Epping railway line, Melbourne

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The Epping railway line is a suburban electric railway in Melbourne, Australia. It branches from the Hurstbridge line at Clifton Hill and heads north.

It has 20 stations in Metcard ticketing Zones 1 and 2.

1 Description
2 Infrastructure
3 List of stations
4 External links, maps, and timetables

[edit] Description

The Epping line travels almost due north, traversing gently rising land. It has few curves, few significant grades, and little in the way of earthworks other than a cutting near Northcote. It has numerous level crossings, and only a few bridges over or under roads. Despite the otherwise fairly straight line, it does include Melbourne's sharpest railway curve, between Rushall and Merri. This curve originally made up the third side of a triangular junction, connecting the two original branches from the now-closed North Fitzroy station. Only this third leg of the triangle remains. The entire line runs through built-up areas of Melbourne's northern suburbs.

When line was originally constructed all services commenced from Spencer Street (now Southern Cross). The line was electrified as far as Reservoir in 1921, with diesel railcars continuing to the terminus at Whittlesea. By 1929 the line was electrified up to Thomastown, it then took until 1959 for the electrified service to be continued up to Lalor using wooden poles to support the overhead wires to save on costs.

After the electrification to Lalor in the 1950s, services beyond this point were discontinued, until the 30th of November, 1964 when the remaining line to Epping was electrified. The remaining line after Epping was dismantled in the 1970s. However, the right-of-way is still in place and is retained for future railway extension.

Following the election of the Bracks Government in 1999 a promise was made to restore the service to South Morang along the former right-of-way, however to this date no work has commenced. The Restoration of the railway to Mernda is also identified in the Strategic Transportation Study undertaken by the City of Whittlesea in 2002. A proposal also exists for a spur line to be constructed to Epping North.

[edit] Infrastructure

The line is double track to Keon Park, then single track to the terminus, although with a crossing loop at Lalor. The line is controlled by automatic block signalling (ABS) up to Keon Park, Then uses Automatic Track Control (ATC) as far as Lalor. From Lalor to Epping, the safeworking system in use is Station Limits. There are intermediate terminating facilities at Bell, Keon Park, and Lalor, none of which are normally used. Stabling facilities are provided at Epping, which is also the location of a repair centre.