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Railway line in New South Wales, Australia
the railway line between Sydney and [[Bomaderry, New South Wales

The South Coast Railway (also known as the Illawarra Railway) is a commuter and goods railway line from Sydney to Wollongong and Bomaderry in New South Wales, Australia. Beginning at the Illawarra Junction, the line services the Illawarra and South Coast regions of New South Wales. Opening in segments between 1884 and 1893, the South Coast railway line was built primarily to service the Coal Cliff Colliery, in which colonial government ministers and legislators were shareholders and as an economic link between the Illawarra and Sydney. It later connected the later industrial works at Port Kembla to the greater metropolitan freight railway network in Sydney. The line also serves as a public transport link for residents in St George, Sutherland and the Illawarra. The 56 station, line is owned by the NSW government's Transport Asset Holding Entity, with passenger services on the line provided by Sydney Trains' Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line service in suburban Sydney and by NSW TrainLink's South Coast Line service in the Illawarra.

The Government undertook no further surveys until 1880, when a new route was approved. This route originated near the inner city locality of Macdonaldtown and ran to Kiama via the locality of "Bottle Forest", a distance of The route selected comprises the present day route, although minor deviations were made between Waterfall and Coal Cliff between 1915 and 1920. On 6 April 1881, Governor Augustus Loftus assented to Act 44 Vic. No. 28, which provided £1,020,000 for the construction of this railway, and proposed that the first section of , constituting approximately the present suburban route, be completed by 30 September 1884. Almost immediately, concerns were raised about the new route's viability, most specifically over the cost of tunnelling between Waterfall and Otford to reach Wollongong. Construction of the various sections was awarded by tender and commenced in October 1882. The missing Waterfall to Clifton section comprised four large brick arch culverts (and many small ones) and eight tunnels with a total length of over , delaying its opening until 1888. This arrangement remained in place for many decades, causing a notorious bottleneck on the line, until the New South Wales Government commissioned John Holland & Co to build a new bridge in 1969. Construction of the new bridge, made of prestressed concrete box girders, commenced in 1969 and was first used by the 18:17 service from Como on 19 November 1972. The old bridge, as well as a former alignment of the line between Mortdale and Oatley replaced in 1905, is now used as a rail trail for pedestrians and cyclists. Duplicated track now continues to Unanderra, except for the section through the Clifton Tunnel.

The Bankstown line was initially opened as a branch line from the Illawarra Line to Belmore Station in February 1895, although it was soon extended through to Sefton to the Main South line on 16 July 1928.

The East Hills Line was first recommended to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works in 1916, as an alternative route when the Bankstown Line was being constructed, the line opened to Kingsgrove on 21 September 1931, and to East Hills three months later on 21 December 1931. It was connected to the Main Southern line near Glenfield station on 21 December 1987. The East Hills line experienced a major change in 2000 when the Airport line opened. This saw most East Hills trains using the new line to access the city, providing relief to the section of the Illawarra line between Sydenham and the city.

A single track tramway line between Sutherland and Cronulla, with four stations and a goods siding, opened on 12 June 1911. By 1932 the tramway had closed. Competing bus services had begun to run with unrestricted competition, and the tram line by this time was so full with services that trams often ran late due to holdups at the crossing loops and passengers missed their connections at Sutherland. The line suffered large losses in its later years, and the effect of the Great Depression at the time forced it to cease its services, the last passenger service operating on 3 August 1931. The goods service continued until 12 January of the next year. Although the closure of the tramway allowed planning to go ahead for a railway, the planning for the replacement railway line suffered various delays in the 1930s due to funding issues: the line's construction competed with a proposal to electrify the Illawarra Line to Waterfall, and there were disputes over the point at which the line would connect to the main line. Two early proposals to join the line at Como and north of Sutherland station were rejected. Local residents were also concerned that the railway would increase Council rates in the Cronulla area. Despite the delays, Parliament finally gave approval to the line on 2 March 1936, and a route with five new stations was surveyed that would connect with the main line at the southern side of Sutherland station. The new line was opened on 16 December 1939 by the Governor, Baron Wakehurst at a large ceremony at Cronulla station. Although a crossing loop was installed at Caringbah and Gymea when the line was opened, the single track line prevented the expansion of services to the Cronulla peninsula, and so in the 1980s it was decided to duplicate a 3.5 kilometre section of the line between Gymea and Caringbah, with Gymea, Miranda and Caringbah all receiving island platforms. The new section was opened on 15 July 1985. In the 2000s, the remaining single track sections were duplicated. These opened on 19 April 2010.

In 1897, land was set aside near Sutherland Station for a denominational cemetery; it was an alternative to a site at Kurnell, which would have required a long branch line. A single track line long was constructed next to the station and opened on 13 June 1900. A single platform and a loop for engines were included. The first funeral had taken place earlier that year, with the casket arriving by train from Mortuary station in the city. Due to the advent of the motor car and motorised funerals, funerals by train became rare, and the line eventually closed on 23 May 1947, with no funeral having taken place for some years beforehand. The line and platform were subsequently demolished and removed, and no remains, apart from the original formation coming from the main line, are visible today. In 1886 the need for a training ground for the New South Wales infantrymen, riflemen and artillery, prompted the construction of a short branch line into the National Park. It opened on 9 March 1886 along with the extension of the Illawarra Line from Sutherland to Waterfall, and first served passengers at an army camp open day around a month later. The station featured a single station, originally called Loftus, with two terminal roads, several goods sidings and a loading bank to cope with the heavy artillery equipment. but when passenger services were temporarily suspended in 1991 due to signalling problems on the branch, CityRail and the State Government decided to close the branch altogether, citing the lack of passengers. Although the branch lay dormant for some time, Parliamentary approval was subsequently given to the Sydney Tramway Museum to operate the line. The Museum converted the branch to light rail standards in order to run their trams on it, and the line was reopened on 1 May 1993,

At Coniston, an electrified branch line proceeds east to Port Kembla with three intermediate stations. The line is double track as far as just west of Port Kembla North and is used by freight trains as well as local passenger services. A stabling yard is provided at Port Kembla for overnight storage of electric trains. While the railway network at Port Kembla was built in 1916, stations and passenger trains servicing the surrounding suburbs did not operate until 5 January 1920, when the Port Kembla railway station was opened. A station at was added to the Port Kembla commuter branch in 1926, along with one at , a decade later, in 1936. A railway station for workers at Port Kembla, named , after the nearby Lysaght steel plant, was also opened in 1938.

The South Coast line passenger services currently consist of electric double deck multiple unit trains that operate between Bondi Junction or Central and either Wollongong, Kiama or Port Kembla. Diesel shuttle trains connect at Kiama and operate to Bomaderry. Although electrified to Wollongong in 1985, several diesel trains operated between Sydney and Nowra until 1991, one of which was the South Coast Daylight Express, operated as a locomotive hauled train of Budd and Tulloch type passenger cars which included catering facilities. Freight traffic usually operates only to the junction with the Metropolitan line at Tempe. A large amount of coal and a lesser amount of other freight are transported by rail on the line daily to and from Port Kembla, although freight trains are restricted from using the suburban lines during peak hours. South of Unanderra, freight trains serve the ballast quarries at Dunmore and Bombo while the only freight trains south of Bombo are to the Manildra Group's Bomaderry starch plant. As at October 2016, all services were operated by Pacific National. The only active coal mine on the line is served by a siding south of Otford. Most other coal trains come from the Gwabegar line in the state's Central West.