North East standard gauge railway line

Preliminary work for construction of the line began in November 1957 with the establishment of camps for the building gangs, with the first section being laid in November 1959, and the final section on 5 April 1962.[1]

The line was used by prestige passenger services between the state capitals of Melbourne and Sydney, including the Sydney Limited, Spirit of Progress, Southern Aurora, and Intercapital Daylight. Due to high costs and declining patronage, they were replaced by the XPT in the 1990s.

Maintaining two parallel railways drew criticism, noting inefficiencies in maintaining track, operating trains, and duplicated train control centres.[2] By 2001, the State Government announced the conversion of the broad gauge line to standard,[3] but action was stifled, due largely to complex leasing arrangements.

In May 2008, it was announced that the tracks would be upgraded, including a 5 km (3.1 mi) bypass around Wodonga, the conversion of 200 kilometres (120 mi) of broad gauge Albury railway line to standard gauge between Seymour and Albury as well as other upgrades to the Albury line.[4] Costing A$501.3 million, the Victorian Government was to contribute A$171.3 million, the Australian Government A$45 million for the Wodonga Rail Bypass, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation A$285 million and take responsibility for the standard-gauge line under a 45-year lease from Victoria.[5] The project was due for completion by 2010, with passenger services to be disrupted for up to 12 months.[6]

In December 2008, standardisation works commenced, contracted by ARTC to the Southern Improvement Alliance. The first train on the Wodonga Rail Bypass was in March 2010.[7]

In early August 2010, CountryLink decided to terminate all Sydney-Melbourne XPTs at Albury for an indefinite length of time, due to defects in the newly re-sleepered track. "Mud holes" resulted in speed restrictions on more than 200 kilometres (about 66 per cent) of the line, adding an extra 1.5 hours to the travelling time.[8] Train drivers have blamed the ARTC's $285 million concrete sleeper project for the track issues, stating that the incorrect insertion of 300,000 new concrete sleepers is to blame. They have repeatedly reported freight trains breaking couplings due to the rough track.[9] CountryLink trains resumed in mid September 2010, V/Line trains the following year.[10]

On 20 February 2020, a NSW TrainLink XPT passenger train towards Sydney derailed at Wallan, resulting in suspension of freight, V/Line and NSW TrainLink services on the North East standard gauge line and the adjacent broad gauge and standard gauge sections of the Albury line. V/Line services resumed on 1 and 2 March 2020.[11]

The entire line is used by NSW TrainLink Southern services to, and from, Sydney (Central), which makes limited stops on this section.

The line shares track with the South Kensington–West Footscray railway line from the Melbourne Yard to Footscray, then the line then run alongside the Deniliquin railway line Albion, the Albion–Jacana railway line to Jacana, and finally the North East railway line to Albury.

In January 1963, the Upfield—Somerton link from Somerton to the Ford factory was re-laid as dual gauge gauntlet track.

In 2008, the gauge conversion the Albury railway line from broad gauge to standard gauge, which would have left the Oaklands branch as an isolated and useless spur.[14] The local MP reported that the cost of converting this 125 km (77.7 mi) branch to standard gauge was just over $13m.[15] In October 2008 the Victorian State Government announced that an upgrade would take place.[16] The conversion was completed in December 2009.

Part of the Cudgewa line was converted to dual gauge in 1944 to serve freight depots around Bandiana. The Wodonga-Bandiana section closed on 1 September 2009 as part of the Wodonga Rail Bypass project.[17]