Stratford 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 Gippsland line, part of the Victorian railway network. It serves the town of Stratford, in Victoria, Australia,and opened on 8 November 1887. It was closed in August 1993 and reopened on 3 May 2004.

History

When Stratford opened, it was a temporary terminus of the line from Stratford Junction, a few kilometres to the west. On 8 May 1888, the line was extended to

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale (locally ) (Gunai language, Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, situated in a region traditionally inhabited by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated popu ...

. Major signalling changes occurred at the station in 1986, including the abolition of the electric staff sections Sale - Stratford Junction and Stratford Junction - Stratford, which were replaced by the electric staff section Sale - Stratford, with an intermediate electric staff instrument provided at Stratford Junction. All signals and

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inte ...

at Stratford Junction were abolished at that time. Under the Kennett government,

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, ...

passenger services to Stratford were suspended in August 1993, when the line to

was closed. The passenger service was restored by the Backs government on 3 May 2004. The platform was lengthened by 39 metres in 2024. As part of the

Regional Rail Revival The Regional Rail Revival is a joint initiative between the Australian federal government and the Victorian state government to upgrade all regional railway lines in Victoria. The project has an estimated total cost of . of the project's tota ...

project to upgrade the Gippsland line, a new railway bridge was built over the Avon River, south of the station. It replaced the bridge which dated from 1888, on which train speeds had been restricted to 10 km/h for safety reasons. The new bridge was opened in December 2020. Until their closure,

Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

, Fernbank, Lindenow and Hillside stations were located between Stratford and Bairnsdale stations.

Platforms and services

Stratford has one platform and is served by

Bairnsdale line trains.Bairnsdale - Melbourne timetable
Public Transport Victoria Platform 1: * services to

and

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 ...

Gallery

File:Stratford station sign.jpg, Former

platform signage, September 2008 File:STRATFORD Railway Station, Victoria.jpg, Station building and entrance, February 2015 File:Stratford railway station sign January 2021.jpg, Station entrance signage, January 2021 File:Stratford railway station, Victoria building — April 2021.jpg, Station building and entrance, April 2021 File:Stratford railway station, Victoria platform sign — April 2021.jpg, Platform signage, April 2021 File:VLocity train arriving at Stratford railway station - April 2021.jpg, Rear of

-bound VLocity train, April 2021

References

External links

*
Victorian Railway Stations GalleryMelway map
{{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Eastern=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1887 Regional railway stations in Victoria (state) Transport in Gippsland (region) Shire of Wellington