The Melbourne rail network is a metropolitan suburban and freight rail system serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan rail network is centred around the Melbourne central business district (CBD) and consists of 227 railway stations across 16 lines, which served a patronage of 182.5 million over the year 2023–2024. It is the core of the larger Victorian railway network, with regional links to both intrastate and interstate rail systems.
Metro Trains Melbourne operates the Melbourne metropolitan rail network under franchise from the Victorian Government, overseen by Transport Victoria, a division of the Department of Transport and Planning. The government-owned entity V/Line operates trains from Melbourne across regional Victoria. The first steam train in Australia commenced service in Melbourne in 1854 between Flinders Street and Sandridge, with the metropolitan rail network having grown over the last two centuries to cover much of the city and greater Melbourne area.
The metropolitan network is a suburban rail system designed to transport passengers from Melbourne's suburbs into the Melbourne central business district (CBD) and associated city loop stations, with the main hub at Flinders Street station. Southern Cross station is the main interchange station between metropolitan and regional V/Line services. The Metro Tunnel project opened in December 2025 to increase rail capacity within the CBD and relieve pressure from the City Loop.
A total length of of track is owned by VicTrack and leased to train operators through Transport Victoria. The railway network is primarily at ground level, with some underground and elevated sections. There were more than 170 level crossings before the Level Crossing Removal Project commenced in 2015 to grade separate 110 of the busiest crossings and rebuild 51 railway stations, with 96 crossings removed by October 2026. The metropolitan network operates primarily between 5:00 a.m. and midnight, with overnight services on Friday night to Saturday morning and Saturday night to Sunday morning, departing from Flinders Street only. Some tracks are also used by freight trains and V/Line regional services.
In addition to the primary commuter and freight railway networks, Melbourne also features heritage railways such as Puffing Billy and has the world's largest urban tram network.
History First railway On 7 September 1851, a public meeting called for the construction of Australia's first railway to link Melbourne and Sandridge (now known as Port Melbourne), which led to the establishment of the privately owned Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company in 1853.
On 8 February 1853, the Government also approved the establishment of the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company and the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company. Work began in March 1853 on the Sandridge railway line, stretching from the Melbourne (or City) terminus (on the site of modern-day Flinders Street station) to Sandridge. The line was owned and operated by Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, opening in 1854.
In 1855, the Government conducted enquiries and carried out surveys into country railways. On 1 April 1856, the Railway Department was established as part of the Board of Land and Works with George Christian Darbyshire being appointed Engineer in Chief. On 23 May of that year the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company was taken over by the Government.
Trains were ordered from Robert Stephenson and Company of the United Kingdom. The first train was locally built by Robertson, Martin & Smith, however, owing to delays in shipping. Australia's first steam locomotive was built in ten weeks and cost £2,700. Forming the first steam train to travel in Australia, it made its maiden trip on 12 September 1854.Although horse-drawn "trains" debuted on a railway between Goolwa and Port Elliot in South Australia on 18 May of that year, Melbourne hosted the first mechanical railway.
The opening of the line occurred during the period of the Victorian gold rush—a time when both Melbourne and Victoria undertook massive capital works, each with its gala opening. The inaugural journey on the Sandridge line was no exception. According to the Argus newspaper's report of the next day: "Long before the hour appointed . . . a great crowd assembled round the station at the Melbourne terminus, lining the whole of Flinders Street". Lieutenant-Governor Sir Charles Hotham and Lady Hotham were aboard the train—which consisted of two first-class carriages and one-second class—and were presented with satin copies of the railway's timetable and bylaws.
The trip took 10 minutes, none of the later stations along the line having been built. On arriving at Station Pier (onto which the tracks extended), it was hailed with gun salutes by the warships HMS Electra and HMS Fantome.
By March 1855, the four engines ordered from the UK were all in service, with trains running every half-hour. They were named Melbourne, Sandridge, Victoria, and Yarra (after the Yarra River over which the line crossed).
Early private companies
The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company opened Melbourne's second railway on 13 May 1857, a line from the Melbourne (or City) Terminus to St Kilda. The line was later extended by the St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company, which opened a line from St Kilda to Brighton in 1857.
The first country line opened in 1857 when the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company started services on its line from Geelong to Newport. In 1859, the government-owned Victorian Railways Williamstown line opened, connecting Williamstown and Geelong to Spencer Street station.
More country lines followed in 1859 when the Victorian Railways opened a line from Footscray, on the Williamstown line, to Sunbury. The Victorian Railways had taken over construction from the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company, established in 1853 to build a railway to Echuca, but which had failed to make any progress.
