The Sandringham railway line is a
suburban
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
railway line
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 ...
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 met ...
, Australia. It branches from other southeastern suburban rail lines (inferred as the "
Caulfield group") at
South Yarra
South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a popul ...
station. It serves the
City of Bayside, and small sections cover the
Cities of Glen Eira,
Port Phillip
Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...
,
Stonnington, and
Yarra. Various sections of the track opened between 1857 and 1859, and in May 1919, the whole line was electrified.
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, although it runs alongside the
Frankston,
Pakenham and
Cranbourne lines from
Flinders Street to
South Yarra
South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a popul ...
, making a total of six tracks in this section. There are three platforms at
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach i ...
making it the only station to have three platforms on the Sandringham line (although the third platform is not in use).
The speed limit is between South Yarra and
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to:
Places
* Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia
* Sandringham, Queensland, Australia
* Sandringham, Victoria, Australia
**Sandringham railway line
**Sandringham railway station
**Electoral district of Sandringham
* Sand ...
, and the line has a total of 11
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 ...
s between South Yarra and Sandringham. Much of the line, however, is either in
cuttings or on
embankments, and there are many more bridges over or under roads. Terminating facilities are provided at
Elsternwick
Elsternwick is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Elsternwick recorded a population of 10,887 at the 2021 ...
and
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach i ...
, however passenger services may terminate at
Middle Brighton to use turnback facilities at Brighton Beach in an event of a disruption. Stabling facilities are provided at Brighton Beach and Sandringham. Brighton Beach had not been used for stabling for many years, however the stabling facilities were reinstated in 2010 after being used for the VICERS project.
Power
signalling
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
is provided throughout, it being the first 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 ...
to be so equipped, as well as the first (along with part of the
Craigieburn line) to have a regular electric service.
Services and patronage
The Sandringham line runs at 7-8 minute frequencies in the weekday morning peak period and in the evening peak period. Off-peak frequencies run every 15 minutes between 9am-3pm and 6.30pm-9pm and every 10 minutes between 3-5pm. After 9pm and all day on weekends, trains run every 20 minutes up until last service. This does not include Sunday mornings when trains run every 40 minutes until 9.30am. All services stop at all stations, with some weekday morning citybound services originating at Middle Brighton. There was one citybound service in the afternoon peak running express from Elsternwick to South Yarra but this was converted to an all-stations service effective January 2016. All services run direct to and from Flinders Street. Services used to run anticlockwise through the
City Loop
The City Loop (originally called the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop or MURL) is a mostly-underground and partly surface-level subway and rail system in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Loop includes ...
on weekends, but this was changed in January 2021.
[
It is the only line in Melbourne to operate on a 20-minute frequency at night, and does so seven days a week. This compares to 30-minute frequencies on all other lines. It was also the first to provide a 15-minute frequency between weekday peak periods. These frequencies are not due to it having greater use, but from an experiment in 1992 in increasing frequencies to see if that attracts additional ]patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
, this being possible on the Sandringham line without using extra trains by reducing layover time at the ends of the journeys.
Frequencies, this time in peak periods, were further improved a few years later, as compensation for withdrawal of the Sandringham services from the City Loop
The City Loop (originally called the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop or MURL) is a mostly-underground and partly surface-level subway and rail system in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Loop includes ...
. The Cain
Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
government in the 1980s proposed rebuilding the line as a light rail line, but since then patronage has grown considerably and even with the 7-8-minute peak-period frequency, trains are heavily loaded.
Between late June to August 2016, a temporary timetable adjustment was made with an additional peak hour service operating in both the morning and afternoon peaks. This adjustment was made to meet the additional patronage flowing from the Frankston line, due to its 37-day rail shutdown for rail crossing removal works.
In early January 2018, a temporary timetable adjustment saw peak services operate every 6 minutes and every 10 minutes during the inter-peak, shoulder evening peak period and on weekends during the day. This adjustment was made to cater for the Frankston line shutdown between Flinders Street and Moorabbin in preparation for High Capacity Metro Trains, with express buses running between Brighton Beach and Moorabbin to connect to Frankston line trains for stations beyond Moorabbin.Changes to your serviceJanuary – February 2018 Updated 28 December 2017
Metro Trains Additionally, these timetable adjustments were implemented again several times throughout the year (primarily on weekends) and for a week in early January 2019.
