Lilydale line

The Lilydale line is a commuter railway line on the Melbourne metropolitan railway network serving the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, the line is coloured dark blue and is one of the four lines that constitute the Burnley group. It is the city's sixth-longest metropolitan railway line at 37.8 km. The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Lilydale station in the city's east, serving 27 stations via Burnley, Box Hill, Ringwood, and Croydon.

The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24 hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hours, headways of up to 15 minutes are operated, with services every 20–30 minutes during off-peak hours. Trains on the Lilydale line run in two three-car formations of X'Trapolis 100 trainsets.

Sections of the Lilydale line opened as early as 1859, with the line fully extended to Lilydale by 1882. The line was built to connect Melbourne and Ringwood with the rural towns of Croydon, Mooroolbark, and Lilydale, among others.

Since the 2010s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Lilydale line, significant improvements and upgrades have been made. Different packages of work have upgraded the corridor to replace sleepers, upgrade signalling technology, introduce new rolling stock, and remove remaining level crossings.

19th century
The line from Richmond to Hawthorn was opened initially to a temporary terminus at Pic Nic, just short of the Yarra River, in September 1860, and to Hawthorn in April 1861. It was extended to Camberwell in April 1882, then to Lilydale in early December of that same year. Duplication from East Richmond to Hawthorn occurred less than a month after the Lilydale extension opened. Soon after, the same section was converted to double-line telegraph safeworking, with the section from Hawthorn to Camberwell being converted to Staff and Ticket working.

In May 1885, Hawthorn to Camberwell was duplicated. Duplication was extended to Box Hill in December 1888.

20th century
Automatic signalling was introduced in December 1907 with the conversion of the section from East Richmond to Hawthorn to semi-automatic signalling, followed by Richmond to East Richmond being converted to automatic signalling in August 1919. East Richmond to Camberwell was converted in two stages, both in October 1922, and Camberwell to Canterbury the following month. Electrification occurred between Flinders Street and Box Hill in December 1922 and extended to Ringwood the following month, then to Croydon in November 1925, and to Lilydale in October 1925. Conversion to automatic signalling resumed in April 1927 with the conversion of Canterbury to Surrey Hills, followed by Surrey Hills to Box Hill in October 1929.

The section from Croydon to Mooroolbark was duplicated in 1957, creating a long passing loop on this otherwise single-line section beyond Ringwood. The section from Mooroolbark to Lilydale remains a single track. Automatic signalling conversions resumed in July 1958 with the section from Box Hill to Blackburn, followed by Mitcham to Ringwood in September of that year, and Blackburn to Mitcham in November 1960. Hawthorn to Camberwell was triplicated in December 1963, and the triplication was extended to East Camberwell in November 1964. Richmond to Burnley was quadruplicated in 1966–67, and triplication was extended to Box Hill in December 1971, followed by Burnley to Hawthorn in August 1972. This left a short section of double track on the upside of Richmond, but this was quadruplicated with the construction of a flyover in 1973.

Ringwood to Croydon was converted to automatic signalling in November 1973 and duplicated in June 1984. Mooroolbark to Lilydale was converted to automatic signalling in June 1985.

The new Comeng trains were introduced to the Melbourne railway system in 1981. Initially, along with the Lilydale line, they were only allowed to operate on the Alamein, Belgrave, Dandenong and Glen Waverley lines, due to the width of the trains (3.05 m). The Comeng trains were introduced with the intention of replacing the last of the Tait sets and the majority of the Harris sets.

21st century
A 2007 restructure of train ticketing in Melbourne involved the removal of Zone 3, with Zone 3 stations being re-classified to Zone 2. This brought the cost of train fares down, improving system accessibility to the public.

Level Crossing Removals
The Level Crossing Removal Project has removed all seven of the remaining level crossings on the Lilydale line, with works completed in stages from 2017 to 2024, making it the first railway line to be entirely level crossing-free in Melbourne. Two crossings were removed at Blackburn Road, Blackburn, and Heatherdale Road, Ringwood in 2017, by lowering the rail line under the roads; Heatherdale station was rebuilt. In 2021, two level crossings were removed at Manchester Rd, Mooroolbark, and Maroondah Highway, Lilydale, by building new elevated stations at Mooroolbark and Lilydale and connecting them with a rail bridge. In 2023, the level crossings at Union Road and Mont Albert Road were removed by lowering the rail line; Mont Albert and Surrey Hills stations were demolished, with a new station built inbetween, named Union. The last two crossings removed with grade separation involved lowering the rail line below Dublin Road in Ringwood East and elevating it onto a rail bridge above Coolstore Road in Croydon; both Ringwood East station and Croydon station are being rebuilt, with the new stations set to open in July 2024. The final level crossing on the line, Cave Hill Road in Lilydale, was simply closed to car traffic, with an underpass being built for foot traffic, set to open in "spring 2024".

