Owned by RailCorp Platforms 1, 196 metres Address Bombo NSW 2533, Australia Owner RailCorp | Line(s) South Coast Train operators NSW TrainLink Opened 9 November 1887 Tracks 3 | |
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Location Princes Highway, Bombo
New South Wales
Australia Distance 117.551 km from Central Similar Gerringong railway station, Kiama railway station, Port Kembla North rail, Scarborough railway station - N, Coalcliff railway station | ||
Bombo is a single-platform intercity train station located in Bombo, New South Wales, Australia, on the South Coast railway line. The station serves NSW TrainLink trains travelling south to Kiama and north to Wollongong and Sydney. Premier Illawarra services to Kiama and Shellharbour stop near the station. Bombo Station is listed on the state heritage register and is reputedly the closest railway station in Australia to the sea.
Bombo Station opened as the temporary South Coast Line terminus in late 1887 under the name "North Kiama". The town of Kiama, situated among fingers of hard basaltic rock running down from Saddleback Mountain to the sea, presented something of a barrier to the railway's progress further south. Over the course of the next six years, engineers and workers from the firm of W. Monie & J. Angus worked to excavate the five tunnels required to bring the line through Kiama and onto the coastal plain beyond. North Kiama Station lost its terminal status in 1893 and declined in importance, losing its locomotive turntable to Kiama four years later.
Though it no longer served the town proper, the station and yard remained important to the NSW Government Railways' basalt quarry at nearby Bombo Point, where mining had started in 1880. The station was renamed Bombo in 1907; a signal box was built in 1925 to assist in handling the trains laden with railway ballast and road aggregate. The station yard retains a 523-metre passing loop and 159-metre down siding.
Recent developments
The line from Dapto to Kiama was electrified on 17 November 2001, allowing electric multiple unit trains to run between Sydney and Bombo; the signal box was decommissioned around the same time. In 2009, the station became unattended following a network-wide review of low-patronage stations. In 2014, electronic ticketing in the form of the Opal smart card became available at the station.
Being sandwiched between Bombo Beach on one side and the six-lane Princes Highway on the other, and with only the quarries and a cemetery opposite, the station has a limited walking catchment and very low patronage (3,374 passenger movements in 2014). Critics have suggested that trains no longer stop at Bombo, arguing for a new station to the north in the centre of Kiama Downs. This proposal has not progressed, however.