The Melton railway line is the greater-metropolitan section of the Ballarat line in

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 is incorporated into

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 ...

's suburban railway network. Services are provided by

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 ...

as part of the Ballarat regional line service. The line runs between

Southern Cross station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, between Collins and La Trobe Streets, at the western edge of the Melbourne central busi ...

in the CBD and Melton. It branches from 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 ...

at Sunshine railway station, where it falls into

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 ...

ticketing Zone 2. It consists of dual track the whole duration of the route. The

Victorian Transport Plan The Victorian Transport Plan is a now defunct transport planning framework for the state of Victoria, Australia announced on 9 December 2008 by then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby. The plan was submitted to the Government of Australia for fund ...

released in December 2008 proposed the progressive upgrade of the Melton line to support future urban development in the corridor. The

Regional Fast Rail project The Regional Fast Rail project (or RFR project) was a rail transport project undertaken by the State Government of Victoria, Australia, between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving rail services on the Victorian regional railway network (operated by ...

to Ballarat has been completed. The construction of the new

Caroline Springs railway station Caroline Springs railway station is located on the Serviceton line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the western Melbourne suburb of Ravenhall, and opened on 28 January 2017. History The ''Victorian Transport Plan'', released in 2008, propo ...

(Ravenhall) commenced in August 2015, and has now been completed with the first trains running on 29 January 2017. Another new station was constructed for the new outer suburb of Cobblebank, between the existing

Rockbank Rockbank is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melton local government area. Rockbank recorded a population of 2,583 at the 2021 census. Rockbank Post Office o ...

and Melton station stations, services having commenced on 2 December 2019. The

PTV Network Development Plan The Network Development Plan Metropolitan Rail is a long-term development plan for the rail network of Melbourne, Australia. It was carried out by Public Transport Victoria (PTV) and released to the public on 27 March 2013 however, a revised versio ...

published in 2013 advocates for the electrification of the line and duplication between

Sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...

and Deer Park in order to incorporate it into the electrified metropolitan network, joining the

and running via the

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 ...

. The line was formerly constrained by a single bi-directional track section between

and Melton station, having only a small stretch of double track close to Rockbank railway station to facilitate the passing of trains. As part of Ballarat Line Upgrade, the 17 kilometres of single track were duplicated with stabling facilities provided at Melton, as well as Rockbank Station being rebuilt and the construction of a new station at Cobblebank.Ballarat Line Upgrade
Regional Rail Revival This was designed to increase reliability and capacity on the line, as well as facilitate electrification. There are a variety of trains on the line including Sprinter and VLocity type

DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

, as well as older locomotive-hauled carriages. All trains continue on to

Bacchus Marsh Bacchus Marsh (Wathawurrung: ''Pullerbopulloke'') is an urban centre and suburban locality in Victoria, Australia located approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne and west of Melton, Victoria, Melton at a near equidistance to th ...

, Ballarat or Ararat. 2007-09-ARD-stn

Line guide

Bold stations are termini, where some train services terminate; ''italic'' stations are staffed. Branches from the

at ''

''.

External links, maps, and timetables

Melton line timetablesStatistics and detailed schematic map
at th
vicsig
enthusiast website

References

{{Victorian railway lines, V/Line services Railway lines in Melbourne Transport in the City of Brimbank Public transport routes in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Transport in the City of Maribyrnong Transport in the City of Melton