Ginifer railway station is located on the

Sunbury line The Sunbury Line (formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision) is a rail line owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to Binghamton, New Yo ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It serves the western

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 met ...

suburb of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, and opened on 31 October 1982.

History

Ginifer station opened on 31 October 1982. It was first announced in June 1977, by the then Transport Minister

Joe Rafferty Joseph Gerard Rafferty (born 6 October 1993) is a professional footballer who plays for EFL League One club Portsmouth. Rafferty can operate as a fullback, wingback and as a midfielder. Born in England, he has represented the Republic of Ire ...

, and was scheduled for completion by late 1978. Originally to be named Furlong, after the nearby arterial road, when opened it was named Ginifer, in honour of

Jack Ginifer John Joseph "Jack" Ginifer (31 August 1927 – 9 July 1982) was an Australian politician. Ginifer was born in Warracknabeal, Victoria to Joseph Ginifer, a Singer sewing machine salesman from England, and Agnes Harper. He was educated at school ...

, a former local member of State Parliament. In 1984,

boom barrier A boom barrier, also known as a boom gate, is a bar, or pole pivoted to allow the boom to block vehicular or pedestrian access through a controlled point. Typically the tip of a boom gate rises in a vertical arc to a near vertical position. Boo ...

s were provided at the former Furlong Road

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

, which was located nearby in the Down direction of the station. In 1994, the station was provided with

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

. On 4 May 2010, as part of the ''2010/2011 State Budget'', $83.7 million was allocated to upgrade Ginifer to a

Premium Station The Melbourne rail network is a passenger and freight train system in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan passenger rail network is centred on the Melbourne CBD and consists of 222 stations across 16 lines, which ser ...

, along with nineteen others. However, in March 2011, this was scrapped by the Baillieu Government. In June 2015, the

Level Crossing Removal Authority The Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) is a program of the Government of Victoria, Australia, to remove 110 level crossings and rebuild 51 railway stations in Melbourne. After pledging the removal of 50 level crossings at the 2014 Victor ...

announced that the Furlong Road level crossing would be removed by

grade separation 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 tran ...

, with Ginifer to be rebuilt below ground. During October-November 2016, the level crossing was removed and, on 1 November of that year, the rebuilt station opened.

Platforms and services

Ginifer has two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s. It is served by

trains. Platform 1: * all stations and limited express services to Flinders Street Platform 2: * all stations services to Watergardens and Sunbury Prior to

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of the line to

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...

in 2002, selected

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 ...

services stopped at Ginifer, to pick up/drop off students from the Sydenham Catholic Regional College. By late 2025, it is planned that trains on the Sunbury line will be

through-routed Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

with those on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines, via the new

Metro Tunnel The Metro Tunnel (previously known during planning as the Melbourne Metro Rail Project) is a metropolitan rail infrastructure project currently under construction in Melbourne, Australia. It includes the construction of twin 9-kilometre rail tun ...

Transport links

CDC Melbourne CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. As at 2018, CDC Melbourne was the third-largest commuter bu ...

operates two routes via Ginifer station, under contract to

Public Transport Victoria Public Transport Victoria (PTV) is the brand name for public transport in the Australian state of Victoria, Australia, Victoria. It was the trading name of the Go Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authorit ...

: * : St Albans station –

Highpoint Shopping Centre Highpoint Shopping Centre is a super regional shopping centre located in Maribyrnong, Victoria, in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. Highpoint is Victoria's third largest shopping centre and the fifth largest in Australia, with an a ...

* : St Albans station –

Brimbank Central Shopping Centre This is a list of notable shopping centres in Australia. It does not include street shopping strips such as Chapel Street, Melbourne or Oxford Street, Sydney which were prevalent in Australian cities until the 1960s. Australian Capital Territ ...

Gallery

File:Ginifer railway station old platforms 1 and 2 from tracks.JPG, North-west bound view of the former ground level station in December 2015

References

External links

*
Melway map
at street-directory.com.au {{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Sunbury=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Melbourne Railway stations in Australia opened in 1982 Railway stations in the City of Brimbank