Hunter Line

The Hunter Line is a NSW TrainLink passenger train service that operates from Newcastle 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 Newcastle 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 Hunter Line shares its portion of the Main Northern Line with North Western regional services.

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 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 Newcastle and Telarah, with infrequent services to Dungog, Muswellbrook and Scone. 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. 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. It was extended to Newcastle Interchange when this opened on 15 October 2017.

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