page_title: North East railway line
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: North East railway line / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Spirit of Progress headed by S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell near Kilmore, c1938.
context_page_description: The North East railway line is a railway line in Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Albury railway station in the border settlement of Albury–Wodonga to Southern Cross railway station on the western edge of the Melbourne central business district, serving the cities of Wangaratta and Seymour, and smaller towns in northeastern Victoria. The line, owned by VicTrack, but leased to, and maintained by, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, and forms part of the Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor.
  Unlike other heavy rail lines in Victoria, the line is completely standard gauge, after gauge-conversion works were carried out between 2008 and 2010. However, the broad gauge Tocumwal line runs parallel to the line between Seymour and Broadmeadows.
context_section_description: The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company opened the first section of the Albury line, from North Melbourne to Essendon, in 1860. Following its takeover by the Victorian Government in 1867, the line was extended by 1872 to School House Lane on the south side of the Goulburn River near Seymour, and later that year to Seymour and then to Longwood. Violet Town, Benalla, Wangaratta, Springhurst and Wodonga were reached in 1873, connecting with the New South Wales Government Railways at Albury at a break of gauge in 1883. The design engineer was Robert Watson.
  Construction of a standard gauge track parallel with the broad gauge from Albury to Melbourne commenced in 1959, completing the Sydney-Melbourne railway. The first freight train operated on 3 January 1962, the first passenger train on 16 April.
  The line was used by prestige passenger services between the state capitals of Melbourne and Sydney, including the Sydney Limited, Spirit of Progress, Southern Aurora, and Intercapital Daylight; but due to declining patronage they were replaced by the XPT from the 1990s.
  Maintaining two parallel railways has drawn criticism, including inefficiencies in maintaining track, operating trains, and duplicated train control centres. By 2001 the State Government announced the conversion of the broad gauge line to standard, but action was stifled due largely to complex leasing arrangements. Speed restrictions had been applied to the broad gauge line due to track deterioration.
  In May 2008 it was announced that the line would be upgraded, with the conversion of 200 kilometres (120 mi) of broad gauge track to standard gauge between Seymour and Albury, a 5 km (3.1 mi) bypass around Wodonga, and upgrades between Melbourne and Seymour including new passing loops. Passenger platforms were to be built on the standard-gauge line, and V/Line locomotives and carriages converted to operate on the line. Costing A$501.3 million, the Victorian Government was to contribute A$171.3 million, the Australian Government A$45 million for the Wodonga Rail Bypass, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation A$285 million and take responsibility for the standard-gauge line under a 45-year lease from Victoria. The project was due for completion by 2010, with passenger services to be disrupted for up to 12 months.
  On 8 November 2008, broad gauge passenger trains ceased after the evening V/Line service from Melbourne to Albury and a special train operated by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, the final broad-gauge passenger train from Albury to Melbourne. In December 2008, standardisation works commenced, contracted by ARTC to the Southern Improvement Alliance. The first train on the Wodonga Rail Bypass was in March 2010.
  In early August 2010 CountryLink decided to terminate all Sydney-Melbourne XPTs at Albury for an indefinite length of time, due to defects in the newly resleepered track. "Mud holes" resulted in speed restrictions on more than 200 kilometres (about 66 per cent) of the line, adding an extra 1.5 hours to the travelling time. Train drivers have blamed the ARTC's $285 million concrete sleeper project for the track issues, stating that the incorrect insertion of 300,000 new concrete sleepers is to blame. They have repeatedly reported freight trains breaking couplings due to the rough track. CountryLink trains resumed in mid September 2010, V/Line trains the following year.
caption: A streamlined S class locomotive hauling the Spirit of Progress near Kilmore East in 1937
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