Albion–Jacana railway line

The Albion–Jacana line is a railway line in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Linking Albion on the Sunbury line to Jacana on the Craigieburn line, it is primarily used by freight trains and has no overhead wires, passenger stations or platforms.

Albion–Jacana
Overview
Stations	None
Service
Type	Freight and limited passenger.^[1]^[2]^[3]
System	Australian Rail Track Corporation
History
Opened	1929
Technical
Number of tracks	Double track, broad and standard gauge
Route map Legend km North East line to Southern Cross & Sunbury, Bendigo, Echuca & Swan Hill lines to Flinders Street 14.9 Albion Sunbury, Bendigo, Echuca & Swan Hill lines to Sunbury 14.9 Albion Loop 15.4 Stony Creek 16.7 McIntyre Road 17.3 McIntyre Sidings | McIntyre Loop 18.8 Maribyrnong River Viaduct over Maribyrnong River 18.8 Keilor Park Drive 19.8 Albistore Siding (demolished) 21.5 Calder Freeway Keilor East (proposed) Melbourne Airport line to Melbourne Airport (proposed) 23.3 Tullamarine Loop 24.7 Tullamarine Freeway 25.3 Moonee Ponds Creek 27.6 Pascoe Vale Road Craigieburn, Seymour & Shepparton lines via Essendon 27.7 Jacana 27.8 Western Ring Road 27.8 Jacana Loop 28.9 Camp Road North East line to Albury & Craigieburn, Seymour & Shepparton lines to Craigieburn km broad gauge standard gauge dual gauge

History

The line was opened on 1 July 1929 to allow freight trains to avoid the steeper grades and busy suburban traffic on the Broadmeadows line via Essendon.^[4] Initially consisting of two broad gauge tracks, in 1962 the track on the eastern side was converted to standard gauge as part of the Melbourne to Sydney gauge standardisation project.

Melbourne Airport rail link

Main article: Melbourne Airport rail link

The Albion–Jacana railway line is a major section of the present preferred option for the proposed rail link to Melbourne Airport running via Sunshine station to the Melbourne central business district. The extra land required to build the link was confirmed as being reserved by the Victoria State Government in 2002.^[5]

In March 2013, the State Government confirmed that the Albion–Jacana corridor would be part of the proposed Melbourne Airport rail link.^[6]

Description

Built as a double track railway, two major steel viaducts were required to cross the Maribyrnong River and Moonee Ponds Creek valleys. The Maribyrnong River Viaduct is 54.5 metres (178.8 ft) above the riverbed at its highest point and is the second tallest bridge in Victoria^[7] after the West Gate Bridge.

Today the track on the eastern side is standard gauge and part of the North East standard gauge line with two crossing loops.^[8] The parallel broad gauge also has two crossing loops, each located before rejoining the main lines, and has a 20 km/h speed limit due to the poor track condition.^[9]

V/Line Albury and NSW TrainLink XPT passenger services operate on the standard gauge line.^[10][11][12]

Stations

Station histories

Station	Opened^[13]^[14]	Closed^[13]^[14]	Age	Notes^[13]^[14]
Albion	5 January 1860	1 January 1861	11 months	1st site Was originally Albion and Darlington
	24 March 1891	24 November 1919	28 years	1st site Reopened as Albion
	24 November 1919		104 years	2nd site
McIntyre Sidings	12 May 1964		59 years	Formerly Lysaght's Siding
Albistore Siding	3 February 1943	27 June 1972	29 years	Formerly Albstore Siding
Jacana	15 February 1959		65 years

References

1. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. . Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. . victorianrailways.net. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
5. (Press release). Minister for Transport. 18 January 2002. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2008.
6. "Route chosen for Melbourne airport link". Perth Now. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
7. (PDF). History Victoria. historyvictoria.org.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
8. "ARTC Network in Victoria" (PDF). ARTC – Access Seeker Network Configuration and Description. artc.com.au. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
9. "VICSIG – Infrastructure – Line Data Albion – Broadmeadows line". vicsig.net. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
10. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
11. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. . Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. Anderson, Rick (2010). Stopping All Stations. Clunes, Victoria: Full Parallel Productions. ISBN 978-0646543635. OCLC 671303814.
14. [Vicsig.net "VICSIG"]. vicsig.net. Retrieved 12 July 2023. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)