Melton railway station is a

regional rail Regional rail is a public transport, public rail transport service that operates between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops than inter-city rail, and unlike commuter rail, operate beyond the limits of urban areas, connectin ...

way station on the Ararat line, part of the Victorian railway network. It serves the outer-western suburb of Melton South, in

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, Australia. It opened on 2 April 1884. The station is planned to be rebuilt by 2026 as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project.

History

19th century

Melton Station opened when the railway line from Braybrook Junction (Sunshine) was extended to the town. Like the town itself, the station was named after Melton Mowbray in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1886, the line was extended westward to Parwan and, being on a single track section, the station was the site of a crossing loop from that time. By 1889, the station had an interlocked signal box, single passenger platform, and a three-track

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

. There was a goods shed opposite the passenger platform.

20th century

In 1962, flashing light signals were provided at the Exford Road

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 or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

, located nearby in the up direction from the station. In 1987, the yard was rationalised, being reduced to a main line and crossing loop. Boom barriers were provided at the level crossing in 1990, and a second platform was added in 1991. In 1998, the station building was refurbished.

21st century

In 2005, as part of the Regional Fast Rail project, control of the

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

s was transferred to the

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 ...

signal box. The station retains the lever frame for historical purposes. As part of the Regional Rail Revival project, 18 km of track was duplicated between the Deer Park West junction and Melton. The duplication was completed in late 2019, coinciding with the opening of the newly-built Cobblebank Station.

Future

On 6 October 2022, the Andrews Government announced that four level crossings will be removed in Melton and Truganina by the Level Crossing Removal Project. As part of these removals, Melton Station will be rebuilt by 2026. Throughout 2024, concept designs for the new Melton Station were released. The rebuilt station will include four platforms; Platforms 2 and 3 as an

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

with two faces, and Platforms 1 and 4 as side platforms. The platforms will be long enough to accommodate 9-carriage V/Line VLocity DMUs in the future, set to be introduced to the line by 2028. Electrification and quadruplication of the Ararat line up to Melton was announced by the Andrews Government as part of the Western Rail Plan. In 2023, it was reported that quadruplication of the line had been cut, and there is no current plan to electrify the line.

Platforms and services

Melton has two

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 platforms, ...

s and is served by V/Line

and Ararat line trains. Platform 1: * services to Southern Cross * services to Southern Cross * one daily service to Southern Cross Platform 2: * services to Bacchus Marsh and Wendouree * services to Ararat

Transport links

Transit Systems Victoria operates eight bus routes to and from Melton 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 previously the trading name of the Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authority in Victo ...

: * : to Eynesbury * : to Melton * : to Cobblebank station * : to Micasa Rise/Roslyn Park ( Harkness) * : to Melton * : to Kurunjang * : to Arnolds Creek ( Melton West) * FlexiRide Melton South

References

External links

Victorian Railway Stations gallery

Melway map
at street-directory.com.au {{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Western=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1884 Railway stations in the City of Melton