We look at the Eastern Suburbs transport plans that never happened, as well as how the future of transport in our area might look.
1. The train to Bondi Beach
Why does Sydney – and Australia’s – best known beach – not have a train station? Instead, the Eastern Suburbs line ends three kilometres away at Bondi Junction: one of Sydney rail network’s top 10 most used stations.
A few years ago, the ABC tried to uncover why.
It traced the saga back to the 1920s, when engineer John Bradfield first proposed an eastern suburbs rail line. Work on this line began in 1926 at St James station. It wasn’t set to go all the way to Bondi Beach, but to terminate at Bondi Junction. From there, Sydney’s tram network would no doubt provide good connectivity to all the eastern beaches.
However, the Great Depression and Second World War intervened, and resources were diverted elsewhere. Work on the line ceased, never to be resumed.
Instead, in 1947, a new plan was devised for a different eastern suburbs line. This time, the line was set to begin at Central Station and run via Kings Cross to North Bondi and Rose Bay.
Work began in 1951, and tunnels were blasted around Central and Redfern and below Martin Place. But, just a year later, a recession hit and lack of government funds meant the line was once again abandoned.
Finally, in the late 1960s, work started once again on a third iteration of the eastern suburbs railway. While the initial plan was for the route to run past Bondi Junction to Charing Cross, Frenchmans Road, Randwick, UNSW and Kingsford, rising costs meant the government decided to stop the line at Bondi Junction.
The Eastern Suburbs line eventually opened in 1979.
You can read more about the Eastern Suburbs Railway line in our article about Kings Cross Station.
2. Woollahra was meant to have a railway station
Did you know that Woollahra was meant to be a stop on the eastern suburbs line?
You can see the platforms that were never completed from Edgecliff Road. You can also see what would have been Woollahra Station from the train. It reveals itself between Edgecliff and Bondi Junction as you emerge from the tunnel into a stone cutting.
Woollahra Station would have been the only above-ground station on the Eastern Suburbs line. However, it encountered fierce opposition from local residents, who even took the NSW Government to the High Court of Australia (but lost).
However, this strong opposition, coupled with rising costs of constructing the line, meant the station was never finished or opened. But every now and then its name still comes up in news reports. So who knows? Maybe one day it could still become a reality.
3. The Kings Cross underground double-decker roundabout
Over the years, many people have tried to solve Kings Cross’s traffic congestion.
Back in the 1930s, Francis Graham Hood and Florence M Taylor (Australia’s first qualified female architect) collaborated on plans for dozens of large-scale town planning projects to transform the city’s efficiency, most of which never eventuated.
One design was “the William Street three-avenue scheme, with sunken route through Park Street affording cross-city through traffic”.
Another design was for a network of roads and underpasses that would culminate in a double-storey roundabout at the intersection of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street. In the centre would be a control tower, with a traffic-free shopping area and reserve.
Hood and Taylor’s plan was first discussed in the city’s newspapers in 1939 and again in 1945, when detailed sketches also appeared. The two architects were clearly convinced of the plan’s merits. In 1946, Taylor wrote a lengthy and passionate argument in its favour for Construction magazine.
Other transport plans Hood and Talyor devised included “a surface express street from Martin Place to Watson’s Bay”. This would see traffic “vault” over Potts Point via an elevated roadway before passing over the water on two viaducts at Woolloomooloo and Rushcutters Bay. They also drew up plans for aerodromes, a re-visioned Circular Quay, plans to rid Broadway of traffic, and a technical college on the site of Darlinghurst Gaol.
4. The amazing tram network that was shut but then returned
Sydney used to have a thriving tram network, with up to 300km of tram lines and routes to many eastern suburbs locations. From Woolloomooloo to Watsons Bay, Bondi to Clovelly and Waverley to Coogee, there weren’t many places in Sydney’s east you couldn’t get to by tram.
It all ended in 1961, however, when the last tram famously returned to the Randwick Workshops.
But what’s old is finally new again. The most recent transport upgrade for our area was when the light rail opened to Randwick in 2019, then to Kingsford in 2020, bringing greater connectivity to these eastern suburbs. Previous state governments had explored the possibility of extending the light rail to Maroubra Junction, Malabar and La Perouse, but no plans are set in stone – at least not yet.
Read more in our article about the lost tram lines of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs
5. Will the Metro ever come to Sydney’s East?
Finally, many people wonder if the much acclaimed Metro will ever come to the Eastern Suburbs.
Unfortunately, as of 2025, there are no plans for an eastern Metro line. However, there is a line to La Perouse and Kogarah dotted on an official map of future extensions, marked “future metro (subject to further investigation)”.
A 2020 government document that showed a new Metro line would run from the city through Kensington and Randwick, Eastgardens, Maroubra, Malabar, Hillsdale, Little Bay and finally La Perouse, and could have been open by 2041.
Over the following decade to 2056 a proposed Randwick interchange would potentially let passengers travel on a separate line to Eastlakes, Mascot, the Airport and Kogarah.
While none of this is confirmed, the government and local councils have lobbied for an eastern extension to the forthcoming Metro West line, which would take it as far east as Zetland.
Want more?
If you’re looking to buy or sell in Potts Point or Sydney’s eastern suburbs contact my team today.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
