Hunter Line

Hunter Line

NSW TrainLink Hunter railcar at Victoria Street.
Overview
Service type	Intercity rail
Locale	Hunter Region, New South Wales
Current operator(s)	NSW TrainLink
Route
Start	Hamilton
Stops	28
End	Scone, Dungog
Line used	Newcastle Main Northern North Coast
Technical
Rolling stock	Endeavour & Hunter & railcars
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Track owner(s)	RailCorp
Transport for NSW rail services Sydney Trains North Shore, Northern & Western Airport, Inner West & South Bankstown Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Cumberland Carlingford Olympic Park NSW TrainLink Blue Mountains Central Coast & Newcastle Hunter South Coast Southern Highlands

The Hunter Line is a NSW TrainLink passenger train service that operates from Hamilton to Dungog and Scone in the New South Wales Hunter Region. It operates on the Newcastle, Main North and North Coast lines.

History and features

Hunter Line services operate from Hamilton station on the Newcastle branch line to Islington Junction, the Main North line between Islington Junction and Scone, the North Coast line between Maitland and Dungog.

The Main North line, formerly known as the Great Northern Railway (GNR), was the original mainline between Sydney and Brisbane. This line, which ran via Armidale and required a change of train due to the break-of-gauge at Wallangarra, was opened to East Maitland in 1857^[1] and Maitland in 1858. It reached Singleton in 1863, Muswellbrook in 1869, and Scone in 1871.

The GNR was then extended beyond Scone to West Tamworth in 1878, Armidale in 1883, and reached the Queensland border at Wallangarra in 1888. The North Coast line to Brisbane, via the North Coast was opened in stages between 1905 and 1930, but a ferry carried trains across the Clarence River until the Grafton Bridge was completed in 1932. The Newcastle rail network remained independent of the main network radiating from Sydney until 1889, when the line between Sydney and Newcastle was completed with the opening of the Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge. Thus Newcastle was connected by rail with Wallangarra before it was connected with Sydney, such was the difficulty and expense of reaching and bridging the Hawkesbury River.

Between Islington Junction and Maitland, there is a four track section where the line runs parallel to the Newcastle coal lines, which serve a number of collieries along the route.

Services

Services run regularly between Hamilton and Telarah, with infrequent services to Dungog, Muswellbrook and Scone.^[2] Services are operated by Endeavour and Hunter railcars.

Until 2007, 620/720 class railcars operated the service. The line was the last in Australia to have a regular steam hauled passenger service. The final service was hauled from Newcastle to Singleton on 24 July 1971 by 3246.^[3] Diesel locomotive hauled services operated until replaced by 620/720 and 660/760 class railcars in 1984.

The line was truncated to terminate at Hamilton from 5 January 2015.^[4] It is to be extended to Wickham Transport Interchange when this opens.

Trains that service the line have two carriages, while some peak hour services have four carriages. There are no quiet carriages on these trains.

Stations

Name of Station	Code	Serving Suburbs	Pattern stops at this station							Connections
Hunter Lines
Hamilton	HMN	Hamilton, Islington, Tighes Hill								■ Central Coast & Newcastle Line
Waratah	WTH	Waratah, Georgetown, Mayfield, Mayfield East
Warabrook (University)	WBK	Warabrook, Callaghan
Sandgate	SDG	Sandgate
Hexham	HXM	Hexham
Tarro	TRJ	Tarro
Beresfield	BLD	Beresfield, Woodberry
Thornton	THO	Thornton
Metford	MFD	Metford
Victoria Street	VST	East Maitland
East Maitland	EAM	East Maitland, Pitnacree, Tenambit
High Street	HGH	South Maitland, Maitland
Maitland	MTL	Maitland
Telarah	TLR	Telarah, Rutherford
Mindaribba	MNB	Mindaribba
Paterson	PTR	Paterson
Martins Creek	MCR	Martins Creek
Hilldale	HIL	Hilldale
Wallarobba	WLB	Wallarobba
Wirragulla	WGL	Wirragulla
Dungog	DGG	Dungog
Lochinvar	LCV	Lochinvar
Greta	GTA	Greta, North Rothbury
Branxton	BNX	Branxton, East Branxton
Singleton	SIX	Singleton
Muswellbrook	MBK	Muswellbrook
Aberdeen	ADM	Aberdeen
Scone	NSO	Scone

All stations on this line are within MyMulti zone 3. Stations between Newcastle and Telarah are also within the Green Newcastle TravelPass zone, which remained available until 20 November 2014, despite the replacement of the Sydney TravelPass system with the MyMulti ticket. It was withdrawn in conjunction with the Newcastle Buses & Ferries Opal card rollout.^[5]

Stopping patterns

• Pattern 1: Hamilton, all to Telarah and vice versa (peak and off-peak).
• Pattern 2: Hamilton, all to Warabrook, then Beresfield, Thornton, Metford, Victoria Street, Maitland and Telarah and vice versa (peak and off-peak – weekdays only).
• Pattern 3: Hamilton all to Maitland and vice versa (one afternoon off-peak service on weekdays, two services on weekends).
• Pattern 4: Hamilton, all to Warabrook, then Beresfield, Thornton, Metford, Victoria Street, Maitland, Telarah, Paterson and all stations to Dungog and vice versa (peak and off-peak, 5 services a day on weekdays, 3 services a day on Saturdays, 2 services a day on Sundays).
• Pattern 5: Hamilton, all to Warabrook, then Beresfield, Thornton, Metford, Victoria Street, Maitland, and all stations to Scone and vice versa (peak and off-peak, 2 services (1 afternoon peak hour, 1 evening peak hour) on weekdays, 1 evening service on weekends).
• Pattern 6: Hamilton, all to Scone and vice versa (1 early morning service on weekdays and weekends).
• Pattern 7: Hamilton, all to Warabrook, then Beresfield, Thornton, Metford, Victoria Street, Maitland and all stations to Muswellbrook and vice versa (one mid-morning off-peak service on weekdays only).

References

1. "The Great Northern Railway Newcastle to Maitland 150 Years On", Walters, Chris Australian Railway History March 2007 pp83-113
2. "Hunter line timetable" (PDF). NSW Trainlink. 18 April 2015.
3. Inquiry in Planning Process in Newcastle and the Broader Hunter Region NSW Parliament 23 October 2014
4. Upcoming transport changes in Newcastle Transport Info NSW 8 December 2014
5. Getting on with modernising public transport as 11 paper tickets in Newcastle retired Transport for NSW 31 October 2014