Footscray railway station


Footscray railway station is located on the Sunbury, Werribee and Williamstown lines, in Victoria, Australia. It serves the western Melbourne suburb of Footscray, and opened on 17 January 1859.
It is also serviced by V/Line Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong services. In 2017/18, it was the sixth busiest station on Melbourne's metropolitan network, with 5.26 million passenger movements recorded.
A disused signal box is located on the island platform at the Up end of Platform 5, while a pair of dual gauge tracks form the mainly freight only South Kensington-West Footscray line under the station, running in a cutting before entering the Bunbury Street tunnel, providing a rail link to the Port of Melbourne and other freight terminals, as well as access to Southern Cross for the NSW TrainLink XPT, The Overland, and V/Line Albury services.

History

On 17 January 1859, the railways arrived in Footscray, when the new Williamstown line opened, with trains running from Spencer Street in Melbourne to the important cargo port of Williamstown. This railway line connected to the 18-month-old Geelong railway at the junction near where the current Newport station lies. The line between Melbourne and Footscray, via the new station at North Melbourne, had been made possible with the construction of a railway bridge over the Maribyrnong River. The first station to open in Footscray opened on this line on the opening day of service; it was not, however, where the current Footscray station lies, but was located on Napier Street.
Shortly afterwards, Footscray became a junction station, when a second railway line, branching at Footscray, was opened to Sunbury. By 1862, this railway line had been extended to Sandhurst. Therefore, on 1 March 1859, less than two months after the first, Footscray's second railway station opened on Nicholson Street, not far from the original Napier Street location, for services on the new railway line. A signal box was provided at the junction from 1879.
On 16 September 1900, the current station opened, located at the precise point of junction of the two lines. The two original stations were then closed.
A number of sidings once existed at the station, now covered by car parking on the eastern side of the Newport bound lines.
The dual gauge tracks under the station were opened on 21 October 1928, as part of the South Kensington-West Footscray line, and were dual-gauged in the early 1960s, as part of the construction of the Melbourne-Albury standard gauge line. Quadruplication of the tracks towards Melbourne in November 1976 put an end to the junction and closed the signal box. The building is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
It was upgraded to a Premium station on 31 May 1996, although the enclosed waiting area and ticket facilities were built in 1993, as part of the 'Travel Safe' program in the early 1990s.
On 5 June 2001, at around 08:30, two suburban Comeng trains collided on Platform 4. An out of service train heading to Newport collided with a Williamstown bound train, carrying around 20 passengers, with 3 injuries reported.
In 2010, as a part of the Brumby State Government's Footscray renewal program, the existing footbridge over the platforms, which was accessed by ramps, was replaced with a $15 million footbridge. The bridge, named after indigenous activist William Cooper, has stairs and associated lifts. Complaints have been made that the new footbridge is less usable than the one it replaced. It has a roof, but that has not been designed to be weatherproof, and the lifts are prone to breakdown.

Regional Rail Link upgrade

From 2012-2014, Footscray station underwent major upgrade and conservation works as part of the Regional Rail Link project.
An additional two platforms were built to the north of the existing platforms, to separate Metro Trains Sunbury services from V/Line services to Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. On 20 January 2014, co-inciding with the opening of the new platforms and a new ticket office and waiting area adjacent to Platform 1 on Irving St, Platforms 1 to 4 were renumbered 3 to 6, with the new platforms commissioned as Platforms 1 and 2. At the same time, Platforms 3 and 4 were closed to be rebuilt as dedicated platforms for V/Line services, reopening along with the commissioning of new Regional Rail Link tracks between Sunshine and Southern Cross on 16 July 2014. A new waiting area and toilet facility for regional services was also opened between Platform's 4 and 5.
The existing footbridge, erected in 2010 at a cost of $15 million, was also partially demolished in 2013 to help accommodate the works. New canopies, stairs and escalators were erected at the Irving and Hyde St ends of the footbridge, and new wide ramps were built from the footbridge to the platforms and street level, to help people access the platforms with greater ease. New lifts were also added to the structure.
The carpark that used to be on Irving St was relocated to McNab Av, and a new forecourt with greenery and seating areas along with 2 new kiosks were opened close to the Irving St entrance to the station. The most famous of these was the former Olympic Hot Doughnuts kiosk, which had a public opening day on 9 July 2014. Former premier Denis Napthine was in attendance.
All works at the station were complete by November 2014.

Platforms & services

Footscray has six platforms. It is serviced by Metro Trains' Sunbury, Werribee and Williamstown services and V/Line Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong services.
Platform 1:
Platform 2:
Platform 3:
Platform 4:
Platform 5:
Platform 6:
operates six routes via Footscray station:
Dysons operates three routes via Flinders Street:
Sita Buslines operates four routes via Footscray station:
Transdev Melbourne operates four routes via Footscray station:
Yarra Trams operates one route to and from Footscray station: