West Footscray railway station is located on the Sunbury 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 country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. 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 metro ...

suburb of

West Footscray West Footscray is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. West Footscray recorded a population of 11,729 at the . H ...

, and it opened on 1 October 1888 as Footscray West. It was renamed West Footscray on 1 September 1912. Two

dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ca ...

tracks operate north of the station, forming the South Kensington – West Footscray freight line, linking the

Port of Melbourne The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria, and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Ph ...

and other

freight terminal A freight terminal is a processing node for freight. They may include airports, seaports, container ports, goods stations, railroad terminals and trucking terminals. As most freight terminals are located at ports, many cargo containers can be se ...

s to the rest of the state. The tracks also form part of the Melbourne – Sydney and Melbourne – Adelaide

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

lines. The

Regional Rail Link The Regional Rail Link (RRL) was a project to build a 47.5 kilometre length of railway through the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, the main aim of which was to separate regional V/Line Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong services from the el ...

lines operate to the south of the station. In 1976, the original station buildings were reconstructed. In 2013, the station was rebuilt 200 metres further west, to accommodate two lines to the south as part of the Regional Rail Link project. On 14 October of that year, the new station opened, with the old station demolished soon after.West Footscray railway station
Regional Rail Link A third platform has been built to the north of the existing

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular o ...

, as part of the Metro Tunnel project, to allow services to terminate and return. In late 2018, work commenced and, on 6 July 2020, the platform opened.

Facilities, platforms and services

West Footscray has one

with two faces and one

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 platfo ...

. Access to the platforms is provided by stairs,

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

s and

ramp An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

s from an overhead

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at ...

, which also contains a cycling path. It is serviced by Metro Trains' Sunbury line services. Express services do not stop at West Footscray. Platform 1: * all stations services to Flinders Street. Platform 2 (currently closed): * Formerly Platform 1 up until the side platform opened in July 2020. To be reopened as a turnback platform upon opening of the Metro Tunnel in 2025. Platform 3: * all stations services to Watergardens and Sunbury. Was formerly Platform 2. 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.

Transport links

CDC Melbourne operates three routes via West Footscray station, under contract to

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

: * : Laverton station – Footscray * : Laverton station – Footscray * : Laverton station – Footscray station

Transit Systems Victoria Transit Systems Victoria, formerly Sita Buslines, is a bus and coach operator in Melbourne, Australia. It is a subsidiary of Transit Systems and operates 18 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. History In 1966, Frank Bono a ...

operates two routes via West Footscray station, under contract to Public Transport Victoria: * : Williamstown –

Moonee Ponds Junction Moonee Ponds Junction is a bus and tram interchange on the junction of Ascot Vale Road / Pascoe Vale Road and Mount Alexander Road in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne (Puckle Street / Dean Street also meets at the same point). It is located approximately ...

* : Footscray – Newport station (Saturday and Sunday mornings only)

Gallery

File:Train arrives at West Footscray railway station, Melbourne.jpg, Westbound view of the now demolished station, with a

Comeng Commonwealth Engineering (often shortened to Com-Eng, later Comeng was an Australian engineering company that designed and built railway locomotives, rolling stock and trams. History Smith and Waddington, the predecessor to Commonwealth Engi ...

train arriving on Platform 1, in September 2010

References

External links

*
Rail Geelong gallery
{{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Sunbury=y, state=collapsed Former rail freight terminals in Victoria (Australia) Railway stations in Melbourne Railway stations in Australia opened in 1888 Railway stations in the City of Maribyrnong