The Craigieburn line is a
commuter rail
Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...
way line in the city of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
.
Operated by
Metro Trains Melbourne
Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the operator and brand name of train services on the electrified metropolitan rail network serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest urban rail network in Au ...
, it is the city's seventh shortest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from
Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to
Craigieburn station in the north, serving 21 stations via
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...
,
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
United Kin ...
, and
Broadmeadows. The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24 hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hour,
headway
Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
s of up to 5 minutes are operated with services every 20–30 minutes during off-peak hours.
Trains on the Craigieburn line run with a two three-car formations of
Comeng or
Siemens Nexas
The Siemens Nexas is a class of electric multiple units manufactured by Siemens Transportation Systems for the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia between 2002 and 2005. The design of the trains was based on the Siemens Modular ...
trainsets.
Services on the line began from
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...
to
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
United Kin ...
by the
Melbourne & Essendon Railway Company
The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company was formed in 1858 and was authorised by the Victorian Parliament to build a railway line from North Melbourne to Essendon. The single track railway was opened in October 1860. The company immediately com ...
in November 1860. It was closed shortly after, however, the
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
reopened the
Flemington Racecourse line (including the Essendon line as far as Newmarket) in November 1867, and in January 1871, to Essendon.
The line was progressively electrified and, in 1921, the line was electrified to Broadmeadows, where it remained until the extension of electrification in 2007.
Since the 2000s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Craigieburn line, improvements and upgrades have been made. Works have included replacing
sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, the extension of the line to Craigieburn, the construction of new stations, the removal of level crossings, the introduction of new rolling stock, and station accessibility upgrades.
History
19th century
The line from
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...
to
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
United Kin ...
was opened by the
Melbourne & Essendon Railway Company
The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company was formed in 1858 and was authorised by the Victorian Parliament to build a railway line from North Melbourne to Essendon. The single track railway was opened in October 1860. The company immediately com ...
in November 1860.
Soon after, the company opened a
branch
A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins.
History and etymology
In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...
from Newmarket to
Flemington Racecourse
Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is the world's richest handicap and the world's richest 3200-metre horse race. The race ...
.
Both lines were closed shortly after, in July 1864. The
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
reopened the
Flemington Racecourse line (including the Essendon line as far as Newmarket) in November 1867, and in January 1871, to Essendon. In April 1872, the line was extended to a temporary terminus outside
Seymour
Seymour may refer to:
Places Australia
*Seymour, Victoria, a township
** Seymour railway station
* Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria
* Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria
* Se ...
, awaiting completion of a
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
over the
Goulburn River
The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...
. In December 1894, through services were provided from Essendon to
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach ...
on the
Sandringham line.
20th century
Automatic Block Signalling was introduced on the line in 1918, with
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
to Essendon being converted in June of that year, and North Melbourne to Kensington in October. In May 1919,
Flinders Street to Essendon and the Sandringham line were the first lines to be electrified in Melbourne, apart from a test installation on the Flemington Racecourse line.
In 1921, the line was electrified to Broadmeadows, where it remained until the extension of electrification in 2007.
In January 1924, an extra pair of tracks, including a
flying junction
A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is "gr ...
, opened between North Melbourne and Kensington, enabling the separation of passenger and goods traffic in the busy section. Further works were carried out in 1929, when the double tracked
Albion–Jacana freight line opened, permitting
freight train
A freight train, also called a goods train or cargo train, is a railway train that is used to carry cargo, as opposed to passengers. Freight trains are made up of one or more locomotives which provide propulsion, along with one or more railroad ...
s to avoid the line via Essendon.
A branch line was opened during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
to Broadstore, designed to connect Broadmeadows station with the
Maygar Barracks. The line opened on 12 October 1942 and remaining in operation until 1982, when usage of the base began to cease.
Automatic Block Signalling was extended to Broadmeadows in November 1965.
21st century
In 2003,
an unmanned suburban train rolled the length of the line from
Broadmeadows station for nearly , eventually crashing into another stationary train at
Spencer Street station (now Southern Cross station). 11 people sustained minor injuries, however, nobody was seriously injured or killed from the accident.

On 30 September 2007, electrification of the Broadmeadows line was extended along the regional V/Line tracks to Craigieburn. The Craigieburn rail project delivered projects including:
* Upgrading
Craigieburn station to premium station status
* A new station at
Roxburgh Park
* New train stabling facilities at Craigieburn
* Construction of overhead wiring system with new sub-stations
* Installation of new signalling systems along the Broadmeadows—Craigieburn corridor
* The provision for a new station at
Coolaroo
Coolaroo is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume local government area. Coolaroo recorded a population of 3,193 at the 2021 census.
History
Coolaroo is ...
(this ended up being built under another government)
The Craigieburn Rail project started construction in May 2005 and was completed in late September 2007. An additional set of projects were delivered later on, with a new station at Coolaroo opened in 2010 and the construction of a fully-fledged train maintenance facility under the
Brumby government.
