The phantom station is Oatley, where at least five trains travelling from the Illawarra stop each weekday morning – even though that stop does not appear on the official CityRail South Coast timetable – either in the printed or online version.

Transport for NSW has said this is ‘‘due to the small number of South Coast services stopping at this station and very low demand for South Coast customers travelling to this station’’.

There have been a number of voices on the South Coast suggesting an extra stop in the northern suburbs would alleviate the parking congestion around hub station Helensburgh.

The station at Austinmer is the station put forward for that extra stop, in part because it boasts a substantial car park that is largely unused. However, a Transport for NSW spokeswoman said removing the Oatley stop and replacing it with Austinmer – even for some of those morning services – was not an option.

‘‘South Coast line intercity services enter the suburban network at Waterfall and share tracks with Waterfall and Cronulla city-bound services from Sutherland,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘As such, replacing the Oatley stop with one at Austinmer is not possible without increasing journey times for South Coast customers further down the line.’’

The spokeswoman said the purpose of this phantom stop was to ‘‘better balance suburban capacity requirements’’.

‘‘This provides extra services for Oatley customers and reduces demand on services from Cronulla,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘Demand for train services across the network is closely monitored and we’ll continue to make improvements where necessary, such as the recent increase of carriages for the 4.24pm afternoon service and the introduction of a new Coniston to Thirroul morning peak service for South Coast customers that connects with a service to the city,’’ she said.