Pakenham railway line

Pakenham
Overview
Type Melbourne suburban service
System Metro Trains Melbourne, V/Line and freight to Gippsland
Connecting lines Sandringham, Frankston, and Cranbourne lines
Former connections Rosstown Railway, Outer Circle, and Spring Vale Cemetery lines
Stations 29 (via Loop)
Services Usually runs express between South Yarra and Caulfield in the day and stops all at night
Operation
Commenced 1877
Completed 1879
Rolling stock Comeng, Siemens
Technical
Line length 56.9 km (35.4 mi)
Number of tracks Quadruplicated to Caufield, remainder double track
Route map
Melbourne railways map.gif

The Pakenham railway line in Melbourne, Australia is the suburban electrified portion of the railway to Bairnsdale in eastern Gippsland. In addition to suburban electric trains, it carries diesel passenger trains and freight trains to Gippsland.

Description

The Pakenham line traverses mainly flat country with few curves and fairly minimal earthworks for most of the line. However between South Yarra and Malvern the line has been lowered into a cutting to eliminate level crossings, and between Malvern and Caulfield it has been raised on an embankment for the same reason. After Caulfield, the line has numerous level crossings, as well as some bridges over and under roads. The government in 2015 commenced a project to eliminate 50 level crossings on the railway network, including nine between Caulfield and Dandenong, expected to be completed within eight years.[1] These are expected to improve road traffic congestion in the area, especially in peak traffic times, and enable an increase in train numbers.The line encounters some gentle hills between Narre Warren and Beaconsfield which require some more extensive earthworks to negotiate.

Most of the line goes through built-up suburbs and some industrial areas, but after Dandenong, it gets into more open countryside, passing by open fields and farms, particularly after Beaconsfield. This outer portion of the line is one of Melbourne's main growth corridors, which is rapidly replacing farmland with houses and adding many new passengers to the line each year.

Infrastructure

The Pakenham line branches from the Alamein, Belgrave, Glen Waverley and Lilydale lines at Richmond and shares four tracks with the Frankston line to Caulfield, running next to the Sandringham line as far as South Yarra.

From Caulfield the rest of the line is double track, with three platforms at Oakleigh, Dandenong and Westall. Although there are plans to add a third track on some sections between Caulfield and Dandenong as part of the Dandenong railway line triplication project.[2][3][4] Automatic block signalling is provided throughout.

Intermediate terminating facilities are provided at Caulfield, Oakleigh, Westall, Springvale, Dandenong, Narre Warren and Berwick. Stabling sidings for suburban trains are provided at Caulfield, Oakleigh, Westall, Dandenong, and Pakenham, although those at Caulfield and Oakleigh are not normally used. Westall is also the location of a suburban train maintenance workshop.

History

The Pakenham line began as part of the main line to Gippsland, but at the time the route through the suburbs has not been determined, so the first portion to open was the section between Oakleigh and Bunyip (Gippsland) in October 1877. Oakleigh was connected to the city at South Yarra in April 1879.

The section from South Yarra to Hawksburn was duplicated from opening, and duplication was extended to Caulfield in 1881, Oakleigh in 1883, and Dandenong in 1891.

In 1915 the line from South Yarra to Caulfield was quadrupled, and it was possibly at the same time that this section of the line was lowered into a cutting to eliminate numerous level crossings. Power signalling was provided between Richmond and Hawksburn at the same time, then on to Caulfield in 1921.

Electrification of the line to Dandenong occurred in two stages in 1922. Power signalling was extended to Carnegie in 1933 and Oakleigh in 1940.

In 1954 the line beyond Dandenong was electrified mainly because of the expected briquette traffic from the brown coal mines in the Latrobe Valley, and over the next two years most of the line between Dandenong and Pakenham was duplicated and provided with power signalling, although Narre Warren to Berwick was not done until 1962.

Oakleigh to Dandenong was converted to power signalling in stages from 1970 to 1972.

In 1975, suburban services were extended beyond Dandenong to Pakenham, which until then had only been served by the passenger trains connecting Gippsland to Melbourne.