On 9 April 2012, a train maintenance facility, located north of the station, was opened by then Minister for Public Transport,
Terry Mulder
Terence Wynn Mulder (born 16 August 1952) is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2015, representing the Colac-based electorate of Polwarth. He served as Minister for Pub ...
. With the delivery of the new
X'Trapolis 2.0 fleet, the facility will be used by Metro Trains Melbourne to maintain the fleet, with upgrades underway to house the trains. This, in turn, will lead to the X'Trapolis 2.0 trains replacing the ageing Comeng fleet which served the Craigieburn line. No major projects, other than the level crossing removals on the Craigieburn line, have been announced since.
Level Crossing Removals

The
Level Crossing Removal Project
The Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) is an infrastructure upgrade project by the Government of Victoria, Australia, to remove and grade-separate 110 level crossings and to rebuild 51 railway stations on the metropolitan and regional r ...
announced the removal of 2 level crossings on the line, which were completed in stages between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, one level crossing was removed at Buckley Street,
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
United Kin ...
. The crossing was removed by lowering the road line underneath the rail line. The second crossing to be removed was the one at Glenroy Road,
Glenroy, by lowering the rail line underneath the road.
In addition,
Glenroy station
Glenroy Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia.
It is situated approximately north of Fitzroy Crossing and east of Derby in the Kimberley region.
History
The property was established in the ear ...
was rebuilt with a modern, wheelchair accessible, lowered design. As a result of these removals, the Craigieburn line now has a number of remaining crossings on the corridor that have not been slated for removal since the project's announcement.
Future
Wallan extension
Highlighted in the
2018 Victorian Rail Plan, a proposal exists for the Craigieburn line to be connected to the
Upfield line, via the construction of a rail link along the Somerton rail corridor. In addition, the Upfield line would be extended to
Wallan
Wallan , traditionally known as Wallan Wallan (large circular place of water), is a town in Victoria, north of Melbourne's Central Business District. The town sits at the southern end of the large and diverse Shire of Mitchell which extends ...
. The 2018 Victorian Rail Plan has proposed the following projects take place as part of the Wallan extension:
In 2018, the government announced that a business case would be completed for to further investigate the positivity for these series of projects to commence.
A business case was completed, however, it was not released to the public. Since the business case in 2018, there has been little developments despite the 'Metro Tunnel Day One' milestone of the 2018 Plan fast approaching. Only a small amount of attention has been given by local residents, council, an action group and some political parties.
Network and operations
Services
Services on the Craigieburn line operates from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 daily.
In general, during peak hours, train frequency is 5–10 minutes in the AM peak on the Craigieburn line while during non-peak hours the frequency is reduced to 20–30 minutes throughout the entire route.
On Friday nights and weekends, services run 24 hours a day, with 60 minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.
Train services on the Craigieburn line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal works, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of works for affected commuters.
Stopping patterns
Legend — Station status
* ◼
Premium Station
The Melbourne rail network is a metropolitan Commuter rail, suburban and Rail freight transport, freight rail system serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan rail network is centred around th ...
– Station staffed from first to last train
* ◻
Host Station
The Melbourne rail network is a metropolitan suburban and freight rail system serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan rail network is centred around the Melbourne central business district (CBD) and consists of ...
– Usually staffed during morning peak, however this can vary for different stations on the network.
Legend — Stopping patterns
Some services do not operate via the City Loop
* ● – All trains stop
* ◐ – Some services do not stop
* ▼ – Only outbound trains stop
* , – Trains pass and do not stop
Operators
The Craigieburn line has had a total of 8 operators since its opening in 1860. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from the acquisition of the service from private operator the
Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company
The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company was formed in 1858 and was authorised by the Victorian Parliament to build a railway line from North Melbourne to Essendon. The single track railway was opened in October 1860. The company immediately com ...
in 1871 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators,
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
, the
Metropolitan Transit Authority Metropolitan Transit Authority may refer to:
* Metropolitan Transit Authority (Boston), succeeded by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
* Metropolitan Transit Authority (Victoria), Melbourne, Australia
* Erie Metropolitan Trans ...
, the
Public Transport Corporation
The Public Transport Corporation (PTC) was a Victoria State Government owned Public-benefit nonprofit corporation, statutory authority formed under the Transport Act 1983 which operated passenger and freight trains, trams and bus services.
The ...
, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 129 years.
Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1998 and later rebranded
M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with
KPMG
KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...
appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator
Connex Melbourne
Connex Melbourne was a train operator in Melbourne, Australia. Formed in July 1998 as Hillside Trains, a business unit of the Public Transport Corporation, it was privatised in August 1999 becoming a subsidiary of Veolia Transport, Connex.
In ...
took over the M>Train operations including the Frankston line.
Metro Trains Melbourne
Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the operator and brand name of train services on the electrified metropolitan rail network serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest urban rail network in Au ...
, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of years.
