Rail transport in Victoria
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.
Pre 1910 Flinders Street station building
The Spirit of Progress headed by locomotive S301 Sir Thomas Mitchell near Kilmore East in 1938
Train exiting the Melbourne underground loop
N class locomotive with N type country passenger carriages.
Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent since the 19th century. As of 2022, there are 11,914 kilometres (7,403 mi) of narrow-gauge railways, 18,007 kilometres (11,189 mi) of standard gauge railways and 2,685 kilometres (1,668 mi) of broad gauge railways.
In the 19th century, each of the colonies of Australia adopted their own gauges.
Dual gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) & (1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) track on the Eastern Railway in December 2005
Dual gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) and (1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) Eastern Railway in Perth with an Indian Pacific service in December 2014
Dual gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) and 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) track in Geelong
Outer Harbor station with gauge convertible sleepers in November 2005