The Hurstbridge railway line is a suburban railway in Melbourne, Australia. It branches from the City Loop in the central business district and heads in a northeast direction through the City of Yarra, City of Darebin, City of Banyule, and the Shire of Nillumbik. Some of the suburbs served by the line include East Melbourne , Collingwood, Fairfield, Heidelberg, Greensborough, Eltham, and Hurstbridge. It has 23 stations in Metcard ticketing Zones 1 and 2.

Infrastructure

The Hurstbridge line is notable for having several single-track sections. The unusually large number of single track sections is due to constraints imposed by the underlying infrastructure. These unduplicated sections give the Hurstbridge line several bottlenecks at which trains must sometimes wait for the tracks to clear before proceeding. The single-track sections are as follows:

• Between Clifton Hill and Westgarth is a single-track railway bridge over Merri Creek.
• Between Heidelberg and Rosanna is a single-track railway bridge over Burgundy Street, followed by a short single-track tunnel.
• The 15 km section of track between Greensborough and Hurstbridge is almost entirely single track. Eltham and Diamond Creek railway stations each have two platforms, providing points at which trains can pass. This section of unduplicated track includes a timber railway trestle near Eltham Station that has heritage protection. Trains must slow to 8 km/h when passing over this trestle.

Macleod station is the only station on the Hurstbridge line with more than two platforms. Macleod station has a third platform originally because of a short branch run to Mont Park but is used now for the rail yards located there. The extra platform is used during peak periods to provide a place at which trains can enter the system or terminate.

List of stations

Bold stations are terminuses, italic stations are staffed.

Branches from the City Loop at Flinders Street and Parliament stations.

• Zone 1 & City Saver
• Jolimont

• Zone 1
• West Richmond
• North Richmond
• Collingwood
• Victoria Park
• Clifton Hill - Epping line branches
• Westgarth
• Dennis
• Fairfield
• Alphington
• Darebin

• Zones 1 & 2 overlap
• Ivanhoe
• Eaglemont
• Heidelberg

• Zone 2
• Rosanna
• Macleod
• Watsonia
• Greensborough
• Montmorency
• Eltham
• Diamond Creek
• Wattleglen
• Hurstbridge

External links, maps, and timetables

• Timetables
• Official line map
• Statistics and detailed schematic map at the VicSig enthusiast website