Wodonga Rail Bypass

Last updated

The Wodonga Rail Bypass, was a Victorian state government project in regional Victoria Australia, to provide a new double-track railway bypass around the northern city of Wodonga. The 5.5-kilometre bypass eliminated 11 level crossings. [1]

Contents

Funding

In December 2000 the federal government committed $20 million for the bypass project, In the 2006/07 budget, the Victorian government set aside $55 million to fund the bypass. [2] In November 2006, the Government of Victoria came to an agreement with Pacific National to buy back the company's lease on the state's rail network, which enabled them to go ahead with the project. [3]

Cost

By January 2007 the estimated cost of the project had risen to $125 million, and the start of work on the bypass was delayed. [4] The project was part of a $501 million upgrade of the North East line. [1]

Construction

Work finally began on the bypass in September 2008, [5] with the Premier of Victoria John Brumby and Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese turning the first sod. [1] There were delays in October 2008, when the Dhudhuroa peoples told Federal Minister for Environment Peter Garrett that the works would be likely to desecrate and deface six culturally significant sites, areas and objects. [6]

On 23 July 2010 the new rail bypass was opened, and the original line through Wodonga decommissioned. [7] [8] [9] On 25 June 2011, the new Wodonga railway station opened. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wodonga</span> City in Victoria, Australia

Wodonga is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, 300 kilometres (190 mi) north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately 35,100 and is separated from its twin city in New South Wales, Albury, by the Murray River. Together, the two cities form an urban area with an estimated population of 93,603. There are multiple suburbs of Wodonga including Bandiana, Baranduda, Barnawartha, Bonegilla, Ebden, Huon Creek, Killara, Leneva and Staghorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wodonga railway station</span> Railway station in Victoria, Australia

Wodonga railway station is located on the North East line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the city of Wodonga, and it opened on 25 June 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Railways in Melbourne</span> Railway network in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Melbourne rail network is a passenger and freight train system in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan passenger rail network is centred on the Melbourne CBD and consists of 222 stations across 16 lines, which served a ridership of 99.5 million over the year 2021-2022. It is the core of the larger Victorian railway network, with links to both intrastate and interstate systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V/Line</span> Railway company in Victoria, Australia

V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne. It also provides bus services across Victoria and into New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. In addition, V/Line is responsible for the maintenance of much of the Victorian freight and passenger rail network outside of the areas managed by Metro Trains Melbourne and the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rail transport in Victoria</span> Overview of rail transport in Victoria, Australia

Rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of 2,357 km of Victorian broad gauge lines, and 1,912 km of standard gauge freight and interstate lines; the latter increasing with gauge conversion of the former. Historically, a few experimental 762 mm gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways. The rail network radiates from the state capital, Melbourne, with main interstate links to Sydney and to Adelaide, as well as major lines running to regional centres, upgraded as part of the Regional Fast Rail project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional Fast Rail project</span>

The Regional Fast Rail project was a rail transport project undertaken by the State Government of Victoria, Australia, between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving rail services on the Victorian regional railway network, specifically to reduce travel times, enhance service frequency and safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Sydney Freight Line</span>

The Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) is a freight only railway line in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The line was built to segregate freight trains from the Sydney Trains network. It forms part of a dedicated freight only corridor between Port Botany and Macarthur. The line is managed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Rail Track Corporation</span>

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is an Australian Government-owned statutory corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Melbourne</span> Overview of transport in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Transport in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, consists of several interlinking modes. Melbourne is a hub for intercity, intracity and regional travel. Road-based transport accounts for most trips across many parts of the city, facilitated by Australia's largest freeway network. Public transport, including the world's largest tram network, trains and buses, also forms a key part of the transport system. Other dominant modes include walking, cycling and commercial-passenger vehicle services such as taxis.

