St James station opened on 20 December 1926 with the opening of the eastern city line from Central. For the first 30 years, St James station was used as a terminating station for the Bankstown, East Hills and Illawarra lines. As a terminating station, St James was equipped with a small signal box and two dead end sidings, located in the tunnel stub at the north end of the station. The St James signal box, equipped with pistol grips, was the smallest such box in New South Wales. Trains arriving at St James would disembark passengers on one of the outer platforms, then the train would move to a siding and reverse direction, coming out at the opposite outer platform. During non-peak hours the driver would simply move to the other end of the train while the train was on the siding. During peak hours the train would take on a second driver in the last car while at the platform, then proceed to one of the sidings, where the drivers would exchange control of the train.