1.
Ballarat
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Ballarat /ˈbæləræt/ is a city located on the Yarrowee River in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The city is approximately 105 kilometres west-north-west of the capital, Melbourne. It is the third largest population for a city in Australia. Ballarat is arguably the most significant Victorian era gold rush boomtown in Australia, just months after Victoria was granted separation from the state of New South Wales, the Victorian gold rush transformed Ballarat from a small sheep station to a major settlement. Gold was discovered at Poverty Point on 18 August 1851, within months, migrants from across the world had rushed to the district in search of gold. Unlike many other boom towns, the Ballarat fields experienced sustained high gold yields for many decades. The Eureka Rebellion began in Ballarat, and the armed rebellion in Australian history. In response to the event the first male suffrage in Australia was instituted, the gold rush and boom gave birth to many other significant cultural legacies. The rebellions symbol, the Eureka Flag, has become a symbol and is held at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka in Ballarat. It has endured as a regional centre hosting the rowing and kayaking events from the 1956 Summer Olympics. It is the capital of the Central Highlands and the largest city in the Goldfields region of Victoria. Ballarat is known for its history, culture and its well-preserved Victorian era heritage, after a narrow popular vote the city merged with the town of Ballarat East in 1921, ending a long standing rivalry. Prior to the European settlement of Australia, the Ballarat region was populated by the Wathaurong people, the Boro gundidj tribes territory was based along the Yarrowee River. The Yuille family, Scottish settlers Archibald Buchanan Yuille and his brother William Cross Yuille, arrived in 1837 and squatted a 10, the first houses were built near Woolshed Creek by William Yuille and Anderson, while Yuille erected a hut at Black Swamp in 1838. Outsiders originally knew of the settlement as Yuilles Station and Yuilles Swamp, Archibald Yuille named the area Ballaarat Some claim the name is derived from a local Wathaurong Aboriginal word for the area, balla arat. The meaning of word is not certain, however, several translations have been made. In some dialects, balla means bent elbow, which is translated to mean reclining or resting, another claim is that the name derives from Yuilles native Gaelic Baile Ararat, alluding to the resting place of Noahs ark. The present spelling was adopted by the City of Ballarat in 1996
2.
Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
3.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
4.
Soldiers Hill, Victoria
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Soldiers Hill is a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia located directly north of the Central Business District. At the 2011 census, Soldiers Hill had a population of 2,832, Soldiers Hill is an important heritage area in Ballarat and the entire suburb is covered by a City of Ballarat Heritage Overlay. It has a substantially intact Victorian era architectural character, with many of its buildings featuring an abundance of period detail including distinctive decorative cast iron ornament. The hill is a schist composed of granites and quartz, part of a granite ridge which extends south and west from Lydiard Street and forms a plateau to the south. In stark contrast to neighbouring Black Hill and Golden Point Hill across the Yarrowee valley scarred by gold mining, Soldiers Hill. A natural escarpment forms its southern edge which has been accentuated by the flattening of land to the south for the construction of the railway reserve, the hill slopes to valleys in the east and west of the suburbs borders through which small seasonal creeks flow. The Gnarr Creek for most of its little more than an urban stormwater drain, winds its way through the suburbs north. The eastern border slopes to the valley of an unnamed natural watercourse that flowing into the Yarrowee from the north. Before European settlement, the area around Soldiers Hill was populated by Wathaurong people, the hill itself was a steep escarpment that formed part of a greater range and was a schist of quartz and tall stringybark trees. William Cross Yuille was the first settler of what was originally named Commanding Hill, Yuille had been well established in the region and had erected a shepherds hut in the location marked by the current crossing of Seymour Street and Armstrong Street Nth. This hut existed as early as October 1851 being the building on the hill at the time of William Swan Urquharts first town plan for Ballarat. The hill was not subdivided in the first plan, though was part of the Grenville County, later 1850s plans would include Soldiers Hill as one of the first planned suburbs of Ballarat with a grid plan north of the steep escarpment and Yarrowee River gully. In 1853, on the hill was established one of the first of Ballarats major schools, colonial forces of Australia 40th Regiment were stationed on the hill prior to the Eureka Rebellion of 1854. Leading them were Robert Nickle and Edward Macarthur, after whom Macarthur Street was named, in 1859, the first residential allotments were subdivided and sold, with the estate extending to Macarthur Street at the northern boundary. After Webster Street and Sturt Street, this estate was considered one of Ballarats premier addresses, a new school, Macarthur Street Primary was constructed in 1877 and officially opened on 31 May 1878, replacing the Soldiers Hill School with an initial enrolment of 650 students. In the 1880s the suburb was subdivided as it became a favoured place of residence for Ballarats middle. The suburb had developed with deep narrow blocks and laneways providing rear access to houses, the Soldiers Hill tramway opened on 27 December 1888 as a one car horse drawn service travelling along Lydiard Street and Macarthur Street. The Ballarat North Workshops opened in April 1917 and were a source of employment for Ballarat
5.