AusLink is a former Government of Australia land transport funding program, that operated between June 2004 and 2009. The former program was administered by the former Department of Transport and Regional Services. In 2009, the program was replaced with the Nation Building Program under the Nation Building Program Act 2009. The Nation Building Program was administered by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport and that program was replaced by The National Land Transport Network, as determined by the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development under the National Land Transport Act 2014.

The Serviceton railway line is part of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor. It serves the west of Victoria, linking the state capital of Melbourne to the cities of Ballarat and Ararat. It once extended to the disputed South Australian border as part of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway. The former broad-gauge track was replaced in 1995 by the 1435 mm Western standard gauge line.

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 is owned by VicTrack, but leased to, and maintained by, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, and forms part of the Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor.

The Mildura railway line is a heavy rail line in northwestern Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Yelta station to Ballarat station via the settlements of Mildura, Ouyen and Maryborough in an approximate south-southeasterly direction. Initial sections of the line opened from Ballarat in 1874 and the line reached Mildura in 1903.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inland Rail</span>

Inland Rail, also known as Inland Railway and previously Australian Inland Railway Expressway, is a 1727-kilometre (1073 mi) railway line under construction in Australia. Once complete, it will connect the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane along a new route west of the mountainous Great Dividing Range, bypassing the busy Sydney metropolitan area and allowing for the use of double-stacked freight trains. The route will also connect to the Sydney–Perth rail corridor, reducing journey times between Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VicTrack</span> Government owned company jn Victoria, Australia

VicTrack, the trading name of Victorian Rail Track Corporation, is a Victorian Government state-owned enterprise which owns all railway and tram lines, associated rail lands and other rail-related infrastructure in the state of Victoria, Australia, with the exception of the Emerald Tourist Railway Board's heritage Puffing Billy Railway.

The Sydney–Melbourne rail corridor is an approximately 953-kilometre (592 mi) standard gauge railway corridor that runs between Melbourne (Victoria) and Sydney, the two largest cities in Australia. Freight and passenger services operate along the route, such as the NSW TrainLink XPT passenger service. The XPT offers a day and night service in each direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albury V/Line rail service</span> Passenger rail service in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia

The Albury line is a regional passenger rail service operated by V/Line in Victoria, Australia. It serves passengers between state capital Melbourne and the regional cities of Benalla, Wangaratta, Wodonga, and the NSW border city of Albury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Airport rail link</span>

Melbourne Airport Rail is a rail link under construction from the Melbourne CBD to Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine. Since October 2022 the project has also been branded as SRL Airport. The rail link is to run through the under-construction Metro Tunnel, running 27 km from the airport to Town Hall station in the city centre with 12 km of new track between the airport and Sunshine station. The link will be a new branch of the Melbourne Metro rail network and run High-Capacity Metro Trains at a 10-minute frequency. The project is being delivered by the Victorian state government agency Rail Projects Victoria.

The Murray Basin Rail Project is a major railway project in the north-west of Victoria, Australia. The project includes the conversion of a substantial portion of the Victorian freight rail network from the historical broad gauge to the standard gauge used in other parts of Australia, and the upgrading of track to enable higher axle loads for more efficient intrastate freight transfer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional Rail Link project</span>

The Regional Rail Link (RRL) was a project to build a 47.5-kilometre (29.5 mi) length of railway through the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, the main aim of which was to separate regional V/Line Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong services from the electrified Melbourne suburban services, thereby increasing rail capacity and reliability. The project involved the building of an extra pair of tracks from Southern Cross station to Sunshine, parallel to the Western line, and a new double-track line from Deer Park, which joins with the Warrnambool line west of Werribee, near the site of the former Manor railway station. New stations were built at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, while West Footscray and Sunshine stations were rebuilt. Additional platforms were built at Southern Cross and Footscray stations, and two level crossings near Sunshine were replaced by grade separations. The most used station before its construction, North Melbourne, was excluded from the project despite being the main connection hub for regional travellers not needing to go all the way to Southern Cross, and now requires regional rail link customers to change at Footscray.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.