Thornton is a suburb in the City of Maitland

City of Maitland

The City of Maitland is a Local Government Area in the Lower Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the New England Highway and CityRail's Hunter line.-Demographics:...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It has a station

Thornton railway station, New South Wales

-Transport links:Hunter Valley Buses runs one route to and from Thornton railway station:*Route 186 - to Greenhill Shops-Neighbouring stations:-References:...

 (opened in 1871) on CityRail

CityRail

CityRail is an operating brand of RailCorp, a corporation owned by the state government of New South Wales, Australia. It is responsible for providing commuter rail services, and some coach services, in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities of New South Wales. It is...

's Hunter line

Hunter railway line, New South Wales

The Hunter railway line is a regional railway line which is part of Sydney's CityRail network. The line runs from the central business district of Newcastle, on the coast, northwest to Scone and Dungog in the Hunter Valley area....

. It is about 1 km north of the New England Highway

New England Highway

The New England Highway is a highway in Australia running from Hexham near Newcastle at its southern end to Yarraman near Toowoomba at its northern end. At its southern end it connects to the Pacific Highway and at its northern end it connects to the D'Aguilar Highway. It traverses the Hunter...

.

Post code 2322, including Thornton, Beresfield

Beresfield, New South Wales

Beresfield is a north-western suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located from Newcastle's central business district. It is part of the City of Newcastle local government area.The suburb of Beresfield had a population of 3,118 in 2006....

, Tarro

Tarro, New South Wales

Tarro is a north-western suburb of the Newcastle City Council Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It, and parts of nearby Beresfield, was originally known as Upper Hexham, 'lower' Hexham being an older settlement located about to the east on the Hunter River...

 and Hexham

Hexham, New South Wales

Hexham is a suburb of the city of Newcastle, about inland from Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia on the bank of the Hunter River.Settlement occurred at Hexham in the 1820s when the land was granted to Edward Sparke...

, had a population of 14,654 in 2001.

A new industrial estate and increased residential subdivisions have resulted in the RTA planning a major upgrade to the Weakleys Drive intersection, which was completed as of December 2008. DBT (Australia) opened their new complex here in December 2006.

Transport

Thornton is the junction for a colliery branch line leading to the Bloomfield Coal Loop, a balloon loop

Balloon loop

A balloon loop or turning loop allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or even stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains, such as coal trains....

.