Serviceton railway line
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The Serviceton railway line is a railway serving the west of Victoria, Australia. The line links the capital of Melbourne to the cities of Ballarat and Ararat. In this role it has replaced by the Western standard gauge line. During peak hour some services originate and terminate at Bacchus Marsh, passengers on the inner section of the line to Melton are permitted to use Myki tickets to access the services, with this section marked as the Melton line on suburban network maps. Beyond Ararat the line is part of the Western standard gauge line, Freight services also use the line between Ballarat and Melbourne, coming off the Mildura line. The Western standard gauge also sees a number of interstate freight trains as part of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway. On 16 July 2014, the Serviceton railway line ceased calling at North Melbourne station due to the Regional Rail Link, in January 2017 Caroline Springs station opened. The first railway line from Melbourne to Ballarat was via Geelong, construction of the Geelong-Ballarat line began in 1858 and took nearly four years to complete. The project employed 3,000 men and cost approximately 1.5 million pounds, the return trip commenced at 12,20 pm, arriving in Ballarat at 3 pm. The line was extended from Ballarat to Beaufort in 1874 and to Ararat in 1875 and it took until 1889 for a direct line from Melbourne to Ballarat to be opened, in part due to the difficult terrain between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan. The broad gauge passenger service from Ballarat to Ararat was not reinstated until 2004, a number of deviations were built to ease curves on the line, as well as seven new bridges, with the Lal Lal Creek and Moorabool River bridges amongst the longest in Australia. The works were completed and the first VLocity train ran on the line on 22 December 2005, as part of the Transit Cities program, a new station was opened at Wendouree on 14 June 2009. In June 2008 Pacific National and grain handler GrainCorp announced they would cease rail freight operations on the Yaapeet to Dimboola line. The decision was based on the Rail Freight Network Review chaired by former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, as a result, farmers at Rainbow, Jeparit and Yaapeet must truck their grain to GrainCorps Warracknabeal grain centre instead of the Rainbow depot. A local council attacked the plan as it would result in the need to upgrade roads in the area, a branch line was built from Ballarat to Newtown and Skipton in 1883. A branch was built between Newtown, Cressy and Irrewarra about 1910 and this line was closed in 1953. A branch line was built from Linton junction to the Ballarat Cattle Yards and this line was closed in 1997. Until 1993, two broad gauge V/Line trains ran from Melbourne to Dimboola as well as the nightly The Overland service from Melbourne to Adelaide
6.
