Geelong Fast Rail will deliver faster services between Geelong and Melbourne’s CBD with a travel time of around 50 minutes enabled through a major investment to the Werribee corridor.

Scope

Stage 1 of Geelong Fast Rail will deliver:

  • new track dedicated to regional services (between Werribee and Laverton)
  • upgrades to bridges over main roads
  • station upgrades at Werribee and Laverton
  • new bridges and culverts over creeks and rivers
  • signalling and train control system upgrades.

Map showing the Geelong Line running from Waurn Ponds to Southern Cross along the Werribee Line. New express track from starting at Werribee station will run through Hoppers Crossing, Williams Landing, and Aircraft stations and extend east of Laverton station

Benefits of the Werribee corridor

The Werribee route is the shortest and most direct rail path between Geelong and Melbourne, around eight kilometres shorter than the current route that travels through the western suburbs via Sunshine.

Running faster Geelong services via the Werribee corridor enables both more frequent and faster services in the long term.

Future rail services

These upgrades will deliver faster services between Geelong and Melbourne. Further work is required to determine the final service plan, however a number of Geelong services per hour will run via the Werribee corridor to Southern Cross Station during the peak.

Some Geelong trains will continue to travel via Wyndham Vale and Sunshine, providing Geelong passengers with access to Melbourne’s growing western suburbs and an opportunity to change at Sunshine for Melbourne Airport trains.

Project delivery

The Victorian Government announced $2 billion for stage one of Geelong Fast Rail in the 2020/21 Victorian Budget, matching the Australian Government’s $2 billion funding commitment to enable faster services between Geelong and Melbourne.

Initial works are expected to commence in 2023 subject to relevant Victorian and Federal planning, environmental and other government approvals.

Geelong Line investment

This project is just one part of a series of investments along the Geelong Line, to support the delivery of more frequent and reliable train services for Victoria’s fastest growing regional city.

The Victorian and Australian governments are also investing more than a billion dollars to upgrade the Geelong Line as part of the Regional Rail Revival program, which is upgrading every regional passenger rail line and creating 3000 jobs and local supplier opportunities across the state.

Upgrades to the Geelong Line include the Waurn Ponds Station upgrade, the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds Duplication project and Waurn Ponds stabling.

Next steps

Further work on costings for these important improvements is underway.

Rail Projects Victoria will continue to undertake detailed planning, costing and technical investigations to determine the scope of future investments.