Route
The Craigieburn line forms a somewhat linear route from the
Melbourne central business district
The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...
to its terminus in Craigieburn. The route is long and is fully double tracked. The only underground section of the Craigieburn line is in the City Loop, where the service stops at 3 underground stations. Exiting the city, the line steadily rises after leaving North Melbourne until after Essendon, when it then drops slightly to cross Moonee Ponds Creek. Soon after the line encounters the Glenroy Bank, a continuous rising gradient of 1 in 50 for almost 3 kilometres (1.9 mi). After Glenroy, it continues to rise to the end of the suburban line (and beyond). Some sections of the line has been elevated or lowered into a
cutting
Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force.
Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the sca ...
to
eliminate level crossings. Despite some removals, there are a number of level crossings still present with no current plans to remove them.
The line follows the same alignment as multiple lines with the Craigieburn line splitting off at
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...
. The Craigieburn line continues on its north western alignment, whereas the other lines continue onto a northern, western, or south-western alignment.
Most of the rail line goes through
built-up suburbs and some industrial areas.
Stations
The line serves 21 stations across of track. The stations are a mix of elevated, lowered, underground, and ground level designs. Underground stations are present only in the City Loop, with the majority of elevated and lowered stations being constructed as part of level crossing removals.
Infrastructure
Rolling stock

The Craigieburn line uses two different types of
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...
(EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration. The primary rolling stock featured on the line is the
Comeng EMUs, built by
Commonwealth Engineering
Commonwealth Engineering, often shortened to Com-Eng, later known as Comeng was an Australian engineering company that designed and built railway locomotives, rolling stock and trams.
History
Smith and Waddington, the predecessor to Common ...
between 1981 and 1988. These train sets are the oldest on the Melbourne rail network and subsequently will be replaced by the mid 2030s. The second type of rolling stock is the
Siemens Nexas
The Siemens Nexas is a class of electric multiple units manufactured by Siemens Transportation Systems for the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia between 2002 and 2005. The design of the trains was based on the Siemens Modular ...
EMUs which are also widely featured on the line, originally built between 2002 and 2005, these train sets feature more modern technology than the Comeng trains.
Alongside the passenger trains, Craigieburn line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation.
Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by
V/Line
V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...
, Metro Trains, and the
Southern Shorthaul Railroad
Southern Shorthaul Railroad is an Australian rail freight services operator in New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The company also provides workshop services, such as rolling stock manufacturing and wagon and locomotive mainte ...
.
Planned rolling stock
From late 2025 or early 2026, the next generation of the X'Trapolis family of electric EMUs—the X'Trapolis 2.0—will be introduced. This new model will fully replace the existing fleet of Comeng EMUs currently operating on the line currently with new, modern, and technologically advanced trains. The new trains will feature:
* Modernised doors to reduce the boarding times at stations to under 40 seconds
*
Passenger information system
A passenger information system, or passenger information display system, is an automated system for supplying users of public transport with information about the nature and the state of a public transport service through visual, voice or other m ...
s to display that train's journey in real time
* Higher energy efficiency to work with a lower network voltage, to fit in line with modern rail systems overseas
* New interior designs including tip-up seating to allow space for wheelchair spaces.
* Designated bicycle storage areas
* Passenger operated automatic
wheelchair ramp
A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairway, stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building, or navigate b ...
s located behind
driver cabs
* 6 car fully walk through carriages
Accessibility

In compliance with the
Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, all stations that are new-built or rebuilt are fully accessible and comply with these guidelines. Just over half of the stations on the corridor are fully accessible, however, there are some stations that haven't been upgraded to meet these guidelines.
These stations do feature ramps, however, they have a gradient greater than 1 in 14.
Stations that are fully accessible feature ramps that have a gradient less than 1 in 14, have at-grade paths, or feature lifts.
These stations typically also feature
tactile boarding indicators, independent boarding ramps, wheelchair accessible
myki
Myki ( ), stylised as myki, is a reloadable credit card-sized contactless smart card ticketing system used for electronic payment of fares on most public transport services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. Myki replaced the Me ...
barriers,
hearing loops, and widened paths.
Projects improving station accessibility have included the Level Crossing Removal Project, which involves station rebuilds and upgrades, and individual station upgrade projects. These works have made significant strides in improving network accessibility, with more than 57% of Craigieburn line stations classed as fully accessible. Future station upgrade projects will continue to increase the number of fully accessible stations overtime.
Signalling
The Craigieburn line uses three position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three position signalling was first introduced in 1918, with the final section of the line converted to the new type of signalling in 2007.
References
External links
Craigieburn line timetableNetwork map*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craigieburn Railway Line
Railway lines in Melbourne
Railway lines opened in 1860
1860 establishments in Australia
Public transport routes in the City of Melbourne (LGA)
Transport in the City of Moonee Valley
Transport in the City of Merri-bek
Transport in the City of Hume
1500 V DC railway electrification