Victorian Railways
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The Victorian Railways operated in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, a Department of Railways was created in 1856 with the first appointment of staff. British engineer, George Christian Darbyshire was made first Engineer-in-Chief in 1857, because of political turmoil in the Victorian Government, Higginbotham was one of 137 officials removed from office on Black Wednesday on 8 January 1878 when the Government was denied supply. He, like a number of senior officers, was not reappointed. Robert Watson then took over as Engineer-in-Chief, but in 1880 a new Ministry expressed a wish to redress the injustice by re-instating Higginbotham. On 1 November 1883 assent was given to the Victorian Railways Commissioners Act 1883,47 Vic, no.767, to construct, maintain and manage the states railways. The staff of the Department of Railways came under the authority of the Railway Commissioners, the elaborate headquarters at 67 Spencer Street were opened in 1893. Victorian Railways grew to all parts of the state, even extending some lines into New South Wales under the 1922 Border Railways Act. In the late 19th century the railways became something of a football with politicians demanding new lines to be built in places where traffic levels never justified it. In 1864 there was just 254 miles of railway, the system expanded rapidly to reach 2,900 route miles by 1891 and to its greatest extent of 4,755 route miles in 1939. The result was that by the beginning of the 20th century, the period from the end of the 1930s saw a slow decline in route mileage as unprofitable branches were closed. 1937 saw the introduction of the streamlined Spirit of Progress passenger train, with air conditioning, diesel power was introduced in 1951 with ten F-class diesel-electric shunting locomotives, followed by B-class mainline diesel-electric locomotives in 1952/53. The last steam locomotive was withdrawn in 1972, in May 1973 the Railways Act 1972 passed the management of the Railways from the Victorian Railways Commissioners to a Victorian Railways Board. In 1974 the Victorian Railways was rebranded as VicRail, but the royal blue, the State Transport Authority traded under the V/Line name, while the Metropolitan Transit Authority used that name until the Public Transport Corporation was formed in 1989. Between 1996 and 1999 V/Line and The Met were privatised, V/Line Passenger was franchised to the National Express Group, returning to government ownership in 2002. Metro Trains Melbourne now operates the railway network. When first formed in 1857, the management of the Railways Department was initially vested in the President of the Board of Land and Works, this situation remaining until 1884. With the passing of the Victorian Railways Commissioners Act 1883, a board of four commissioners was put in charge, the board could have up to seven members, with six being initially appointed
7.
Newport Workshops
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The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Newport, Australia, that builds, maintains and refurbishes railway rollingstock. It is located between the Williamstown and Werribee railway lines, plans for a workshop at Newport started in the 1860s, to replace the temporary Williamstown Workshops but nothing came of it. Construction of the permanent workshops commenced in 1884, and was completed in 1889, although the earlier carriage workshop closed at this time, it reopened in 1895 to manufacture signal equipment. The first carriages built by the workshops were completed in 1889, but locomotives were manufactured by the Phoenix Foundry in Ballarat, the first locomotive being built in 1893. The main elements of the workshops are an office block and clock tower, the East Block for carriage and wagon works. Expansion followed in 1905–1915, and 1925–1930, during World War II the workshops were turned over to military production, with the rear fuselage, and empennage of Bristol Beaufort bombers being built there. At the peak of operation it was one of Victorias largest and best-equipped engineering establishments, the workshops had its own cricket ground, and in the 1920s the game of Trugo is said to have been invented by workers on their lunch hour. In the late 1980s, the segments of the workshops were removed from everyday use, and modern workshops built along the eastern side of the site. On 15 January 2000, ownership of the workshops passed from the Public Transport Corporation to Clyde Engineering, the workshop also has the only broad gauge underfloor wheel lathe in Victoria. From 2018, it will build the High Capacity Metro Trains, a section of the workshops is leased to Siemens for maintenance of their Siemens Nexas trains. The original 1880s workshops have been maintained for heritage uses, the Australian Railway Historical Society Railway Museum is located south of the workshops, near North Williamstown railway station
8.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
9.
