Upfield Line

The Upfield line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth-shortest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Upfield station in the north, serving 19 stations via North Melbourne, Brunswick, Coburg, and Fawkner.

The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 05:00 to around midnight) with a 24-hour service on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hours, headways of up to 15 minutes are operated, with services every 20–30 minutes during off-peak hours. Trains run in two three-car formations of either Comeng or Siemens Nexas sets.

Services on the line began in 1884 when it opened from North Melbourne to Coburg. In October 1889, it was extended to Somerton. The continued existence of the line was in serious doubt in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with proposals for it either to be converted to a light rail or fully closed.

With the future of the rail line secured, and patronage growth in the 2000s, infrastructure upgrades were carried out on the line. They included replacing sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, removing level crossings, introducing new rolling stock, and improving station accessibility. The 2018 Victorian Rail Plan identified the need to reopen the rail line between Upfield and Somerton/Roxburgh Park, and run regional and metropolitan rail services via that route in the near future.

History

19th century

The Upfield line originated as a line from North Melbourne to Coburg. The line was opened by the Governor of Victoria Henry Loch in September 1884, and cost £53,000. In October 1889, it was extended to Somerton, with duplication providing an additional track from North Melbourne to Royal Park in September 1888, to South Brunswick (now Jewell) in May 1889, between Brunswick and Coburg in December 1891, and between South Brunswick to Brunswick in August 1892.

20th century

Early upgrades (1900–1950)

The Coburg to Somerton section closed in July 1903, but was reopened as far as Fawkner in December 1906. The reopening was for funeral trains only, in conjunction with the creation of the adjacent Fawkner Cemetery. Normal passenger services were extended to Fawkner in 1915, and the line was electrified by December 1920.

In March 1928, despite strong resistance from the Railways Commissioners, the state government ordered the reopening of the section from Fawkner to Somerton for passengers. Passenger services were provided by an AEC railmotor, which connected with electric trains at Fawkner.

Upfield—Somerton link (1950–1970)

In May 1956, the line from Fawkner to Somerton was again closed, but only three years later, in July 1959, the Upfield to Somerton section reopened for goods trains. Also in 1959, the track from Coburg to Fawkner was duplicated and, in the following month, the section from Fawkner to Upfield was reopened, after being electrified, to cater for workers at the new Ford automotive factory next to the new Upfield station. In September 1958, Sunday evening services after 6pm withdrawn, being replaced by adjacent tram routes, particularly the North Coburg line (now Route 19). At the outer end of the railway line, a bus service was provided, connecting with trams in North Coburg. In June 1961, that arrangement was extended to apply for the whole of Sunday and, in October 1961, it was further extended to include services after 7:30pm between Mondays and Saturdays.

In January 1963, the line from Somerton to the Ford factory was re-laid as dual gauge gauntlet track, to provide a standard gauge connection with the new North East standard gauge line at Somerton. In October 1968, electric staff safeworking was introduced on the Upfield to Somerton section. However, the Upfield to Somerton section, which included four industrial sidings, has not been used for some time and is out of commission.

Proposed light rail conversion and modernisation efforts (1970–2000)

Automatic signalling advanced a little further along the line in August 1971, with Royal Park to Jewell being converted. In April 1972, the Macaulay to Royal Park section was similarly converted. By May 1988, serious consideration was given to proposals to convert the line to light rail, following the conversion of the St Kilda and Port Melbourne lines in 1987. A report submitted to the Cain government determined that the route suffered from low passenger numbers, redundancy with the Route 19 tram, outdated signalling systems, manned boom gates well past their prime, and that substantial investments would be required to modernise the line to meet modern standards. After discussions with local councils, unions, the public, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, two options were floated. These options included:

* The conversion of the entire line, or part of the line to light rail
* The closure of large amounts of the line and instead running the light rail via Sydney Road

These proposals were put to rest in April 1995, when it was announced that $23 million would be spent upgrading the line. The work included the provision of power signalling for the whole line, and the installation of boomgates at all level crossings, except for a few that were closed instead. At the time, many of the numerous level crossings on the line were still controlled by gatekeepers, who opened and closed the gates manually for every train.

21st century

During the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Royal Park station played a critical role in the running of the games, as it was centrally located to the athletes village and the State Netball and Hockey Centre. The line and station became heavily utilised during the games, with increased security and staff presence at the station.

Future

Level Crossing Removals

In 2017, a level crossing was removed at Camp Road, Campbellfield by lowering the rail line underneath the road. The rail line was elevated from Coburg to Moreland stations in 2020 to remove four level crossings. Crossings were removed at Bell Street, Moreland Road, Munro Street, and Reynard Street, with both Coburg and Moreland stations rebuilt as part of these removals.

