The former Eveleigh Railway Workshops worked on both sides of the railway corridor and there were a number of connections across the railway corridor. In this section we explore the historical connections and the more recent attempts to deliver improved connectivity between North and South Eveleigh.
The primary link was located just west of the Redfern Station platforms, joining the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s buildings near the Little Eveleigh Street gate with the Locomotive Workshops on the southern side of the rail corridor. Constructed in 1914, this footbridge spanned approximately 150 metres, connecting the northern and southern sections of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops and providing access to the southern ends of the Redfern Station platforms. This exit was used by students and staff of Sydney University until it was demolished in 1996. There was also a tunnel that led directly from Platform 10 into South Eveleigh.
One of the two connections across the corridor proposed in the Redfern-Waterloo Built Environment Plan (Stage One) in 2006 was to replace this earlier connection. While design work was undertaken for this bridge in 2008 it did not proceed. While the bridge allowed movement from North to South Eveleigh it did not connect to Redfern Station where plans were being considered for a station redevelopment.
The station upgrade stalled and a long Lift Redfern community campaign followed which resulted in one lift being delivered as a down payment on a full accessibility upgrade. This campaign including the collection of over 11,500 signatures on a petition presented to the Premier and a debate in Parliament.
The Redfern Station Southern Concourse was an accessibility upgrade but it did not provide lifts to platforms 11 and 12. Given the narrow platforms at Redfern the concourse does not link from North to South Eveleigh as proposed by the Redfern Waterloo Authority and is to the north east of the original crossing.
The community fought hard to try and get a public concourse included in the build. In the end Redfern’s Southern Concourse got a “Community Access” gate to allow the community to use the railway concourse without a ticket.
The concourse is closed when trains are not running. When open the concourse saves the 5 minutes it takes to walk around the station via Lawson Street. Transport for NSW argued that the southern concourse addressed the connectivity problem and that another crossing is not required.
In the middle of the former workshops site, behind Carriageworks, there is a pedestrian tunnel that was used by workers to cross the main railway corridor but it does not go all the way across the current railway corridor. It is probably the same tunnel that was used early in the life of the Railway workshops to move goods from one side to the other.
A smaller footbridge near the Paint Shop is visible in aerial photographs from 1942, however it no longer exists and again did not go all the way to the Locomotive workshops. This was less an issue when the workshops were functioning as workers could negotiate the maintenance lines.
It was in the area between the Paint Shop and Carriageworks that a new bridge was proposed in 2006 at a cost of $6 million to deliver on an NSW Government 2004 promise to build a bridge. A bridge at this location was also shown on the Redfern-Waterloo Built Environment Plan (Stage One) in 2006. While funds were collected from developers for this bridge and funding commitments were made by the Australian Technology Park it never progressed past a scoping report. Opposition by the rail operator over construction difficulties saw work move to the shorter eastern bridge.
In 2023 the planning for the North Eveleigh site reserved a site next to the Paint Shop for a future bridge but said it was not part of the proposal to redevelop the site. This is the site that the Eveleigh Alliance’s Build the Bridge Campaign wants to see built.
In late 2025 the Eveleigh Bridge Alliance made a GIPA request for studies about the feasibility of a bridge in this location. The documents released showed that in June 2025 Transport for NSW undertook an Optioneering Report that arrived at a preferred location for a bridge and a preferred method of build. The preferred location is between Carriageworks and the Paintshop on North Eveleigh and between the Locomotive workshop and the Large Erecting Shop on South Eveleigh. Transport did not release costings but argue that there is not sufficient benefit to justify the high cost.
A Third crossing point for workers was at the Newtown end of North Eveleigh in the Clothing Store Precinct. This bridge spanned the main western lines and then the Southern lines with another bridge further to the south when the Alexandria Goods Shed was in existence. The possibility of a crossing here was floated by Government in 2015 as part of planning for the Clothing Store precinct. The main concern was to see if it was possible to better connect this part of North Eveleigh to Macdonaldtown Station. Nothing eventuated from these discussions and the new residents of the Clothing Store precincts will need to negotiate the height difference to Pines Estate and walk through Pines Estate and then negotiate the Macdonaldtown stairs to access their nearest station.
At about 1.7km or 23 minutes walking time, the residents of Pines Estate Newtown are the people furthest away from the landing point of the proposed bridge in South Eveleigh. Also with a similar walk to get across the corridor to Carriageworks are the inhabitants of Explorer Street public housing or those that will reside in the redevelopment proposed on this southern site.
In Premier Bob Carr’s media release of 26 October 2004 announcing the establishment of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority (extract above), the NSW Labor Government said the Redfern-Waterloo Plan would see “A new pedestrian and bicycle bridge to link the Australian Technology Park with North Eveleigh”. This was only one part of what the community was supposed to get for the NSW Government redeveloping the one third of Redfern-Waterloo area that it owned. Little of the supposed community benefit promised was ever delivered.
In 2006 the final Built Environment Plan (Stage One) of August 2006 showed the two potential Pedestrian and Cycle Bridges that Government proposed to deliver (see above). The Authorities Contribution plan also collected development contributions for a number of items including a pedestrian and cycle bridge.
