page_title: Freight railways in Melbourne
section_title: Ownership and operators
hierarchical_section_title: Freight railways in Melbourne / Ownership and operators
caption_attribution_description: NR class locomotive shunting at the Melbourne Steel Terminal
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: Freight traffic in Victoria is divided into two main segments: interstate freight on standard gauge, and intrastate freight on broad gauge.
  All track is owned by VicTrack, but is leased to and managed by differing organisations. The broad gauge lines were leased to Freight Victoria in 1999 as part of the privatisation of the rail network. Pacific National bought Freight Australia in August 2004 and in May 2007 the lease and management of the track was sold to V/Line. The interstate standard gauge lines are leased and managed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
  Freight terminals are mainly leased from VicTrack or owned outright by private operators. There are also a number of 'common user' terminals managed by VicTrack, which are open to any freight operator.
  On the broad gauge, the main freight operator is Pacific National, as well as Qube Logistics and Southern Shorthaul Railroad. On the standard gauge, operations are more varied, with trains run by the aforementioned operators, as well as SCT Logistics.
caption: NR class locomotive at the Melbourne Steel Terminal
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:06:16 13:22:43", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9716", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7716", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:06:16 13:22:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:06:16 13:22:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "261023/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "88", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "683", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9230", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1728000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "384000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}