Eight further level crossings between Anstey and Royal Park stations are planned to be removed by 2030, at Albert Street, Albion Street, Brunswick Road, Dawson Street, Hope Street, Union Street, Victoria Street, and Park Street. At the end of these removals, the Upfield line will have 10 remaining crossings not slated for removal. As part of this project, Jewell, Brunswick and Anstey stations are set to be closed and replaced by two new stations: the new northern station is currently planned to be located near Hope Street, approximately 200 metres south of the current Anstey station, and the new southern station is planned to be located between Union Street and Dawson Street, approximately 200 metres north of the current Jewell station. Both stations will be approximately 450 metres away from the current Brunswick station.

The decision to build two stations in different locations instead of rebuilding all three generated criticism from residents and the local council. Local newspaper Brunswick Voice reported that the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Danny Pearson, claimed "the decision to build two stations followed 18 months of technical and engineering assessments which found fewer stations would boost capacity on the line in the future and deliver more open space", noting that " he government claimedthe plan would also minimise the impact to heritage in the area, but he politicianprovided no detail about whether the three station buildings and the historic boom gate operators' cabins would be preserved".

Wallan extension

Highlighted in the 2018 Victorian Rail Plan, a proposal exists for the Upfield line to be extended via the current Somerton link to the Craigieburn line, then onto Wallan. 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 to further investigate the possibility for these series of projects to commence. A business case was completed, however, it wasn't released to the public. Since the business case in 2018, there have been little developments despite the 'Metro Tunnel Day One' milestone of the 2018 Plan fast approaching.

Network and operations

Services

Services on the Upfield line operates from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 daily. The Upfield line has one of the least-frequent peak-period services in Melbourne's railway network, with train frequency being every 15–20 minutes while outside the peak the frequency is reduced to 20–30 minutes throughout the entire route. On Friday and Saturday nights, services run 24 hours a day, with 60-minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.

Train services on the Upfield 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 – Station staffed from first to last train
* ◻ Host Station – 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 inbound trains stop
* ▼ - Only outbound trains stop
* , – Trains pass and do not stop

Operators

The Upfield line has had a total of 7 operators since its opening in 1884. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from its first service in 1884 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 121 years.

Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1999 and later rebranded as M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with KPMG appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train operations including the Frankston line. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of years.

Route

The Upfield line forms a linear route from the Melbourne central business district to its terminus in Upfield. The route is long, making it the fifth shortest line on the Melbourne metropolitan network. The line is double tracked from the city to Gowrie station with the line only having a single track past that point till Upfield. The only underground section of the Upfield line is in the City Loop, where the service stops at three underground stations. Exiting the city, the Upfield line traverses mainly flat country with few curves and fairly minimal earthworks for most of the line. Some sections of the line have been elevated or lowered into a cutting to eliminate level crossings. Despite some removals, there are a number of level crossings still present with no current plans to remove them. Rare in Melbourne, the line travels underneath the CityLink toll road beside the Moonee Ponds Creek for a portion of the line, before rising up a lengthy hill in Royal Park until it reaches Jewell railway station.

The line follows the same alignment as multiple lines with the Upfield line splitting off at North Melbourne. The Upfield line continues on its northern alignment, whereas the other lines continue onto a western or south-western alignment. Most of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs and some industrial areas.

Stations

The line serves 19 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. Notably, the line has one of the lowest proportion of premium stations amongst Melbourne's railway lines, with only three stations past the North Melbourne junction classified as premium stations.

Infrastructure

Rolling stock

The Upfield line uses two different types of electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration. The rarer rolling stock featured on the line is the Comeng EMUs, built by Commonwealth Engineering between 1981 and 1988. These train sets are the oldest on the Melbourne rail network and subsequently are planned to be replaced by 2026. The more common of rolling stock is the Siemens Nexas EMUs which are 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, Upfield 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, Metro Trains, and the Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

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 systems 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 ramps 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. The majority 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 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. More than 90% of Upfield line stations are now classed as fully accessible. Future station upgrade projects are planned to increase the number of fully accessible stations overtime.

Signalling

The Upfield line uses three-position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three-position signalling was first introduced in 1928, with the final section of the line converted to the new type of signalling in 1972.

References

External links

Upfield line timetable

Network map
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{{Victorian Railway Lines, selected=melbourne

Railway lines in Melbourne
Railway lines opened in 1884
1884 establishments in Australia
Public transport routes in the City of Melbourne (LGA)
Transport in the City of Merri-bek
Transport in the City of Hume