In 2002, General Motors station closed and all trains ran express between Hallam and Dandenong.

On 1 March 2007, with the abolition of Zone 3, Pakenham was re-zoned to Zone 2 in the Melbourne Metropolitan rail system. This brought the cost of train fares down, improving accessibility to the public.

A new station at Cardinia Road opened in 2012.

Services

Pakenham line services run express between South Yarra and Caulfield between 6 am and 11 pm on weekdays and between 10 am and 7 pm on weekends, and stops all stations at all other times. During the weekday peaks, some services will also not stop at both Westall and Yarraman in addition to running express between South Yarra and Caulfied, and some services will originate and terminate at Westall or Dandenong, running express between South Yarra and Caulfield. During the morning peak, these short services may also instead run express between Richmond and Caulfield outbound. On weekends between 5:45 pm and 7:45 pm, every second citybound service also operates as a shuttle between Pakenham and Dandenong, connecting with a Cranbourne line train.

Weekday morning and weekend services run anticlockwise through the City Loop, while weekday afternoon services run clockwise. Weekend early morning services run direct to and from Flinders Street.

Line guide

Bold stations are termini, where some train services terminate; italic stations are staffed; and stations with an asterisk (*) are manned only during morning peak.

Branches from the City Loop at Flinders Street and Parliament.

Pakenham railway line
Legend
 1.2 km Southern Cross (SSS) Zone 1
Flinders Street Viaduct
0.0 km Flinders Street (FSS) Zone 1
 City Loop
 2.4 km Richmond (RMD) Zone 1
 Burnley group
 City Link
 Yarra River
 4.2 km South Yarra (SYR) Zone 1
 Sandringham line
 5.4 km Hawksburn (HKN) Zone 1
 6.7 km Toorak (TOR) Zone 1
 7.4 km Armadale (ARM)* Zone 1
 8.9 km Malvern (MAL)* Zone 1
 10.6 km Caulfield (CFD) Zone 1
 Frankston line
 12.3 km Carnegie (CNE)* Zone 1
 13.2 km Murrumbeena (MRB)* Zone 1
 Outer Circle line
 14.2 km Hughesdale (HUG) Zones 1 & 2
 Rosstown Railway
 15.4 km Oakleigh (OAK) Zones 1 & 2
 17.0 km Huntingdale (HUN)* Zones 1 & 2
 19.2 km Clayton (CLA) Zone 2
 21.4 km Westall (WTL) Zone 2
 23.3 km Springvale (SPG) Zone 2
 Springvale Cemetery Line
 24.4 km Sandown Park (SNP) Zone 2
 25.1 km Noble Park (NPK) Zone 2
 Mile Creek
 27.8 km Yarraman (YMN) Zone 2
 EastLink
 Yarraman Creek
 30.0 km Dandenong (DNG) Zone 2
 Dandenong Creek
 Cranbourne line
 Eumemmering Creek
 33.8 km General Motors (Closed)
 South Gippsland Freeway
 36.2 km Hallam (HLM) Zone 2
 Troups Creek
 39.5 km Narre Warren (NWA) Zone 2
 Princes Freeway
 43.4 km Berwick (BEW) Zone 2
 Cardinia Creek
 45.8 km Beaconsfield (BFD) Zone 2
 50.2 km Officer (OFC) Zone 2
 Gum Scrub Creek
 54.6 km Cardinia Road (CDA) Zone 2
 Toomuc Creek
 56.9 km Pakenham (PKM) Zone 2
 Bairnsdale and Traralgon lines

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://ptv.vic.gov.au/projects/railway-crossings/removing-level-crossings/
  2. ↑ "Plan for new Dandenong train line off the rails" by Jason Dowling, The Age, 5 August 2008.
  3. ↑ "Anger at Caulfield end of line", by Paul Riordan, Caulfield Glen Eira Leader, 5 August 2008
  4. ↑ Dandenong Rail Corridor Project, Department of Transport website
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