page_title: Rail transport in Victoria
section_title: A new century
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport in Victoria / History / A new century
caption_attribution_description: English: Spirit of Progress headed by S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell near Kilmore, c1938.
context_page_description: Rail transport in Victoria, Australia, is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of Victorian broad gauge lines, and an increasing number of standard gauge freight and interstate lines; the latter brought into existence as a result of gauge conversion of the former. Historically, a few experimental 762 mm gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways.
  The first railway lines in Victoria were built in the 1850s, and were privately owned and operated. These started having financial problems and were taken over by the Government Railway Department, which was established by the Colonial Government and became a vertically integrated government service. This structure remained until corporatisation began in the 1970s, followed by privatisation in the 1990s. Passenger services on Melbourne's suburban rail network are operated by Metro Trains Melbourne with electric multiple units, and services to regional Victoria by V/Line with diesel trains. Freight services are operated by Aurizon, Pacific National and SCT Logistics, and Qube Logistics and TransVolution.
context_section_description: In 1907 the A2 class steam locomotive was introduced. There were 185 locomotives in this class, and they were Victorian Railway's main passenger locomotive until the arrival of the diesel-electric B class in 1952. On 20 April 1908 the Sunshine train disaster occurred, killing 44 passengers in the worst Victorian railway accident.
  Electrification of the Melbourne suburban network was also carried out, with the first train running in 1919. By 1924 210,000 passengers passed through the main city terminal of Flinders Street station per weekday. St Kilda was Melbourne's busiest suburban station with 4½ million journeys, followed by Footscray with almost 4 million, then Elsternwick, Ascot Vale, Essendon and Balaclava. Technology advancements continued, with 3 position automatic signals introduced in 1915, the conversion of screw couplings to knuckle couplers from 1924, and the first remote controlled signalling provided in 1925. The first level crossing flashing lights were installed at Mentone on Moorabin Road in 1932.
  Despite the World War I, significant extensions of rail lines were carried out, particularly in the wheat-growing areas in the north-west and west. The new lengthy parallel lines were considered to be cheaper to operate than the numerous short spurs such as those in the Goulburn Valley. By 1930 the railway map of Victoria was largely complete, with the best land settled and the remaining land marginal for agriculture, with several lines built across the state border into the Riverina of NSW. On November 1937 the first run of the Spirit of Progress was made, a streamlined all air-conditioned train run between Melbourne and Albury, led by the matching S class steam locomotives.
  From 1924 to 1935, the Better Farming Train made 38 tours promoting improved agricultural practices.
  The Victorian Railways biggest steam locomotive H 220 Heavy Harry entered service in 1941, at a time when the railways were struggling with the needs of the war effort. In 1943 the Victorian Railways employed 25,450, had 577 steam locos and 12 electric locos on register along with 19,823 goods wagons and 1,499 passenger cars, running along 4,758 miles (7,657 km) of lines. The network reached its largest extent in 1942, covering 7668 route kilometres.
caption: The Spirit of Progress headed by locomotive S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell near Kilmore East in 1938
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