The longest escalators in the Southern Hemisphere descend an incredible 45 metres beneath Central Station to the city’s new underground platforms, but the escalators on the other side of Central Station, near Railway Square, are where the biggest excitement comes from.
Since 2023, the two escalators that take people from the Haymarket side of Broadway across Henry Deane Plaza to Central Station have been out of service. And years before that, they were mocked, vandalized, and left in a near-dilapidated state.
One of two out-of-service escalators at the station square, with the main station in the background.Credit: Rhett Wyman
It took so long to sort out the situation that local resident Alison Davey ran for Sydney City Council, arguing that despite living in the area for years, she had rarely seen people move.
“I see people every day trying to carry strollers and suitcases up. There’s no small slope you can walk up. They just drag themselves up, it’s not easy because there are no stairs,” Davey said.
However, they could be put back into service after the City of Sydney signed a contract to replace the outdated escalators and elevators following months of negotiations.
However, this work will not begin until “the beginning of next year,” said a city council spokesman, because “the procurement and delivery of new elevators takes time.”
“Instead of continuing to repair the aging infrastructure, we issued an open tender for the replacement of all elevators and escalators, which represented the best value for money for the city and its residents,” the councillor said.
Davey, who is running alongside independent councillor Yvonne Weldon in the council elections in September, had highlighted the condition of the escalators at the start of the campaign as a symbol of the council’s neglect of the city’s maintenance.
