The Craigieburn railway line (previously the Broadmeadows line and Essendon line) is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are co ...

passenger train service operating between Craigieburn in the northern suburbs and Flinders Street in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia. The service is part of the Public Transport Victoria metropolitan rail network.

Description

The line rises steadily after leaving

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

until after Essendon, then drops a little to cross

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Countr ...

, and soon after encounters the Glenroy Bank, a continuous rising

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

of 1 in 50 for nearly that taxed locomotive-hauled trains in the days of

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

. After Glenroy, it continues to rise Craigieburn and beyond.

Earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour *Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), mi ...

are, however, generally moderate. The almost-continuous gradients were a factor when, in 2003, an unmanned suburban train rolled the length of the line from Broadmeadows to the city, and crashed into a stationary but loaded passenger train waiting to depart

Spencer Street station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Victoria, Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street, between Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins ...

. No one was killed or seriously injured.

Infrastructure

The line is

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

throughout, and controlled by automatic block signalling. It has numerous

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass An overpass (called ...

s and many

grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other t ...

road and rail

bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

. Terminating facilities are at Kensington, Newmarket (by shunting onto the Flemington Racecourse line), Essendon, Broadmeadows and Craigieburn. Only Essendon, Broadmeadows, and Craigieburn are normally used, the latter two daily and Essendon in special circumstances. Train stabling is at Broadmeadows and Craigieburn.

History

The line from

to Essendon was opened by the

Melbourne & Essendon Railway Company Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...

in November 1860. Soon after, the company opened a

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' twig'' usually ...

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 closed after only a short time, 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 (Australia), Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, b ...

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 *Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria *Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria *Seymour, Tasmania, a locality ...

, awaiting completion of a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

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 Victo ...

. In December 1894, through services were provided from Essendon to

Brighton Beach Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...

on the

Sandringham line The Sandringham railway line is a suburban railway line in Melbourne, Australia. It branches from other southeastern suburban rail lines (inferred as the " Caulfield group") at South Yarra station. It serves the City of Bayside, and small sect ...

. Automatic Block Signalling started to appear on the line in 1918, with Kensington 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 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 " g ...

, 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 track Albion – Jacana freight line was opened, permitting

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

s to avoid the line via Essendon. Automatic Block Signalling was extended to Broadmeadows in November 1965. On 30 September 2007 electrification was extended from Broadmeadows to Craigieburn. Previously, passengers for Craigieburn travelled on

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...

diesel services, but

Metcard Metcard was the brand name of an integrated ticketing system used to access public transport in Melbourne, Australia. It was a universal ticket which allowed users to ride on the city's Metlink and Metropolitan Transit Authority network, cons ...

s were accepted.

Broadstore branch

A branch line was provided during the Second World War to Broadstore, commencing at the north-east of Broadmeadows station, opening on 12 October 1942, and remaining in place until 1982; the tracks were not lifted until after 1991. The Broadstore Line was unelectrified, and extended in a directly easterly direction for approximately 1.6 km towards the Upfield Line terminating at the Maygar Barracks in

Campbellfield Campbellfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume local government area. Campbellfield recorded a population of 4,977 at the 2021 census. History C ...

. At one time, according to Forsberg, it had a branch that supplied a migrant hostel. The Broadstore Line is clearly marked on the 1980 map of Victorian Railways.

Proposals

As mentioned in the Network Development Plan, the Craigieburn line will eventually link up with the

Frankston line The Frankston railway line is a 42.7 km commuter rail passenger train service in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates between Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district and Frankston through the south-eastern suburbs incl ...

to form one long through-routed line. This line would avoid Southern Cross and Flinders Street, instead travelling via North Melbourne, Flagstaff, Melbourne Central, Parliament and Richmond through a modified tunnel. In the shorter term, a level crossing removal has commenced for the Glenroy Road level crossing. It is scheduled to be completed by 2022.

References

External links

TimetablesStatistics and detailed schematic map
at th
vicsig
enthusiast website {{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 Hume