North East standard gauge railway line

This article is about the Victorian standard gauge line to Sydney. For the original broad gauge line to Albury, see North East railway line. For the Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore, see North East MRT line. For other uses, see Northeast Line.

North East standard gauge
Overview
Type	Victorian railway line
Status	Operational passenger services from Southern Cross to Albury and Sydney
Locale	Victoria, Australia
Termini	Southern Cross Albury
Connecting lines	Albion–Jacana Main Southern (NSW) Newport–Sunshine Oaklands South Kensington–West Footscray Western standard gauge
Stations	6 current stations
Services	Spirit of Progress, Southern Aurora, Sydney–Melbourne Express, Intercapital Daylight Shared tracks: South Kensington–West Footscray, Albion–Jacana, Albury
Operation
Opened	Southern Cross to Albury on 3 January 1962 (1962-01-03)
Closed	Old Wodonga section on 9 November 2008 (2008-11-09)
Owner	Victorian Railways (VR) (1959–1974) VR as VicRail (1974–1983) STA (V/Line) (1983–1989) PTC (V/Line) (1989–1995) PTC (V/Line Passenger) (1995–1997) VicTrack (1997–Current)
Operator(s)	Victorian Railways (VR) (1962–1974) Department of Railways New South Wales (1962–1972) Public Transport Commission (NSW) (1972–1980) VR as VicRail (1974–1983) State Rail Authority (NSW) (1980–1989) STA (V/Line) (1983–1989) PTC (V/Line) (1989–1995) CountryLink (1989–2013) PTC (V/Line Passenger) (1995–1998) V/Line Passenger (1998–2010) V/Line (2010–Current) NSW TrainLink (2013–Current)
Events
Reopened	New Wodonga section on 23 July 2010 (2010-07-23)
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The North East standard gauge railway line is a railway line in Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Melbourne central business district to Albury railway station in the border settlement of Albury–Wodonga, serving the cities of Wangaratta and Seymour, and smaller towns in northeastern Victoria. The line is owned by VicTrack, but leased to, and maintained by, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, and forms part of the Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor.

Unlike most other heavy rail lines in Victoria, the line is completely standard gauge and runs parallel to the original broad gauge Albury line between Broadmeadows and Seymour, and later gauge converted section on to Albury. Construction of a standard gauge track parallel with the broad gauge from Albury to Melbourne commenced in November 1959, completing the Sydney-Melbourne standard gauge railway.

History

File:SoP70s.jpg

The Spirit of Progress in the 1970s

Standard-gauge Pacific National container freight train near Seymour

20th century

Template:Needs expansion Preliminary work for construction of the line began in November 1957 with the establishment of camps for the building gangs, with the first section being laid in November 1959, and the final section on 5 April 1962.

The line was used by prestige passenger services between the state capitals of Melbourne and Sydney, including the Sydney Limited, Spirit of Progress, Southern Aurora, and Intercapital Daylight. Due to high costs and declining patronage, they were replaced by the XPT in the 1990s.

21st century

Maintaining two parallel railways drew criticism, noting inefficiencies in maintaining track, operating trains, and duplicated train control centres. By 2001, the State Government announced the conversion of the broad gauge line to standard, but action was stifled, due largely to complex leasing arrangements.

In May 2008, it was announced that the tracks would be upgraded, including a 5 km (3.1 mi) bypass around Wodonga, the conversion of 200 kilometres (120 mi) of broad gauge Albury railway line to standard gauge between Seymour and Albury as well as other upgrades to the Albury line. Costing A$501.3 million, the Victorian Government was to contribute A$171.3 million, the Australian Government A$45 million for the Wodonga Rail Bypass, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation A$285 million and take responsibility for the standard-gauge line under a 45-year lease from Victoria. The project was due for completion by 2010, with passenger services to be disrupted for up to 12 months.

In December 2008, standardisation works commenced, contracted by ARTC to the Southern Improvement Alliance. The first train on the Wodonga Rail Bypass was in March 2010.

