Bunbury Street Tunnel, Footscray, Vic

In 1926. Victorian Railways began the construction of an independent goods line to link West Footscray to South Kensington to ease the congestion at Footscray, by by-passing the Footscray junction and the Footscray passenger station. There was a desperate need to separate steam-hauled country and freight trains from electric suburban trains.



The new railway line passed through the swamps of West Melbourne across Dynon Road, bridges were built to cross the Maribyrnong river, and went through the tunnel at Bunbury Street. At the time of construction, the tunnel was the longest in the metropolitan area. The operations were carried out by Railways construction branch with C.H. Perrin as Chief Engineer.

It became a major construction work considering the amount of basalt rocks which was removed for the railway. Construction of the tunnel involved the cut and fill tunnelling using an arched concrete lining. The tunnel reaches ground level by Middle Footscray Station. The line was opened in 21 October 1928.

Today the line is leased from Victorian Government by the Australian Rail Track Corporation as part of the North East standard gauge line. The only passenger services using the line operate on the standard gauge, being the daily NSW Train Link XPT, the Great Southern Rail operated The Overland and standard gauge Albury V/Line rail service.