History
The
Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company
The Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company opened a line from Princes Bridge railway station in Melbourne, Australia to Punt Road (Richmond) and over the Yarra River to South Yarra (then ...
opened their line from
Princes Bridge
Princes Bridge, originally Prince's Bridge,, ''...he wished that it might be distinguished by the name of "Prince's Bridge," in honour of the Prince of Wales, whom he hoped would yet be the Sovereign of their colonies...'' is a bridge in centra ...
(later amalgamated with
Flinders Street station
Flinders Street railway station is a train station located on the corner of Flinders Street, Melbourne, Flinders and Swanston Street, Swanston streets in the Melbourne city centre, central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria (Austral ...
) to a temporary station on
Punt Road
Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the n ...
in February 1859, then to
Cremorne (now closed) in December of that year.
A few days later, the
St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company
The St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company opened a line from St Kilda Railway Station (via an elevated loop) in Melbourne, Australia to Bay Street (now North Brighton) in 1859 and Beach ...
(St. K. & B. R. C.) opened their railway line from
St Kilda to
Bay Street
Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Stree ...
(now North Brighton) in December 1859. Twelve months after that, the
Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company
The Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company opened a line from Princes Bridge railway station in Melbourne, Australia to Punt Road (Richmond) and over the Yarra River to South Yarra (then ...
extended their line from Cremorne to
Chapel Street
Chapel Street is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, running along the inner suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, St Kilda and St Kilda East.
Route
Chapel Street is essentially straight and runs for over 4.14 kilometres along an approxim ...
(now
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
) station, on the St. K. & B. R. C.'s line, providing a second route to the city from the Brighton line. The following year, again in December, the St. K. & B. R. C. extended their line to
Beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
(now Brighton Beach).
The
link between St Kilda and Windsor, disused since 1862, was dismantled in 1867, although part of it at the Windsor end was used as a
siding
Siding may refer to:
* Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house
* Siding (rail)
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...
for some time afterwards.
In 1865, the
Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company
The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company was incorporated on 20 January 1853 to build the line from Melbourne to the port of Sandridge, now Port Melbourne.
The proposal met ...
, who owned the St Kilda line, purchased the Melbourne Suburban Railway Company and became the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Company, and subsequently bought the St. K. & B. R. C., which was in financial difficulties, for £99,500. The
Victorian Government
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...
acquired the United railway company in July 1878.
In September 1887, the Brighton line was extended to
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to:
Places
* Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia
* Sandringham, Queensland, Australia
* Sandringham, Victoria, Australia
**Sandringham railway line
**Sandringham railway station
**Electoral district of Sandringham
* Sand ...
.
The Sandringham line became the first line in Victoria to be provided with automatic
signals
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
, with the line as far as
Elsternwick
Elsternwick is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Elsternwick recorded a population of 10,887 at the 2021 ...
converted in stages from 1915 to 1918. Then in 1919, the Sandringham line became, with the line to
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United King ...
, the first line in the country to be electrified (apart from a test installation on the
Flemington Racecourse line). Automatic signalling was provided the rest of the way to Sandringham in two stages in 1926.
Service changes
Services on the line originally ran via the St Kilda line, but from 1862 ran exclusively via the
Cremorne route. In 1894, through services from Brighton Beach to
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
*Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
*Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United King ...
were introduced, an arrangement that continued until 1973, when Sandringham services were altered to run through to the
St Kilda and
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...
lines.
When the
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
City Loop
The City Loop (originally called the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop or MURL) is a mostly-underground and partly surface-level subway and rail system in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Loop includes ...
line was designed, it was not intended to cater for trains on the
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...
,
St Kilda, and Sandringham lines. However, a
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
was installed near
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
to allow Sandringham trains to cross to the tracks used by the
Frankston and
Pakenham trains, which had access to the underground loop. In 1985, two Sandringham trains each way were altered to run via the underground loop, and in 1987, with the Port Melbourne and St Kilda lines now converted to
light rail operation, all off-peak and many peak trains were routed via the underground loop.
From 31 January 2021, no services operate via the underground loop.
References
External links
St Kilda to Windsor Loop Line 1859–1865Australian Railway Historical Society
Sandringham line timetableOfficial line mapNetwork mapStatistics and detailed schematic mapat th
VicSigenthusiast website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandringham Railway Line
Railway lines in Melbourne
Railway lines opened in 1857
1857 establishments in Australia
Transport in the City of Yarra
Public transport routes in the City of Melbourne (LGA)
Transport in the City of Bayside
Transport in the City of Port Phillip
Transport in the City of Glen Eira