South Kensington – West Footscray railway line

The South Kensington - West Footscray line is a railway line in the inner western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Linking South Kensington station on the Werribee line and associated freight terminals to Tottenham Yard and other freight lines, it is a primarily freight only line with no overhead wires, passenger stations or platforms. The most visible part of the line is the tunnel under Footscray station, which is often incorrectly called disused.

History

The line was opened on 21 October 1928 to allow freight trains to avoid suburban passenger train congestion at Footscray station, which was then only connected to Melbourne by a pair of tracks. Initially consisting of two broad gauge tracks, in 1962 the tracks were converted to dual gauge as part of the Melbourne to Sydney gauge standardisation project. Today the line is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation as part of the North East standard gauge line.

In recent years due to growing congestion on the above ground lines though Footscray, various proposals have been made for increased numbers of passenger services to use the...
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