Home > Railways in Melbourne

Melbourne, capital city of the State of Victoria, Australia, has a long history of railway development. Melbourne's first railway opened in 1854, when only 20 years earlier, the city did not exist. Today, Melbourne's suburban railway network consists of 16 electrified lines, the central City Loop subway, and 200 stations.

1 The first train

The first steam train to travel in Australia took its maiden trip on September 12, 1854. (Although horse-drawn 'trains' debuted on a railway between Goolwa and Port Elliot in South Australia on May 18 of that year, Melbourne hosted the first mechanical railway). The railway line stretched 4 kmA kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer (symbol: km is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres. It is approximately equal to 0. 621 miles, 1094 yards or 3281 feet. Slang terms for kilometre include " klick" (or "click") and "kay". Click" is also used for from the Melbourne (or City) Terminus (on the site of modern day Flinders Street StationFlinders Street Station (usually just called Flinders Street is the central railway station of the suburban rail network of Melbourne, Australia. It is located on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets next to the Yarra River in the heart of the city) to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne). As with many of Australia's early railways, it was owned and operated by a private company - the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, which was formed in 1853Events January 19 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome January 21 Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine January 29 Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugenie at the Tuileries March 4 Inauguration of US president Fra.

Work began on laying the railway in MarchFor alternative meanings, see March (disambiguation). March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. Named for Mars, the Roman god of war. In ancient Rome, March was called Martius. It was named after the war god ( Mars) and 1853, and trains were ordered from Robert Stephenson and Company of the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly. The first train was locally built by Robertson, Martin and Smith, however, owing to delays in shipping. Australia's first steam locomotive was built in ten weeks and cost £As a unit of currency, the term pound originates from the value of a Troy pound weight ( Latin libra , of high purity silver, and is the currency unit of a number of countries: Cyprus see Cyprus Pound Egypt Gibraltar Lebanon Malta Syria see Syrian pound U2,700.

The opening of the line occurred during the period of the Victorian gold rushThe Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria in Australia between approximately 1851 and the early 1860s. Background By 1840 the village of Melbourne, in the very south of New South Wales, was nearly 5 years of age. The population growt - a time when both Melbourne and Victoria undertook massive capital work s, each with its own 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, running every half-hour. They were named Melbourne, Sandridge, Victoria, and Yarra (after the Yarra River over which the line crossed).