Electric multiple unit
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An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages. An EMU is usually formed of two or more semi-permanently coupled carriages, but electrically powered single-unit railcars are also classed as EMUs. EMUs are popular on commuter and suburban rail networks around the world due to their fast acceleration, being quieter than DMUs and locomotive-drawn trains, EMUs can operate later at night and more frequently without disturbing residents living near the railway lines. The first EMUs were used on the elevated Liverpool Overhead Railway in 1893, the southern terminal of the railway was underground, giving the LOR the distinction of also being the first to use EMUs underground. Each carriage had a traction motor and was specifically designed and constructed to be light in weight while running on elevated steel sections. The first EMUs were two-carriage trains later graduating to three carriages, with the front and rear carriages powered, Liverpool Museum retains an example of the Liverpool Overhead Railway EMU carriage. An early proponent of EMUs was the American engineer Frank J. Sprague, the cars that form a complete EMU set can usually be separated by function into four types, power car, motor car, driving car, and trailer car. Each car can have more than one function, such as a car or power-driving car. A power car carries the equipment to draw power from the electrified infrastructure, such as pickup shoes for third rail systems and pantographs for overhead systems. Motor cars carry the traction motors to move the train, and are combined with the power car to avoid high-voltage inter-car connections. Driving cars are similar to a cab car, containing a drivers cab for controlling the train, an EMU will usually have two driving cars at its outer ends. Trailer cars are any cars that carry little or no traction or power related equipment, on third rail systems the outer vehicles usually carry the pick up shoes, with the motor vehicles receiving the current via intra-unit connections. Many modern 2-car EMU sets are set up as married pair units, while both units in a married pair are typically driving motors, the ancillary equipment are shared between the two cars in the set. Since neither car can operate without its partner, such sets are permanently coupled, advantages of married pair units include weight and cost savings over single-unit cars while allowing all cars to be powered, unlike a motor-trailer combination. Disadvantages include a loss of flexibility, as trains must be multiples of two cars, and a failure on a single car could force removing both it and its partner from service. The retired New York–Washington Metroliner service, first operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad and later by Amtrak, also featured high-speed electric multiple-unit cars, diesel multiple unit Battery electric multiple unit British electric multiple units Media related to Electric multiple unit at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Railways in Melbourne
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The Melbourne rail network is operated by Metro Trains Melbourne under franchise from the Government of Victoria. A rapid transit system for Melbourne is currently in planning stages, Melbournes suburban railway network consists of 16 electrified lines, the central City Loop subway, and 207 stations, with a total length of 372 km of electrified lines. The suburban network operates between approximately 5,00 a. m. and midnight, the network is primarily at ground level, with more than 170 level crossings, and some tracks shared with freight trains and V/Line regional services. In the 2013–14 financial year, the Melbourne rail network recorded 232 million passenger trips, in 1839, the Government Surveyor Robert Hoddle, who laid out Melbournes road grid, provided for a railway linking Melbourne and Hobsons Bay. On 8 February 1853 the Government also approved the establishment of the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company, work began in March 1853 on the Sandridge railway line, stretching 4 kilometres from the Melbourne terminus to Sandridge. The line was owned and operated by Melbourne and Hobsons Bay Railway Company, 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, 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. Australias 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. 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 own gala opening, the inaugural journey on the Sandridge line was no exception. According to the Argus newspapers report of the day, Long before the hour appointed. A great crowd assembled round the station at the Melbourne terminus, the trip took 10 minutes, none of the later stations along the line having been built yet. On arriving at Station Pier, it was hailed with gun-salutes by the warships HMS Electra, 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, the network was extended with lines being built to the suburbs, reaching a peak by the 1900s. Electrification of the system commenced from 1919, with multiple unit operation commencing at the same time. Melbournes second railway line opened 13 May 1857, when the Melbourne and this line was later extended by the St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company, which opened a line from St Kilda to Brighton in 1857. Country lines were built in 1857, with the Geelong. In 1859 the Williamstown railway line opened, connecting Williamstown and Geelong to Spencer Street Station and this line was extended to Windsor in 1860, connecting with the St Kilda and Brighton Railway Company line from St Kilda
11.
