Craigieburn line

19th century The line from North Melbourne to Essendon was opened by the Melbourne & Essendon Railway Company in November 1860. Soon after, the company opened a branch from Newmarket to Flemington Racecourse. 20th century Automatic Block Signalling was introduced on the line in 1918, with Kensington to Essendon being converted in June of that year, and North Melbourne to Kensington in October. In May 1919, Flinders Street to Essendon and the Sandringham line were the first lines to be electrified in Melbourne, apart from a test installation on the Flemington Racecourse line. In 1921, the line was electrified to Broadmeadows, where it remained until the extension of electrification in 2007. In January 1924, an extra pair of tracks, including a flying junction, opened between North Melbourne and Kensington, enabling the separation of passenger and goods traffic in the busy section. Further works were carried out in 1929, when the double tracked Albion–Jacana freight line opened, permitting freight trains to avoid the line via Essendon. A branch line was opened during the Second World War to Broadstore, designed to connect Broadmeadows station with the Maygar Barracks. The line opened on 12 October 1942 and remaining in operation until 1982, when usage of the base began to cease. Automatic Block Signalling was extended to Broadmeadows in November 1965. 21st century In 2003, an unmanned suburban train rolled the length of the line from Broadmeadows station for nearly , eventually crashing into another stationary train at Spencer Street station (now Southern Cross station). 11 people sustained minor injuries, however, nobody was seriously injured or killed from the accident. was rebuilt as part of the extension. On 30 September 2007, electrification of the Broadmeadows line was extended along the regional V/Line tracks to Craigieburn. The Craigieburn rail project delivered projects including: • Upgrading Craigieburn station to premium station status • A new station at Roxburgh Park • New train stabling facilities at Craigieburn • Construction of overhead wiring system with new sub-stations • Installation of new signalling systems along the Broadmeadows—Craigieburn corridor • The provision for a new station at Coolaroo (this ended up being built under another government) The Craigieburn Rail project started construction in May 2005 and was completed in late September 2007. An additional set of projects were delivered later on, with a new station at Coolaroo opened in 2010 and the construction of a fully-fledged train maintenance facility under the Brumby government. On 9 April 2012, a train maintenance facility, located north of the station, was opened by then Minister for Public Transport, Terry Mulder. With the delivery of the new X'Trapolis 2.0 fleet, the facility will be used by Metro Trains Melbourne to maintain the fleet, with upgrades underway to house the trains. This, in turn, will lead to the X'Trapolis 2.0 trains replacing the ageing Comeng fleet which served the Craigieburn line. No major projects, other than the level crossing removals on the Craigieburn line, have been announced since. Level Crossing Removals was rebuilt as part of the adjacent level crossing removal. The Level Crossing Removal Project announced the removal of 2 level crossings on the line, which were completed in stages between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, one level crossing was removed at Buckley Street, Essendon. The crossing was removed by lowering the road line underneath the rail line. The second crossing to be removed was the one at Glenroy Road, Glenroy, by lowering the rail line underneath the road. In addition, Glenroy station was rebuilt with a modern, wheelchair accessible, lowered design. As a result of these removals, the Craigieburn line now has a number of remaining crossings on the corridor that have not been slated for removal since the project's announcement. == Future ==

Wallan extension Highlighted in the 2018 Victorian Rail Plan, a proposal exists for the Craigieburn line to be connected to the Upfield line, via the construction of a rail link along the Somerton rail corridor. In addition, the Upfield line would be extended to Wallan. The 2018 Victorian Rail Plan has proposed the following projects take place as part of the Wallan extension: In 2018, the government announced that a business case would be completed for to further investigate the positivity for these series of projects to commence. == Network and operations ==

Services Services on the Craigieburn line operates from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 daily. In general, during peak hours, train frequency is 5–10 minutes in the AM peak on the Craigieburn line while during non-peak hours the frequency is reduced to 20–30 minutes throughout the entire route. Train services on the Craigieburn line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal works, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of works for affected commuters. Stopping patterns Legend — Station status • ◼ Premium Station – Station staffed from first to last train • ◻ Host Station – Usually staffed during morning peak, however this can vary for different stations on the network. Legend — Stopping patternsSome services do not operate via the City Loop • ● – All trains stop • ◐ – Some services do not stop • ▼ – Only outbound trains stop • | – Trains pass and do not stop Operators The Craigieburn line has had a total of 8 operators since its opening in 1860. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from the acquisition of the service from private operator the Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company in 1871 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 129 years. Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1998 and later rebranded M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with KPMG appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train operations including the Frankston line. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of years. Route {{maplink The line follows the same alignment as multiple lines with the Craigieburn line splitting off at North Melbourne. The Craigieburn line continues on its north western alignment, whereas the other lines continue onto a northern, western, or south-western alignment. Most of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs and some industrial areas. == Infrastructure ==

Rolling stock EMU at the old Glenroy station prior to its 2022 rebuild. The Craigieburn line uses two different types of electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration. The primary rolling stock featured on the line is the Comeng EMUs, built by Commonwealth Engineering between 1981 and 1988. These train sets are the oldest on the Melbourne rail network and subsequently will be replaced by the mid 2030s. The second type of rolling stock is the Siemens Nexas EMUs which are also widely featured on the line, originally built between 2002 and 2005, these train sets feature more modern technology than the Comeng trains. Alongside the passenger trains, Craigieburn line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation. Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by V/Line, Metro Trains, and the Southern Shorthaul Railroad. • Modernised doors to reduce the boarding times at stations to under 40 seconds • Passenger information systems to display that train's journey in real time • Higher energy efficiency to work with a lower network voltage, to fit in line with modern rail systems overseas • New interior designs including tip-up seating to allow space for wheelchair spaces. • Designated bicycle storage areas • Passenger operated automatic wheelchair ramps located behind driver cabs • 6 car fully walk through carriages Accessibility features accessible elevators and ramps. In compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, all stations that are new-built or rebuilt are fully accessible and comply with these guidelines. Just over half of the stations on the corridor are fully accessible, however, there are some stations that haven't been upgraded to meet these guidelines. These stations do feature ramps, however, they have a gradient greater than 1 in 14. Projects improving station accessibility have included the Level Crossing Removal Project, which involves station rebuilds and upgrades, and individual station upgrade projects. These works have made significant strides in improving network accessibility, with more than 57% of Craigieburn line stations classed as fully accessible. Future station upgrade projects will continue to increase the number of fully accessible stations over time. Signalling The Craigieburn line uses three position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three position signalling was first introduced in 1918, with the final section of the line converted to the new type of signalling in 2007. ==References==