Granville Rail Disaster, 18 January 1977
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Packed with peak hour commuters on the morning of the 18th January 1977, the 6:02am train traveling from Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to Sydney city derailed just beyond Granville station. The runaway carriages crashed into the steel supports of the Bold Street bridge which crossed the train line above resulting in the heavy concrete bridge to fall onto the carriages below.
Claiming 283 lives and severely injuring over 200 other survivors, this tragedy was the worst rail accident in Australian history. Significantly, the flaws in the rail transport bureaucracy that allowed such an incident to occur were overhauled, with government funding to support rail safety and maintenance procedure increasing dramatically. Today a memorial park and monument honouoring those who died in the tragedy sits adjacent to the station.
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