The Deer Park–West Werribee railway line is a non-electrified rail line in the outer-western suburbs of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. The line was constructed as part of the

Regional Rail Link project Regional Rail Link (RRL) is the name of a project to build a length of railway through the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The name is also colloquially used to refer to the rail alignment constructed as part of the project. The pro ...

between June 2012 and October 2014, and opened in June 2015, with the goal of separating

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

's Geelong line services from

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

Werribee line The Werribee line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's ninth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in cen ...

services. It runs from a junction site near Manor to another junction site near Deer Park, where it joins the rest of the Regional Rail Link towards the line's terminus at

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

. The full route of the line carries the

Geelong V/Line rail service The Geelong line is a regional passenger rail service operated by V/Line in Victoria, Australia. It serves 15 stations towards its terminus in Waurn Ponds, a southern suburb of Geelong, via the Regional Rail Link. It is the most used region ...

, which now also serves the two stations built on the line to serve growth areas in Melbourne's western suburbs,

Tarneit Tarneit () is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Tarneit recorded a population of 56,370 at the 2021 census. Located near anothe ...

and

Wyndham Vale Wyndham Vale is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, one of the fastest growing suburbs of Melbourne, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Wyndham Vale recorded ...

. Two more stations are currently planned for construction, Tarneit West and Truganina.

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

services join the line at Deer Park, while

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...

services do not use the line at all, instead using the other part of the Regional Rail Link from Sunshine − Southern Cross. In 2018, plans were announced to quadruplicate the line and integrate it into the electrified suburban network, however as of 2024 there are no concrete plans to do this.

History

The Deer Park–West Werribee railway line was built as part of the Regional Rail Link project, with the aim of increasing capacity on the rail network by separating regional and suburban passenger services in Melbourne's west. The line runs from Manor junction (on the

Warrnambool line The Warrnambool line is a long-distance regional rail service in Victoria, Australia. Operated by V/Line, it is the state's fourth longest railway line at . The line runs from Southern Cross station in central Melbourne to Warrnambool statio ...

) to a junction site approximately three kilometres west of

Deer Park railway station Deer Park railway station is a regional railway station on the Ararat and Warrnambool lines, part of the Victorian railway network. It serves the western suburb of Deer Park, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Deer Park station is an elevat ...

(on the Serviceton line), where it joins a new pair of tracks also dedicated for regional services, bypassing several stations on the

Sunbury line The Sunbury line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street railway station, Fl ...

. The double-track line had two stations built on it,

and

, to

housing estates A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular through ...

in those areas. The

was rerouted to use the line, no longer sharing tracks with

services operated by

Metro Trains Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the operator and brand name of train services on the electrified metropolitan rail network serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest urban rail network in Au ...

services only join the alignment at Deer Park, and

services do not use this line at all; they instead join the other part of the Regional Rail Link at

Sunshine Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically per ...

. Test trains began operating upon completion of the line in October 2014 and passenger services started on 21 June 2015.

Future expansion

In 2018 the Andrews Government announced the

Western Rail Plan The Western Rail Plan is a proposed metropolitan rail infrastructure project in Melbourne, Australia. The project was initially announced during the 2018 Victorian state election by the State Government. It includes the electrification of tw ...

, which included electrification and quadruplication of the line. In 2023, it was reported that the Western Rail Plan no longer included quadruplication and there are no concrete plans to electrify the line. During the

2022 Victorian state election The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Victorian Legislat ...

, the Andrews Government committed to building two new infill stations on the corridor, Tarneit West and Truganina. Site investigation works are currently underway for Tarneit West.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deer Park - West Werribee railway line Railway lines in Melbourne Railway lines opened in 2015 5 ft 3 in gauge railways in Australia 2015 establishments in Australia Transport in the City of Melton Transport in the City of Wyndham