Rail transport in Victoria
overview of rail transport in Victoria, Australia
Rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of 2,281.4 km of Victorian broad gauge (1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)) lines, and 1,805.5 km of standard gauge (1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)) freight and interstate lines; the latter increasing with gauge conversion of the former. Historically, a few experimental 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways. The rail network radiates from the state capital, Melbourne, with main interstate links to Sydney and to Adelaide, as well as major lines running to regional centres, upgraded as part of the Regional Fast Rail project and the Regional Rail Revival project.
The government-owned VicTrack owns all railway and tram lines, associated rail lands and other rail-related infrastructure in Victoria, which it leases to Public Transport Victoria which then sublets assets and infrastructure as appropriate to rail and tram operators. The state has four railway networks:
Metro Trains Melbourne operates Melbourne's electrified metropolitan network providing passenger services with electric multiple units,
V/Line operates the country passenger network with diesel trains,
Australian Rail Track Corporation leases from VicTrack the standard gauge tracks from Melbourne to Albury and to Serviceton to operate the interstate Melbourne-Adelaide and Melbourne-Sydney services, and
the grain network in the north west of the state, connected to the ports at Geelong and Portland. Freight services are operated by Southern Shorthaul Railroad, Pacific National and SCT Logistics (interstate and intrastate), and Qube Logistics (intrastate).
Victoria does not have a dominant mining base as with other states, and has traditionally been more dependent on agriculture for rail freight traffic. By the 1990s road transport had captured most general freight traffic, with an average of only 6.1 million tonnes of intrastate freight carried each year between 1996 and 1998; containers being the major cargo, followed by cement, logs, quarry products and steel.
History
The first railway lines in Victoria were built in the 1850s, and were privately owned and operated.
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