Duplication
The Network Development Plan – Metropolitan Rail, released in 2012, highlighted future upgrades for the rail corridor between Mooroolbark and Lilydale. The development plan highlighted the need for the track to be duplicated between Moroolbark and Lilydale as well as the construction of a new train maintenance facility in the Lilydale area within the next 20 years (by 2032). However, this project has not remained on the planning agenda, despite the significant work conducted by the Level Crossing Removal Project in the area, which has previously undertaken duplication works.

Services
Services on the Lilydale line operate from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 daily. In general, during peak hours, train frequency is ~7 minutes on the Ringwood corridor (combined with the Belgrave line) and 10–20 minutes in the AM peak on the Lilydale line, while during non-peak hours, the frequency is reduced to 20–30 minutes throughout the entire route. On Friday nights and weekends, services run 24 hours a day, with 60 minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.

Train services on the Lilydale line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal work, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of work for affected commuters.

Stopping patterns
Legend: Station status
 * ◼ Premium Station: Station staffed from first to last train
 * ◻ Host Station: Usually staffed during the morning peak, however, this can vary for different stations on the network.

Legend: Stopping patterns Some services do not operate via the City Loop
 * ●: All trains stop
 * ◐: Some services do not stop
 * |: Trains pass and do not stop

Operators
The Lilydale line has had a total of six operators since its opening in 1882. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from its first service in 1882 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation and Hillside Trains, have a combined operational length of 117 years. Hillside Trains was privatised in August 1999 and later rebranded as Connex Melbourne. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. Both private operators have had a combined operational period of 24 years.

Route
The Lilydale line forms a curved route from the Melbourne central business district to its terminus in Lilydale. The route is 37.8 km long and predominantly double-tracked, however, between Flinders Street station and Richmond, the track widens to 12 tracks, narrowing to four tracks between Richmond and Burnley before narrowing to 3 tracks between Burnley and Box Hill. Finally, the line narrows to two tracks between Box Hill and Mooroolbark before narrowing to a single track to its terminus. After Mooroolbark, passing loops and island platforms are present throughout the remaining track to allow trains to pass. Sections of the line have been elevated or lowered into a cutting to eliminate level crossings.

The line follows the same alignment as the Alamein, Belgrave, and Glen Waverley lines, with the four services splitting onto different routes at Burnley. The Alamein, Belgrave, and Lilydale services continue till the Alamein line splits off at Camberwell, with the two services continuing together till Ringwood. After departing Ringwood station, the Lilydale line heads north, with the Belgrave line heading in an eastern direction. Almost all of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs, however, the rail line becomes peri-urban towards its terminus in Lilydale.

Stations
The line serves 27 stations across 37.8 km of track. The stations are a mix of elevated, lowered, underground, and ground level designs. Underground stations are present only in the City Loop and in Box Hill, with the majority of elevated and lowered stations being constructed as part of level crossing removals. From 2025, Ringwood East station will be lowered and Croydon station elevated as part of level crossing removal works.

Rolling stock
The Lilydale line uses X'Trapolis 100 electric multiple unit (EMU) trains operating in a two three-car configuration, with three doors per side on each carriage and can accommodate up to 432 seated passengers in each six car configuration. The trains were originally built between 2002 and 2004, as well as between 2009 and 2020 with a total of 212 three-car sets constructed. The trains are shared with seven other metropolitan train lines and have been in service since 2003.

Alongside the passenger trains, Lilydale line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation. Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by V/Line, Metro Trains, and the Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

Accessibility
All stations that are new or rebuilt are fully accessible. Projects improving station accessibility have included the Level Crossing Removal Project, which involves station rebuilds and upgrades, and individual station upgrade projects. These works have made significant strides in improving network accessibility, with more than 59% of Lilydale line stations classified as fully accessible.

Signalling
The Lilydale line employs a combination of three-position signaling alongside automatic block signaling (ABS) and automatic track control (ATC) safeworking systems, wherein the former involves different signal 'blocks', while the latter encompass a variety of mechanisms for enhancing safety and control on the track. Three-position signalling was first introduced on the line in 1919, with the final section of the line converted to the new type of signalling by 1985. Automatic and track controls are used with the centre line between Burnley and Box Hill, and between Mooroolbark and the line's terminus in Lilydale.