Mitchell Toy: How the Suburban Rail Loop is similar to the Outer Circle Railway

With the Suburban Rail Loop expected to be finished in 2035 many Melburnians didn’t know there was once a train line that served a very similar purpose.

The Outer Circle Rail line once connected Fairfield Station to the Hurstbridge Line.

It’s a question that has puzzled Melbourne commuters for decades: why was our train network designed in the shape of a spider, making rail travel between outer suburbs impossible?

Why did early Melburnians not consider the inconvenience of travelling, for example, from Sandringham to Cheltenham via South Yarra?

The truth is, it didn’t used to be that way.

Illustrations of the Outer Circle Line construction. Picture: Trove

Little do Melburnians realise, there was once a train line that served a very similar purpose to the upcoming Suburban Rail Loop.

The Outer Circle Railway, opened in the early 1890s, connected Fairfield Station on the northern Hurstbridge Line with Oakleigh Station on the southeastern Pakenham Line, passing through Camberwell.

Spanning more than 25km at its height, it had 14 stations throughout the eastern suburbs.

But for reasons that might frustrate modern Melbourne train travellers, the Outer Circle and other old train lines around the city were ripped out, forming the slimmed-down rail map we now know.

Full steam

Although a railway line through Melbourne’s northeast and southeast had been dreamt of since the 1860s, it was notoriously difficult to get off the ground.

A steam train on Melbourne’s Outer Circle line in the late 1800s. Picture: Trove

During the advent of rail in Victoria, jostling between private and government-operated rail lines made planning and funding a nightmare.

But after an effort to centralise rail in 1878, the blueprint for the Outer Circle Railway could finally be drawn up.

Amid the land boom of the 1880s, with coffers dripping with cash, construction started on the line, with the expectation that it would encourage a key corridor of population growth over the coming decades.

It was opened as a collection of three steam services that operated on a track that started at Oakleigh, ran north to Waverley Rd, up to Camberwell then further north to Fairfield Park.

For a fleeting moment in time, Melburnians could pass through a swath of the east, northeast and southeast without having to change lines in the inner city.

Another line, the Inner Circle, opened in 1888, had already connected the inner northern suburbs of Fitzroy, Carlton and Parkville, making rail travel even more convenient.

But it was over almost as soon as it began.

Railroaded

Mere years after the line was unveiled to the public, stations along the Outer Circle were closed down.

Two of the stations, including Fulham Grange Station in the suburb or Alphington and Willsmere Station at Kew, had been operating for just two years before being closed for good.

Waverley Rd Station, on the section between Burnley Station and Oakleigh Station, was closed permanently after five years.

Melbourne 1889 Outer Circle Line rail map. Picture: Trove

Although the station buildings are long demolished, the ghostly remains of embankments and sidings can still be seen at some of the phantom railway stops.

Some stations, including Oakleigh on the Pakenham Line and Camberwell on the Belgrave and Lilydale Line, still remain and are more than 140 years old.

But the question still stands: why shut down a perfectly good railway line that would now be really handy?

The answer is simply that not enough people were using them in the late 1800s.

The Outer Circle Railway opened just in time for one of the biggest economic tumbles in Victorian history, the crash of the early 1890s.

As a result, projected suburban growth in the area of the new rail line slowed significantly as the housing market froze and the economy fell into depression.

Ghostly remains of the former Fulham Grange Station, Alphington. Picture: Marcus Wong

The Riversdale to Fairfield Park section of the Outer Circle was the first to go in 1893 when it was replaced with a horse-drawn bus service due to lack of passengers.

By 1897 the whole line was closed, although the section between Camberwell and Ashburton was reopened the following year as part of the Ashburton Line, which later became the Alamein Line.

The 20th Century brought more rail closures including the short Kew Line in 1957, the Whittlesea Line in 1959, the Warburton Line in 1965 and the Healesville Line in 1983.

The Port Melbourne and St Kilda Lines were converted to light rail in 1987.

The Outer Circle Trail now follows a large section of the old railway line, from Fairfield down to Hughesdale.

Parts of the cycling and walking trail were opened in 1991, a century after the opening of the railway line, lending it the name Anniversary Trail.

The Suburban Rail Loop, which is due for completion in 2035, would eventually form a continuous railway line from Cheltenham around to the airport at Tullamarine, then on the Werribee.