Trams in Melbourne
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The Melbourne tramway network is a major form of public transport in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, Australia. As of May 2014, the network consisted of 250 kilometres of track,493 trams,25 routes and it is the largest urban tramway network in the world, ahead of the networks in St Petersburg and Upper Silesia, Berlin, Moscow and Vienna. Trams are the second most used form of transport in overall boardings in Melbourne after the commuter railway network. Trams have operated continuously in Melbourne since 1884, with the opening of a tram line in Fairfield. Since then they have become a part of Melbournes character and feature in tourism. Melbournes cable tram system opened in 1885, and expanded to one of the largest in the world, the first electric tram line opened in 1889, but closed only a few years later in 1894. In 1906 electric tram systems were opened in St Kilda and Essendon, the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board was formed in 1919 to take control of Melbournes cable tram network, six of the seven electric tramway companies, and the last horse tram. By 1940 all cable and horse lines had been abandoned or converted to either electric tram or bus operation. The network has operated under contract since the commencement of franchising, following the privatisation of the Public Transport Corporation in 1999. The current private operator contracted to run Melbournes tram system is Keolis Downer, Ticketing, public information and patronage promotion are undertaken by Victorias public transport body, Public Transport Victoria. The multi-modal integrated ticketing system, myki, currently operates across the tram network, at some Melbourne intersections, motor vehicles are required to perform a hook turn, a manoeuvre designed to give trams priority. Since January 2015 trams inside the business district have been free. Melbournes first tram was a tram from Fairfield railway station to a real estate development in Thornbury, it opened on 20 December 1884. Seven horse trams operated in Melbourne, three lines were built by the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company, while the four were built by different private companies. Melbournes cable tram system has its origins in the MTOC, started by Francis Boardman Clapp in 1877, with a view to operate a Melbourne tram system. Although some lines were intended to be horse trams. The Act established the Melbourne Tramways Trust, which was made up of the 12 municipalities that the MTOC system would serve. The MTT was responsible for the construction of tracks and engine house, while the MTOC built the depots, offices and arranged for the delivery or construction of the rolling stock
12.
V/Line
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V/Line is a government-owned corporation that operates the regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It was created after the split-up of VicRail in 1983, V/Line is owned by the V/Line Corporation, a Victorian State Government statutory authority. V/Line carried 16.8 million passengers in the 2015/16 financial year and it is the track manager of the Victorian intrastate rail network outside of the Australian Rail Track Corporation and Metro Trains Melbourne leases. As at June 2016, it operated 90 stations,41 locomotives,134 locomotive hauled carriages and 177 diesel multiple unit carriages, on 1 July 1983, the State Transport Authority and a range of other transport bodies were created, when the Transport Act 1983 came into effect. The new authority replaced VicRail, and established the V/Line operating brand for both passenger and freight. The VicRail orange and silver teacup livery used on rolling stock was replaced in August 1983 by an orange. The white and green V/Line logo was launched on 14 August 1983 by Transport Minister Steve Crabb, at Spencer Street station, with special trains running to Essendon to mark the occasion. This was altered when on 1 July 1989 the Transport Act took effect, on 1 July 1994, the operation of some of V/Lines regional passenger services was contracted out to the private sector. Hoys Roadlines took over the Melbourne to Cobram service with trains operated under contract by V/Line to Shepparton with Hoys operating a road coach service beyond, the service from Melbourne to Warrnambool was operated by West Coast Railway who operated their own trains throughout. Both of these returned to being operated by V/Line in 2004, Rail services to Leongatha ceased on 24 July 1993, Bairnsdale, Cobram and Dimboola on 21 August 1993, Ararat on 27 May 1994 and Mildura on 13 September 1994. In 1995, the freight and passenger rail divisions of V/Line were divided, with a new red, blue and this split was finalised on 1 July 1997 when separate management was brought in. On 1 July 1998, operation of the Stony Point line passed to Bayside Trains, V/Line continues to hire rolling stock to Metro Trains Melbourne to operate the service. V/Line Freight was sold to a consortium of RailAmerica, Fluor Daniel, Macquarie Bank and A Goninan & Co and rebranded as Freight Victoria effective from 1 May 1999. The sale included a 45-year lease of most regional track, with responsibilities for track, signalling and level crossings, after being renamed Freight Australia in March 2000, it was sold to Pacific National in August 2004. In May 2007 Pacific National sold the lease of the network back to VicTrack. On 29 August 1999, National Express took control of V/Line Passenger having won a 10 year concession after beating FirstGroup, Freight Victoria, GB Railways, Prism Rail, National Express also operated the M>Tram and M>Train franchises in Melbourne. It included all country rail operations in Victoria, with the exception of the Shepparton, National Express inherited a fleet of A, N, P and Y class locomotives, H, N, S and Z type carriages and Sprinter diesel multiple units. As a franchise commitment,29 two-car Vlocitys were ordered from Bombardier Transportation, in December 2002, National Express handed in its Victorian rail and tram franchises having been unable to renegotiate financial terms with the State Government
