Stratford railway station is located on the Gippsland 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 serves the town of Stratford, and opened on 8 November 1887.Stratford
Vicsig

History

When Stratford opened, it was a temporary terminus of the line from Stratford Junction, a few kilometres to the west. On 8 May 1888, the line was extended to

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...

. Major signalling changes occurred at the station in 1986, including the abolition of the

electric staff Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

sections Sale - Stratford Junction, and Stratford Junction - Stratford, which was replaced by the electric staff section Sale - Stratford, with an intermediate electric staff instrument provided at Stratford Junction. All signals and

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

at Stratford Junction were also abolished during that time. Under the Kennett government,

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 ...

passenger services to Stratford were suspended in August 1993. The passenger service was restored on 3 May 2004. As part of the

Regional Rail Revival The Regional Rail Revival is a joint initiative between the Australian federal government and the Victorian state government to upgrade all regional railway lines in Victoria. The project has an estimated total cost of . of the project's total ...

project to upgrade the Gippsland line, a new railway bridge was built over the Avon River, south of the station. It replaced the previous bridge, dating from 1888, on which train speeds had been restricted to 10km/h for safety reasons. The new bridge was opened in December 2020. Until their closure,

Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis ...

, Fernbank, Lindenow and Hillside stations were located between Stratford and Bairnsdale stations.

Platforms and services

Stratford has one platform and is served by

Bairnsdale line trains.Bairnsdale - Melbourne timetable
Public Transport Victoria Platform 1: * services to

and

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

Gallery

File:Stratford station sign.jpg, Former V/Line platform sign, September 2008 File:STRATFORD Railway Station, Victoria.jpg, Station forecourt and entrance, February 2015 File:Stratford railway station sign January 2021.jpg, Station entrance sign, January 2021 File:Stratford railway station, Victoria building — April 2021.jpg, Station forecourt and entrance, April 2021 File:Stratford railway station, Victoria platform sign — April 2021.jpg, Platform sign, April 2021 File:VLocity train arriving at Stratford railway station - April 2021.jpg,

-bound VLocity train, April 2021

References

External links

*
Victorian Railway Stations GalleryMelway map
{{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Eastern=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1887 Regional railway stations in Victoria (Australia) Transport in Gippsland (region) Shire of Wellington