  passengers and it was opened on 28th of   February 1932 coinciding with the opening of  the Sydney Harbour Bridge trams left the Harbour   Bridge and went into underground tunnels arriving  at platforms one and two of Wynyard train station   the existing platforms three and four basically  mirrored exactly platforms one and two   both had Island platforms with  stairs leading to the concourse below   platforms one and two originally designed to  handle trains so when it was decided to use   them for trams the tracks had to be raised  up to platform level and you can see in the   picture here the fantastic indicator board that  showed the destinations for each of the trams   in some respects it's quite a extravagant  or elaborate thing to have a tram station   built underground in a major city so let's talk  about how that came about and it all starts with   a man John Bradfield or J.J Bradfield he looks  a pretty cool character now John Bradfield was   an Australian engineer who played a key role in  designing and building the Sydney Harbour Bridge   but he did more than that he's widely  recognized as the father of modern Sydney   for his contributions to the development of  the city's infrastructure and public transport   this is a map from 1925 which shows his  proposal for the center part of Sydney   he proposed building a new underground railway  loop in the city of which Wynyard was a key part   plan included a City Circle Loop which had Town  Hall Wynyard Circular Quay and St James and Museum   he also proposed the Eastern Suburbs Railway  that came in with a Liverpool Street Station went   through St James where some of the tunnel stubs  were actually built to service that line which   was never completed onto our Connell Street Pitt  Street and then headed out west via Railway Square   and with the opening of The Harbor Bridge he  could then also include railways that went   to the northern side of the harbour  with the creation of the North Shore   line which would go to stations at the time  called Kirribilli North Sydney and Bay Road   but then also aligned to the Northern Beaches  which would come up through the east side of   the city across the Harbour Bridge on the eastern  side through Kirribilli North Sydney and then to   head out to Mosman Balgowlah and Manly and  that line was obviously never ever built   the platforms and tunnels for the Northern  Beaches line were actually complete   now in this top-down view of when your train  station the orange lines indicate the down and   up lines for the T1 railway line as it operates  today and the red lines on the right of screen   were designed to be those for the Northern Beaches  line but as we know during the construction of the   Harbour Bridge and the Wynyard station the North  Shore line was built but the northern beaches line   was then postponed and instead when the bridge  was opened it was decided to use the lines and   the station for trams interestingly trams were  not originally envisaged to live across the bridge   now here's another view of the station you can  see here in this cross-section that platforms   one two three and four were on the upper level  and the orange lines here again represent the   tram lines as they were actually built there were  double crossovers in the tunnel before reaching   the station and then a single crossover on the  downline after the station on the southern side   and the lower level two platforms have been  used since opening for the City Circle Line   before we go and look inside the old tunnels  and station let's have a look at the concourse   the general layout really hasn't changed  since 1932 but what has changed is the   steps that went up to platforms one and two  have been removed and there's no traces left   but during the development of the station between  2015 and 2018 construction workers uncovered an   original set of stairs that went up to platforms  one and two and they'd been bricked up since the   1960s unfortunately these stairs have been since  removed to make more space for the concourse area   now one thing that certainly has changed  about the concourse are the ticket gates   here are images of the railway station ticket  gates and the tram station certainly a far cry   from today's automated ticket gates using the Opal  Card so what became of the tram station when it   closed in 1958 well in 1964 the station and some  of its tunnels were converted to a car park for   the Menzies Hotel and the Wynyard Lane public  car park the Wynyard Lane Car Park was closed   following the redevelopment of the Carrington  Street precinct I think it closed in about   2018 and since the car park was closed the public  can't get access to the former station and tunnels   Backtracks purchase tickets to DarkSpectrum which  is part of the Vivid Festival currently running   in Sydney which was a light display inside the  former station and tunnels so we got to go behind   these normally locked doors and during the show  we got to see most of the former infrastructure   in each major section of the former lines in the  station had a different lighting and music theme   here we are looking north back into the station  area which was converted into a two-level parking   area you can see the bottom floor in the red  was one theme and then there was a dark and   green light show on the top floor well it's pretty  hard to imagine that this was once tram station   and where we're looking now is exactly  where the tram tracks and station used to be   this image here from the 1940s shows the southern  end of the station looking south where before we   saw there were two stub tunnels the one on the  left or the eastern tunnel could hold two trams   and the one on the right could hold five now this  is the left tunnel when it was a car park looking   towards the end and this is what it looked like  on the night of vivid it was a pretty amazing   light show giving the illusion that you were  traveling through the tunnel on a moving train   and what you didn't realize until you got to the  end that there was a huge mirror that created the   effect that the tunnel was heading further  south than you thought and here we are at   the very end of the line rhis is as far south as  the tunnels were ever mined what could have been   we then did a 180 degree turn into the  western tunnel and then again headed north   this is the tunnel that could hold five trams   this area had a completely different theme  with different lighting and effects and music   this section was called unseen it was really  cool the lighting effect gave the impression   that the tunnel was covered in graffiti exiting  that tunnel we were back at the tram station from   here we went to the upper level of the former  car park that was built within the station   now it was a bit hard to film because it was  very dark only by green lasers again it was   pretty great to be in there and the film  doesn't really capture what it was like to   be there and it was a bit hard to get your  bearings in the dark but I believe we were   standing at about the same spot as the tram is  in this picture from there we left the station   and walked north along the down or northern  running tunnel this tunnel led up to the deck   of the Harbour Bridge and the first section of  the tunnel was filled with huge dancing robots now you can really get a feel for how large the  tunnels were at this point obviously built for   full-sized heavy rail trains in the earlier  diagram in this video we saw that just to   the north of the station was a double crossover  track so here the tunnels opened up into large   underground caverns and when the car park was  built like the station they built a second story   within the space during the Vivid experience  we were only able to walk along the ground   floor the tram tracks literally ran along  the floor that crowd is walking on in these   scenes I turned their camera around to look back  into the south running tunnel towards what would   have been the Wynyard tram station we were now  approaching the end of the experience in tour   and after the crossover cabin  we then switched to the up   or south running tunnel and here we are still  walking north and this is how cars would have   exited the former car park onto Gloucester  Street when the car park was in operation   and while we left the tunnel here in the two  tunnels continued to head north until they exited   just near the Argyle Cut where there was a tram  stop and today that tram stop and track is covered   over by the two lanes of the Cahill Expressway the  portals are still clearly visible from the walkway   and so with the death knell sounded at last  for the old slow vehicular front crossing from   the spot where the opera house now stands to  Milson's Point Sydney's traffic came to life   well that about wraps up another episode of  backtracks a story of a never-built northern   beaches train line that became a tram line and  station that then became a car park which then   closed and for a little while at least in 2023  became an installation piece at Vivid and who   knows what's next thanks always for watching  please like and subscribe if you're enjoying   the channel and thanks also as always to  the information sources and hopefully it   won't be too long until we see you again when  we take another look at lost public transport

Channel: BackTracks.Channel

Views: 6,205

Keywords: Tram, Trolley, Streetcar, train, Sydney, Australia, @vividsydney, Abandoned, Wynyard

Id: KXXor8g9vtQ

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023