Owned by RailCorp Line(s) South Coast Address Dapto NSW 2530, Australia Owner RailCorp | Operated by NSW TrainLink Distance 95.047 km from Central Opened 9 January 1887 Architectural style Victorian architecture | |
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Location Station Street, Dapto
New South Wales
Australia Platforms 1 (side), 536 m, built 1993
2 (side), 329 m, built 1887
3 (dock), 191 m, built 1993 Similar Albion Park railway station, Kembla Grange railway st, Oak Flats railway station, Wollongong railway station, Unanderra railway station | ||
Dapto is an intercity train station located in Dapto, 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 operates connecting bus services from the station to Horsley, Shellharbour and Wollongong. Under contract to NSW TrainLink, Roadcoach operates a connecting coach service to meet Canberra Xplorer trains at Moss Vale Station.
The railway from Clifton to North Kiama, opened in 1887, passed through the sparsely-settled rural district of Dapto. Although the station was built some distance south of the existing village centre (that area, now called Brownsville, was considered too swampy) the platform building was significantly larger than any other south of Wollongong – of a scale usually reserved for medium-sized country towns. The commercial centre of Dapto duly migrated south to be nearer the station.
The approach to the platform building from Station Street is via a circular driveway through Hartigan Park, planted with brush box and Canary Island date palm. (Today, the park also contains Korean and Vietnam war memorials.)
Entry is via a gabled entry porch flanked by small verandahs. The building is made of weatherboard, with a complex, gabled roof clad in corrugated steel. The building was renovated in the 1920s and again in 1970. The original toilet block was replaced with the current blond-brick structure in 1971.
Dapto served as the interchange point between diesel multiple units to Bomaderry and electric multiple units to Wollongong and Sydney from 1993 until the Kiama electrification in 2001. To accommodate the interchange, a new platform 1 was built on the western side of the station, and a new dock platform (3) was added to the northern end of the main platform, which was renumbered platform 2. Access between platforms 1 and 2 is via the Bong Bong Road level crossing on the southern end of the platforms. Additional minor upgrades were completed in 2013 and 2014.
In 2014, electronic ticketing in the form of the Opal smart card became available at the station.
In 2014, the railway station was featured in the first episode of an online animated series called Damo and Darren where the two main characters argue over a lighter.