Hurstbridge railway line, Melbourne

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The Hurstbridge railway line is a suburban railway in Melbourne, Australia. It branches from the City Loop in the central business district and heads in a northeast direction through the City of Yarra, City of Darebin, City of Banyule, and the Shire of Nillumbik. Some of the suburbs served by the line include East Melbourne, Collingwood, Fairfield, Heidelberg, Greensborough, Eltham, and Hurstbridge. It has 23 stations in Metcard ticketing Zones 1 and 2.

1 Description
2 Infrastructure
3 History
4 List of stations
5 External links, maps, and timetables

[edit] Description

The Hurstbridge line traverses the rolling hills of Melbourne's north-eastern suburbs, at times cutting across hills and valleys, resulting in a somewhat windy and hilly line. It includes the only three tunnels on the suburban electrified system other than the underground city loop, although none of the three tunnels are particularly long nor deep.

The first section from Flinders Street station to Victoria Park was actually built later than the rest of the line, which was originally connected to the rest of the suburban system via the now-closed "Inner Circle" line. There is evidence that the line was originally intended to be connected via this route, but geography and existing suburbs made it a problematic situation. The section uses two tunnels to cut under a low ridge just east of Melbourne, and most of the rest is built on an embankment that carries the line above numerous main roads and suburban side streets.

After Clifton Hill the line roughly parallels the north bank of the Yarra River, cutting across a number of watercourses flowing into the Yarra, and the ridges between them. At Heidelberg is the third tunnel. The line then encounters steeper grades until Eltham, after which it follows the valley of Diamond Creek, with easier grades but a windier route, with some curves having speed limits as low as 40km/h. This line boasts two of the largest bridges on the suburban network, one over the Merri creek between Clifton Hill and Westgarth, and the other on the up side of Darebin, crossing Darebin Creek.

Apart from the first section of the line, it has numerous level crossings, plus a number of unprotected crossings with private driveways past Diamond Creek, and also a number of bridges over or under roads. The area traversed by the line is mostly built-up suburbs in the inner area, thinning out after Greensborough, and much of the outer end of the line is surrounded patches of bush and paddocks.

[edit] Infrastructure

The Hurstbridge line is notable for having several single-track sections. The unusually large number of single track sections is due to constraints imposed by the underlying infrastructure, and geography. These unduplicated sections give the Hurstbridge line several bottlenecks at which trains must sometimes wait for the tracks to clear before proceeding. The single-track sections are as follows:

Between Clifton Hill and Westgarth is a single-track railway bridge over Merri Creek (recently announced to be duplicated- see Department of Infrastructure Website).
Between Heidelberg and Rosanna is a single-track railway bridge over Burgundy Street, followed by a short single-track tunnel.
The 15 km section of track between Greensborough and Hurstbridge is single track. Eltham and Diamond Creek railway stations each have two platforms, providing points at which trains can pass. This section of unduplicated track includes a timber trestle bridge near Eltham Station that has heritage protection. The bridge has a 40km/h speed limit.

Trestle bridge south of Eltham railway station.

The Hurstbridge line is the only electrified line in Melbourne to still use token safeworking systems. Greensborough to Eltham is controlled by the "Miniature electric staff" system and Eltham to Hurstbridge by the "Staff and Ticket" system. The latter section can be divided into two sections at Diamond Creek, allowing trains to cross at that station. Greensborough, Eltham, Diamond Creek, and Hurstbridge still retain some semaphore signals. However, these methods of safeworking are being gradually phased out of use on these sections, as they will get Automatic Electronic Signaling to bring them in line with the rest of the metropolitan network. Both the "Miniature electric staff" system & the "Staff and Ticket" system will be out of service before the end of 2008.

Intermediate terminating facilities are provided at Victoria Park (not normally used except for trains using the stabling siding), Clifton Hill (not normally used), Heidelberg (only normally used by a couple of unadvertised placement trips a day), Macleod, and Greensborough. Also, in theory, trains could terminate anywhere on the sections controlled by Electric Staff or Staff and Ticket, but in practice the only place trains on these sections terminate short of the terminus is Eltham. Stabling facilities are provided at Victoria Park, Macleod, Eltham, and Hurstbridge.

Macleod station is the only station on the Hurstbridge line with more than two platforms. Macleod station has a third platform originally because of a short branch run to Mont Park but is used now for the rail yards located there. The extra platform is used during peak periods to provide a place at which trains can enter the system or terminate.

Line speeds are:

Flinders Street-Clifton Hill: 55km/h
Clifton Hill-Heidelberg: 80km/h
Heidelberg-Eltham: 75km/h
Eltham Hurstbridge: 65km/h

[edit] History

The first section of the Hurstbridge line to open was between Victoria Park (then named Collingwood) and Heidelberg, in May 1888, although there is some evidence that the contractors building the line operated services prior to that. At this time, the line was connected to other lines via a line from Royal Park to Clifton Hill, most of which comprised what was later known as the Inner Circle line. This connection was opened at the same time.

A more direct connection, between Princes Bridge and Victoria Park (as Collingwood was renamed at the same time) was opened in October 1901. In June the following year the line was extended to Eltham, and ten years later (June 1912) to Hurst's Bridge (now Hurstbridge).

In the same year as the line reached Hurstbridge, the line between Westgarth and Alphington was duplicated. (The short single-track section between Clifton Hill and Westgarth crosses the moderately-deep valley of the Merri Creek. It remains single track to this day.)

In April 1921 automatic signalling was implemented between Princes Bridge and Clifton Hill.

A few months later, the line (from Princes Bridge) was electrified to Heidelberg, followed by electrification to Eltham in April 1923 and Hurstbridge in August 1926.

In September 1926 the single-line section between Clifton Hill and Westgarth was converted to Lever Locking and Track Control signalling, followed by Alphington to Heidelberg in June 1927.

In June 1949 Ivanhoe to Heidelberg to was duplicated and provided with automatic signalling. The same was done to the Alphington to Ivanhoe section in December 1951.

Duplication continued between Heidelberg and Macleod in December 1958, except for a short section after Heidelberg where the line crosses a bridge then goes through a tunnel. That section also remains single to this day.

On two consecutive days in September 1964 automatic signalling was provided between Westgarth and Fairfield, and Fairfield and Alphington.

Macleod to Greensborough was duplicated and converted to automatic signalling in August or September 1979.