The first line to Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs was opened in 1859 by the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company, running from Princes Bridge railway station to Punt Road (Richmond), South Yarra, and Prahran. That line was extended to Windsor in 1860, connecting with the St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company line from St Kilda. The new line replaced the indirect St Kilda and Windsor line to the city, which was closed in 1867.
Another suburban line was built by the Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company in 1860, running from North Melbourne to Essendon, with a branch line from Newmarket to Flemington Racecourse, which opened in 1861. On the eastern side of the city, the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company opened a branch line from Richmond to Burnley and Hawthorn in 1861.
By that point, the railways of Melbourne were a disjointed group of city-centric lines, with various companies operating from three unconnected city terminals—Princes Bridge, Flinders Street, and Spencer Street stations.
The smaller companies quickly encountered financial problems. The St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company and Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company were absorbed by the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company in 1865, forming the Melbourne and Hobsons Bay United Railway Company. The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company was taken over by the Victorian Government in 1867. The Melbourne and Hobsons Bay United Railway Company was not taken over by the Victorian Government until 1878.
The terminals themselves were linked in 1879, when the track was built at street level along the southern side of Flinders Street, connecting with Spencer Street station, although the track was only used at night, for freight traffic. It was not until 1889 that the two-track Flinders Street Viaduct was built between the two city terminus stations.
The outward expansion also continued, with major trunk lines being opened in rural Victoria. The Victorian Railways extended its line to Broadmeadows in 1872, as part of the line to Seymour and Albury-Wodonga. In 1879, the Gippsland line was opened from South Yarra to Caulfield, Pakenham and Bairnsdale.
Land boom lines
The 1870s and 1880s were a time of great growth and prosperity in Melbourne. Land speculation companies were formed, to buy up outer suburban land cheaply, and to agitate for suburban railways to be built or extended to serve those land holdings and increase land values. By 1880, the "Land Boom" was in full swing in Victoria, re-elected in the passing of the Railway Construction Act 1884, later known as the Octopus Act, which authorised the building of 66 railway lines throughout the state.
The Frankston line began with the opening of a line from Caulfield to Mordialloc in 1881, reaching the terminus in 1882. A second new suburban railway line was opened from Spencer Street Station to Coburg in 1884, and extended to Somerton in 1889, meeting the main line from Spencer Street to Wodonga. Land developers opened a private railway from Newport to Altona in 1888, but it was closed in 1890, due to lack of demand.
The line from Hawthorn was extended, to Camberwell in 1882, Lilydale in 1883, and Healesville in 1889. In addition, a branch line (now known as the Belgrave line) was opened from Ringwood to Upper Ferntree Gully in 1889. A short branch two station was also opened from Hawthorn to Kew in 1887. The Brighton Beach line was also extended to Sandringham in 1887.
In 1888, railways came to the northeastern suburbs with the opening of the Inner Circle line from Spencer Street station via Royal Park station to what is now Victoria Park station, and then on to Heidelberg. A branch was also opened off the Inner Circle in Fitzroy North, to Epping and Whittlesea in 1888 and 1889. Trains between Spencer Street and Heidelberg reversed at Victoria Park until a link was opened between Victoria Park and Princes Bridge in 1901.
The Outer Circle line opened in 1890, linking Oakleigh (on the Gippsland line) to Riversdale (with a branch to Camberwell on the Lilydale line) and Fairfield (on the Heidelberg line). Originally envisaged to link the Gippsland line with Spencer Street station in the 1870s, this reason disappeared with the building of a direct link via South Yarra before the line had even opened. The line saw little traffic as it traversed empty paddocks, and with no through traffic, the Outer Circle was closed in sections between 1893 and 1897. The Camberwell to Ashburton stretch of the Outer Circle re-opened in 1899, and then in 1900, part of the northern section of the Outer Circle reopened as a shuttle service between East Camberwell and Deepdene station. This line closed in 1927.
At the same time as the Outer Circle, a railway was opened from Burnley to Darling and a junction with the Outer Circle at Waverley Road (near the current East Malvern station). A stub of the future Glen Waverley line, it was cut back to Darling in 1895.
Railway building during the land boom hit a peak with the construction of the Rosstown Railway between Elsternwick and Oakleigh. Built by William Murry Ross, the line was planned in the 1870s to serve a sugar beet mill near Caulfield. Construction commenced in 1883, followed by rebuilding in 1888. Ross's debts grew, and he attempted to sell the line many times without success. It never opened to traffic and was later dismantled.
The stock market crash of early 1890s led to an extended period of economic depression in Victoria and put an end to most railway construction until the next decade.