Granville Station, Go Easy on the Garlic Sauce

As a regular commuter living in Guildford, commuting to the University of Western Sydney, I often experience a wait of approximately 10-15 minutes at Granville Station, during the morning or afternoon peak.On weekends if travelling to or from the city, often the wait between trains can be as long as half an hour.

Its ironic, but sometimes due to trackwork on the weekends, its actually far easier for me to travel to Parramatta Station as the Cumberland Line (Campbelltown to Blacktown - not passing through Granville) is in operation. Unfortunately the $13Million dollar (1991 dollars) Y-Link was built to service Western Sydney and now operates only 5 times a day.

Granville is the place where I and many others do a lot of waiting. Waiting for a train is not always pleasant at Granville. Often the physical environment is grey and old, it could do with a bit of brightening up. Security has improved over the years, which is good to see. The sight of five or so transit officers intimidating persons of interest (potential fare evaders) does not make me feel very secure...these people are usually sitting on the floor until they are dealt with... and what happens to them... people glance and try to not get involved, unless there is shouting.

Platform 4, needs perhaps a facelift (perhaps emphasising the heritage of Granville) and perhaps some painting or artwork to brighten it up. The waiting room is fairly bland - I wonder if there was an opportunity to improve this space - maybe even a tv or book swap place? Perhaps make it a connected space to the recently renovated cafe and open it up so that people could meet and talk whilst waiting for the train or even have some music there?Here is a poem I have written about Granville Station....



Granville Station, Go Easy on the Garlic Sauce


Connections, connecting to where I want to go

Hurry up to wait: platform 2 or 4?

Express train and freight trains,

Smell of the city, smell of charcoal chicken;


Go easy on the garlic sauce, it tastes good now, but keep it to yourself.

The subway on the corner & Bikes chained to the rails

Don’t park your bike here.... or anywhere.


A sense of place, a sense of time and tragedy

The Bold Street Bridge memorial

A day of roses every year


Trackwork,

Cumberland line in operation on the weekend

Customer Notice: buses replacing trains

"Alllow extra time for waiting"