page_title: Freight railways in Melbourne
section_title: Former services
hierarchical_section_title: Freight railways in Melbourne / Former services
caption_attribution_description: Overview looking north-west from the CBD in Melbourne, Australia. Dudley Street train carriage yards in foreground, and Latrobe Street bridge then Melbourne Yard freight terminal. Elevated CityLink freeway overpass in background.
context_page_description: The rail network of Melbourne, Australia, has a significant number of railway lines and yards serving freight traffic. Rail transport in Victoria is heavily focused on Melbourne, and, as a consequence, much of the state's rail freight passes through the metropolitan network.
  The lines are of two gauges: 1,600 mm Victorian broad gauge and 1,435 mm standard gauge. Because the standard gauge lines were developed to facilitate interstate freight decades after the establishment of the original broad gauge network, they are used almost exclusively by freight services; while some broad gauge lines are used exclusively for freight, but many are shared with the suburban and regional passenger networks operated by Metro Trains Melbourne and V/Line respectively.
  Although a limited number of electric freight services historically operated in the metropolitan area, a lack of electrical infrastructure on Victorian mainlines means that no freight services in Melbourne now use electric traction, despite some services operating over the electrified passenger network.
  Fixed infrastructure, such as track, signals and yards, is largely owned, operated and maintained by government agencies.
context_section_description: In the late 1920s, the Victorian Railways introduced their fleet of E class electric locomotives which operated throughout Melbourne for the next 60 years, trains operating during the off-peak and at night. As late as the 1970s, most suburban railway stations had goods yards for general freight, as well as the local distribution of huge quantities of brown coal briquettes and firewood, which were the principal forms of industrial and domestic heating. Briquette traffic peaked in 1960/61 when 1.7 million tons were moved within Victoria, second only to the wheat harvest in volume.
  There were also a large number of sidings that directly served factories and other industrial facilities. With the rise of efficient door to door road transport, suburban rail freight operations ceased in the late 1980s. The majority of goods yards have since been removed and the land used for car parking, or converted to stabling locations for suburban trains.
  Suburban stations with goods yards or sidings included:
  Dandenong
  Essendon
  Newport
  Werribee
  Sunshine
  Broadmeadows
  Eltham
  Heidelberg
  General Motors
  Williamstown
  Laverton
  Newmarket
  Yarraville
  Spotswood (sand trains to AGM Siding near Nyora)
  Seaford
  Port Melbourne
  In recent years, attempts have been made to run shuttles between the Port of Melbourne and inland ports. Between 2003 and 2006, CRT Group operated a shuttle to their terminal at Altona, 22 kilometres from the docks. In 2004/05, the service transported 13,000 TEU, this being 42 per cent capacity for import and 58 per cent for export containers. The service ceased due to high access fees charged by track operator ARTC, and delays by interstate freight trains sharing the same track making the reliable operation of two trips per day impossible. The service restarted in 2005, but failed for the same reasons. A second port shuttle has operated to the Austrack terminal at Somerton during various periods since 1998, with difficulties faced including inefficient track layouts, high rail transfer charges at the port, and inconvenient timetables dictated by long distance freight services.
caption: Looking north from the Melbourne CBD north west towards the Southern Cross Station carriage yards, Melbourne Yard, the Melbourne Steel Terminal, and Dynon
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