The Albion–Jacana line is a railway line in the western suburbs of

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. Linking

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

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 ...

to Jacana on the Craigieburn line, it is primarily used by freight trains and has no

overhead wires An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipment ...

, passenger stations or platforms.

History

The line was opened on 1 July 1929 to allow freight trains to avoid the steeper grades and busy suburban traffic on the Broadmeadows line via

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 ...

. Initially consisting of two broad gauge tracks, in 1962 the track on the eastern side was converted to

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 Ea ...

as part of the Melbourne to Sydney gauge standardisation project.

Melbourne Airport rail link

The Albion–Jacana railway line is a major section of the present preferred option for the proposed rail link to

Melbourne Airport Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...

running via Sunshine station to the

Melbourne central business district The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...

. The extra land required to build the link was confirmed as being reserved by the

State Government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

in 2002. In March 2013, the State Government confirmed that the Albion–Jacana corridor would be part of the proposed

Melbourne Airport rail link Melbourne Airport Rail is a rail link under construction from the Melbourne CBD to Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine. Since October 2022 the project has also been branded as SRL Airport. The rail link is to run through the under-construction Metr ...

Description

Built as a

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 ...

railway, two major steel viaducts were required to cross the

Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near ...

and

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for ...

valleys. The Maribyrnong River Viaduct is above the riverbed at its highest point and is the second tallest bridge in Victoria after the

West Gate Bridge The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, spanning the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip. It carries the West Gate Freeway and is a vital link between the inner ci ...

. Today the track on the eastern side is standard gauge and part of the

North East standard gauge line North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

with two crossing loops. The parallel broad gauge also has two crossing loops, each located before rejoining the main lines, and has a 20 km/h speed limit due to the poor track condition.

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 ...

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

and

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...

XPT passenger services operate on the standard gauge line. Standard gauge in blue, broad gauge in red. Distances on the line are measured via Albion.

References

External links

1979 Signalling diagram: Albion to Broadmeadows
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albion-Jacana railway line Railway lines in Melbourne Railway lines opened in 1929 1929 establishments in Australia Transport in the City of Merri-bek Transport in the City of Brimbank Transport in the City of Moonee Valley