Glen Waverley railway line

Glen Waverley
Overview
Type Melbourne suburban service
System Metro Trains Melbourne
Connecting lines Alamein,Belgrave and Lilydale lines
Former connections Outer Circle line
Stations 12
Services Stopping all stations, some peak expresses
Operation
Commenced 1890
Completed 1930
Rolling stock Comeng, X'Trapolis
Technical
Line length 22.25 km (13.83 mi)
Number of tracks Double track throughout
Route map
Melbourne railways map.gif

The Glen Waverley railway line is a suburban electric railway in Melbourne, Australia. It branches from the Lilydale at Burnley station. It has 12 stations in PTV ticketing Zones 1 and 2.

Description

The Glen Waverley line leaves the Lilydale line at Burnley, and crosses the Yarra River to follow the Monash Freeway and the valley of Gardiners Creek through seven stations to Holmesglen. Next it rises through Jordanville and Mount Waverley stations, before reaching a peak just over 130 metres (430 ft) above sea level west of Lawrence Road. After this the line descends rapidly to a bridge across a valley before the next station, Syndal. The line rises and falls again to the terminus, Glen Waverley.

The journey from Holmesglen to the terminus involves some of the steepest grades in Melbourne (1 in 30).

Despite the heavy grades, earthworks are fairly moderate. The line has several level crossings in the Gardiners Creek section, but the rest of the line crosses roads by means of bridges over or under the railway. The level crossings include one of Melbourne's three locations where the railway crosses tram lines, at Glenferrie Road near Kooyong station. The tramway crossing at Burke Road near Gardiner station was replaced with a road-over-rail bridge in 2015.[1][2][3]

Infrastructure

The line is double track throughout, and controlled by automatic block signalling. Intermediate terminating facilities are provided only at Darling, although it is not normally used. Stabling facilities are provided at the junction (Burnley) and the terminus (Glen Waverley).

History

A rail connection from Princes Bridge station to Punt Road (Richmond) was made over a line built by the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company in 1859, and their branch line from Richmond to Burnley opened in 1861.

In 1890, what would become the Glen Waverley line, opened from Burnley to Darling. The Burnley – Darling line was electrified in 1920 with a one station extension to Eastmalvern in 1929. In 1930 the line was extended to Glen Waverley and became the Glen Waverley railway line.

At the same time in 1890 a line known as the Outer Circle line opened, running from Oakleigh (on the Dandenong line) to Darling, continuing to Burnley (a further line of the Outer Circle junctioned north to Riversdale at Waverley Road, near to where East Malvern now is). The Outer Circle was closed in sections between 1893 and 1897 and the Burnley – Waverley Road line section was cut back to Darling in 1895. In 1929 when the Glen Waverley line construction began its first extension from Darling to Eastmalvern, it was on the track of the Outer Circle line up to a short distance nigh of the new Eastmalvern station. The Outer Circle line would have begun its curve south towards Waverley Road and Oakleigh. The Glen Waverley line was to continue straight east and curve towards Holmesglen.

The 1950s saw the line undergo major upgrades, including the first centralised traffic control installation in Australia. Commissioned in September 1957 and 6 miles (9.7 km) in length, the Victorian Railways installed it as a prototype for the North East standard project.[4]

The Comeng trains were introduced to the Melbourne railway system in 1981. Initially, along with the Glen Waverley line, they were only allowed to operate on the Alamein, Belgrave, Dandenong and Lilydale lines, due to the width of the trains (10 feet).[5]

Services

The majority of trains stop all stations. Some peak services do not stop at East Richmond station. A select number of services operate as express trains, running express between Richmond and Darling.

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 Belgrave, Lilydale and Alamein lines at Burnley.

Glen Waverley railway line
Legend
0.0 km Flinders Street (FSS) Zone 1
Belgrave and Lilydale lines
4.1 km Burnley (BLY) Zone 1
Belgrave & Lilydale lines
CityLink
Yarra River
5.8 km Heyington (HEY) Zone 1
7.0 km Kooyong (KYG) Zone 1
8.4 km Tooronga (TGA)* Zone 1
9.4 km Gardiner (GAR) Zone 1
10.3 km Glen Iris (GIR) Zone 1
11.4 km Darling (DLG) Zones 1 & 2
Outer Circle line
Outer Circle line
12.5 km East Malvern (EMV) Zones 1 & 2
Monash Freeway
14.4 km Holmesglen (HOL)* Zones 1 & 2
16.4 km Jordanville (JOR) Zone 2
17.8 km Mount Waverley (MWY) Zone 2
19.6 km Syndal (SYN) Zone 2
20.9 km Glen Waverley (GWY) Zone 2
21.3 km Glen Waverley (former)

References

  1. Burke Road, Glen Iris Level Crossing Removal Authority
  2. Burke Road Level Crossing Removal Update issue 6 Level Crossing Removal Authority December 2015
  3. Labor Government delivers new train station in Glen Iris Premier of Victoria 18 January 2016
  4. Leo J. Harrigan (1962). Victorian Railways to '62. Public Relations and Betterment Board. p. 176.
  5. "Traffic". Newsrail. Australian Railway Historical Society. August 1981. p. 185.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.