In early August 2010, CountryLink decided to terminate all Sydney-Melbourne XPTs at Albury for an indefinite length of time, due to defects in the newly re-sleepered track. "Mud holes" resulted in speed restrictions on more than 200 kilometres (about 66 per cent) of the line, adding an extra 1.5 hours to the travelling time. Train drivers have blamed the ARTC's $285 million concrete sleeper project for the track issues, stating that the incorrect insertion of 300,000 new concrete sleepers is to blame. They have repeatedly reported freight trains breaking couplings due to the rough track. CountryLink trains resumed in mid September 2010, V/Line trains the following year.

Wallan train derailment

Main article: 2020 Wallan derailment

On 20 February 2020, a NSW TrainLink XPT passenger train towards Sydney derailed at Wallan, resulting in suspension of freight, V/Line and NSW TrainLink services on the North East standard gauge line and the adjacent broad gauge and standard gauge sections of the Albury line. V/Line services resumed on 1 and 2 March 2020.

Network and operations

Services

Spirit of Progress

1. REDIRECT Template:Main

• This is a redirect from a page that has been moved (renamed). This page was kept as a redirect to avoid breaking links, both internal and external, that may have been made to the old page name. For more information follow the bold category link.

Southern Aurora

Main article: Southern Aurora

Sydney–Melbourne Express

Main article: Sydney–Melbourne Express

Intercapital Daylight

Main article: Intercapital Daylight

XPT

Main article: New South Wales XPT

Template:Needs expansion The entire line is used by NSW TrainLink Southern services to, and from, Sydney (Central), which makes limited stops on this section.

Operators

New South Welshmen

Operator	Assumed operations	Ceased operations	Length of operations
Department of Railways New South Wales	Template:TAC2
Public Transport Commission, NSW	Template:TAC2
State Rail Authority, NSW	Template:TAC2
State Rail Authority (as CountryLink)	Template:TAC2
RailCorp (as CountryLink)	Template:TAC2
NSW TrainLink	Template:TAC2

Victorian

Operator	Assumed operations	Ceased operations	Length of operations
Victorian Railways	Template:TAC2
State Transport Authority (V/Line)	Template:TAC2
Public Transport Corporation (V/Line)	Template:TAC2
Public Transport Corporation (V/Line Passenger)	Template:TAC2
V/Line Passenger	Template:TAC2
National Express (as V/Line Passenger)	Template:TAC2
V/Line Passenger	Template:TAC2
V/Line	Template:TAC2

Route

Template:Needs expansion The line shares track with the South Kensington–West Footscray railway line from the Melbourne Yard to Footscray, then the line then run alongside the Deniliquin railway line Albion, the Albion–Jacana railway line to Jacana, and finally the North East railway line to Albury.

Stations

Station histories (standard gauge only)

Station	Opened	Closed	Age	Notes
Southern Cross	Template:TAC2	Formerly Batman's Hill Formerly Spencer Street
Victoria Dock (Westgate)	?
Appleton Dock	?
Swanson Dock	Template:TAC2
Melbourne Yard	?
Melbourne Steel Terminal	Template:TAC2
South Dynon	Template:TAC2
North Dynon	?
Sunshine	Template:TAC2
McIntyre Sidings	Template:TAC2	Formerly Lysaght's Siding
Broadmeadows	Template:TAC2
Somerton Yard	Template:TAC2
Seymour	Template:TAC2
Benalla	Template:TAC2
Wangaratta	Template:TAC2
SCT Barnawartha	Template:TAC2
Wodonga Coal Siding	Template:TAC2	inc. Bogie exchange area
Albury	Template:TAC2

Infrastructure

Branch lines

In January 1963, the Upfield—Somerton link from Somerton to the Ford factory was re-laid as dual gauge gauntlet track.

In 2008, the gauge conversion the Albury railway line from broad gauge to standard gauge, which would have left the Oaklands branch as an isolated and useless spur. The local MP reported that the cost of converting this 125 km (77.7 mi) branch to standard gauge was just over $13m. In October 2008 the Victorian State Government announced that an upgrade would take place. The conversion was completed in December 2009.

Part of the Cudgewa line was converted to dual gauge in 1944 to serve freight depots around Bandiana. The Wodonga-Bandiana section closed on 1 September 2009 as part of the Wodonga Rail Bypass project.

External links

• Statistics and detailed schematic map at the vicsig enthusiast website