Rail Geelong

The Champion Road level crossing removal will close the existing level crossing on the Werribee line at Champion Road in Newport, and upgrade local roads as an alternate route for road vehicles.

In 1959 a goods train derailed at Armytage, between Winchelsea and Birregurra, demolishing the Princes Highway bridge in the process.

Work on providing an extra track between North Geelong C and Gheringhap: the line was built in the 1860s as double track, but earthmoving is still required.

In 2011 the level crossing on Kororoit Creek Road on the Geelong line was grade separated, replaced by a four lane road overpass.

In 2008 the Laverton Rail Upgrade project was announced, to provide facilities for short starter trains to terminate at Laverton station. An additional citybound platform was built on the north side of the station, and an additional track was laid towards Altona to allow the services to operate independently of the main line. In addition, the station buildng was upgraded, and a new overhead footbridge provided.

In 2007 $28 million was allocated for a new footbridge and forecourt at Footscray station. Work started in January 2009, and was completed by April 2010. It was named the 'William Cooper Footbridge' after a local Indigenous leader and activist.

In May 2006, it was announced that North Melbourne station was to be redeveloped as part of a $36 million project. Work started in May 2007 and was completed on 16 November 2009.

In September 2009 signals gantries at North Shore and Corio were replaced - only the signal heads were replaced as part of the RFR project, and their access ladders were not up to modern standards

The pollies and media circus turned up to the north end of the future platform 15/16 at Southern Cross on Thursday August 27 to spruik the start of construction of the Regional Rail Link project from Southern Cross to Sunshine and Werribee. No actual sod was turned, instead Victorian Premier John Brumby, Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky were there to slowly raise and lower a pile driver head. The crowd of minders had been there for an hour before, including a construction worker charged with making sure the pile driver was spotless.

'The Age' is currently getting a new office building constructed on the southern side of Collins Street, across the road from Southern Cross Station and located over the railway lines. Here are some photos of the construction work involved with decking over the lines.

On February 22, 2009 Winchelsea was decommissioned as a block point, the crossing loop having been removed some months earlier. The up and down semaphore home signals were removed, and the up and down departure colour light signals were converted to LED automatic signals

Over the past few months V/Line have started to install new sensors along the Regional Fast Rail lines. Stress gauges have been inserted into the rail itself, and weather stations have been erected in caged compounds along with short stubs of track connected to sensors. It is believed they form a monitoring system that will let V/Line see what is happen to track in hot weather, and only put WOLO speed restrictions into place when they are required, not whenever the temperature is forecast over a given temperature. The Geelong line has both the stress gauges and weather stations, the Ballarat line has at least the weather stations.

In 2008 the railways discovered that the bits of track on the Geelong line that they did not upgrade under the Regional Fast Rail project (Little River - Lara and Corio - Geelong) now needed to be relaid. So now they need to cancel all trains at night, hire a bunch of guys at huge penalty rates, and handle each and every sleeper manually instead of using a special track layer to do it automatically - great cost saving ideas there guys...

In 2008 Pacific National started to scrap a huge collection of wagons that have been located at North Geelong Yard for varying periods of time. Wagons included ELX open wagons, various flavours of louvred vans, VHSF covered sand and fertiliser hoppers, and ancient VHCA cement hoppers. Trying to make money back from wagons too uneconomical to repair, or just scrapping everything so the competition can't use it - who knows...

On November 13/14th 2007 the level crossing at Ghazeepore Road was rebuilt. work started and trains ran though until the last down train, then the track was lifted. The next morning the track was down for the first up train and only the road surface needed relaying.

On the weekend of November 11, 2007 the Station Street level crossing at the down end of North Shore station was relaid. Only the West Line (normally up) was replaced.

On 2 September 1995 a West Coast Railways train bound for Warrnambool derailed at the Werribee Street level crossing in Werribee. The derailment was caused by a handbrake left on, resulting in damage to carriages ACZ260, BS 203, damaged electrical overheads, and the death of a woman in a car waiting at the level crossing. Here are some photos of the damaged stanchions, still visible in 2007. The overhead wiring beyond Werribee to the level crossing was removed as part of the rebuilding work.

On July 19 2007, the stored carriage BS 203 was transferred from a private yard at South Geelong to Seymour. The car has a damaged corner from it's involvement in the West Coast Railway derailment at Werribee in 1995. Photos of the rest of the carriages at South Geelong are here.

Photos from the 150th anniversary of the Geelong Line opening, June 24 2007

For a week in May 2007 night time trackwork was carried out from South Geelong towards Warrnambool. Here are some photos

On April 21, 2007 the power went out at Geelong station. Signals remained operational, but trains could not run due to the lack of lighting for passengers.

Photos of a Geelong line ballast train between Lara and Corio, November 2006

In February 2006 the Yarra Street level crossing at South Geelong was relaid. Here are some photos

On Friday February 3rd, 2006 V/Line launched their new VLocity trains on the Geelong line. Premier Steve Bracks, Transport Minister Peter Batchelor, and various other pollies appeared for the launch. The train left Southern Cross at 10:40, arriving in Geelong at 11:30. Units 23, 20, and 07 ran the service. The launch ceremony took place at Geelong Station at around 12:40 with many dignitaries present, including the Victoria Premier Steve Bracks and Transport Minister Peter Batchelor. The train returned to Melbourne at 1:30, but without the Premier on board. Mr Batchelor left the train at Lara.

As part of the Regional Fast Rail works the Geelong line was resignalled. During a shutdown of the line in June 2005 the signal bridge at the up end of Geelong station was removed

In April 2023 V/Line platforms 3 and 4 were extended from 190 to 250 metres to permit 9-car VLocity trains to stop there.

Over the Queens Birthday long weekend from 6 - 9 June 2008 the connection between Southern Cross Station and the suburban tracks was reconfigured and resignalled. New dual gauge trackwork was installed to platform 2, along with dual runaround tracks, a standard gauge motorail dock, and the replacement of the mechanical interlocking at Spencer Street No.1 signal box with a new Solid State Interlocking.

In 2018 the level crossing on Kororoit Creek Road on the Altona line was grade separated, with the railway being moved onto a double track rail over road bridge