Upfield line advocacy
July 2026: The Upgrade Upfield Train Line campaign is launched to focus local advocacy on the urgent need to duplicate the train line by 2030, after decades of inaction by state governments.
May 2026: The Victorian state budget includes $3.6m for a ‘final’ business case to improve capacity on the Craigieburn, Upfield and Wallan rail corridor, including duplicating the Upfield Line.
February 2026: Occurrences of short-shunting on the Upfield Line skyrocket.
January 2026: The Metro Tunnel opens. The Upfield Line does not get any more services despite previous promises by the Jacinta Allan government.
November 2025: In its 30-year-report, Infrastructure Victoria advises that the government duplicate the Upfield Line by 2030 (ABC story here).
September 2025: Merri-bek Council selects duplication and upgrade of the Upfield rail line, extension to the Craigieburn rail line and electrification to Wallan as its core advocacy priority for the 2026 state election.
May 2025: The federal Labor government promises $7 million for upgrade planning of Upfield and Craigieburn lines.
2025 May: The state budget promises an “increase in off-peak services with trains running at least every 20 minutes on the line, including late at night and on weekends”. *
January 2025: The Age revealed that the proposed turnback at Gowrie on the Upfield Line had been scrapped, meaning that line frequency cannot be meaningfully increased. See blogpost.
August 2024: The Northern Council’s Alliance launches its campaign to improve transport services in Melbourne’s north, including a call to duplicate and extend the Upfield line.
May 2024: State Government announces a three-year delay on delivery of its Brunswick level crossing removal project due to state debt, with a new expected completion date of 2030.
March 2024: Council’s Transport Strategy “Moving Around Merri-bek” states as a core advocacy priority “Connect the Upfield Line to the Craigieburn Line via Somerton; Duplicate track from Gowrie Railway Station to the end of the line; Increase frequencies on the Upfield Line; Transition Seymour Regional Rail Services to the Upfield corridor to free up capacity on the Craigieburn Line”.
September 2023: The Upfield Transport Alliance holds snap actions calling for duplication of the Upfield Line.
2022: Campaigning for the Victorian state election, Labor candidates in the seat of Brunswick and Pascoe Vale promise that the Metro Tunnel will deliver 71% more services on the Upfield Line. (This never eventuates as the Gowrie turnback is scrapped from budgets in 2025).
2022: State government announces it will remove eight level crossings in Brunswick on the Upfield Line by 2027 as an election promise. Residents established a Facebook group to organise campaigning. Note: The project finish date is later pushed back to 2030.
2022: In the lead-up to the November state election, Moreland Council releases an advocacy fact sheet calling for the state government to “duplicate the Upfield line between Gowrie and Upfield Stations, [and] modernise Batman, Merlynston, Fawkner and Gowrie Train Stations as part of any duplication works”.
2020 (December): The Coburg skyrail project is completed and the new stations at Coburg and Moreland open. During planning and construction, residents had raised concerns about disingenuous community consultation and the loss of the Gandolfo Gardens. See for example town hall meeting. However campaigning does achieve some wins, including providing separated paths for cyclists and walkers beneath the new elevated rail.
2020 (March): Residents along the Upfield Line create the Angry Upfield Line! Facebook group to share experiences, report cancellations and short-shunting of trains.
August 2019: Hume City Council votes to support the campaign to upgrade the Upfield Line.
September 2019: Petition presented to Parliament. Fiona Patten MLC for Northern Metropolitan Region presents the petition from Upfield passengers calling for duplication. The passengers had collected nearly 4000 signatures (3129 on paper, 763 digital) at train stations during 2019.
May 2019: Residents establish the Upfield Corridor Coalition to organise campaigning for level crossing removals.
2019: The Upfield Transport Alliance organises several rallies calling for duplication to occur during the Moreland-to-Coburg level-crossing removal works.
Rallies are held at Fawkner and Gowrie stations, in Merlynston and in Coburg. They also held regular meeting and stalls.
2018: The Upfield Transport Alliance was formed (see old website here) following a meeting of community groups and individuals. In November 2018, it organised a protest at Upfield station to call for immediate duplication (see a report in The Age which included reference to the 2016 Somerton Link business case).
July 2018: Moreland Council notes that too many trains were being short-shunted at Coburg,
disadvantaging people living further north, and resolves to campaign for solutions.
October 2017: Fiona Patten MLC speaks in Parliament urging that the Upfield Line be duplicated during the Camp Road level crossing works.
2016: The Victorian State Government budget includes $5 million to plan for the Somerton Link (extension of the Upfield Line to the Craigieburn Line via Somerton). The business case is never made public, despite requests (including from State MLC Anasina Gray-Barberio in May 2025).
2016: The Metro Tunnel Business Case includes a turnback at Gowrie to allow for a 10-minute frequency on the Upfield Line. It assumes the Gowrie to Upfield track duplication would occur after the Metro Tunnel’s completion.
2016: The Upfield Line gets the Night Network, with 24-hour service on weekends.
2015: Hume City Council advocates for the extension of the Upfield Line to Wallan by 2026.
2014: The Age newspaper pushes for duplication of the track between Gowrie and Upfield Station.
2013: The Public Transport Users Association calls for track duplication between Gowrie and Upfield Stations.
2012-13: Public Transport Victoria’s Network Development Plan – Metropolitan Rail proposes duplication of the line to Upfield Station and that the Upfield Line be extended to join the Craigieburn Line (the Somerton Link), and electrification to Wallan. This would allow a 10-minute service on the line. The timeline was “within 15 years”.
May 2012: Public Transport Users Association says “Single track bottlenecks must be fixed”, including the Upfield Line north of Gowrie Station.
2011: Hume City Council says it will “advocate for a new station at Campbellfield, electrification and duplication of the Upfield line from Upfield Station to Roxburgh Park Station, and duplication from Gowrie Station”.
2010: Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy (2010) notes the need to duplicate the Upfield Line north of Gowrie and build the Somerton Link, to allow more capacity on the Upfield and Craigieburn Lines.
2009: The Victorian Transport Plan flags that the Metro Tunnel would enable 14 trains per hour on the Upfield Line.
1999: Sunday services were reinstated on the Upfield Line. They had been stopped in 1971.
1998: Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy (1998) notes that “The Upfield train is only now, after many years of community and Council pressure, getting signalling and other works to bring it into the 20th century. Changes are promised, but the Upfield line still has no services on Sundays or after 7pm on weekdays, and the peak service, with its 20-minute frequency, is the worst in the metropolitan area.“ and “[Following the 1998 upgrades] the next objective is to improve the day-time off-peak frequency as was done with success on the Sandringham line. The ultimate goal would see Upfield trains running at least every 15 minutes until after 10pm every day. Council will also pursue necessary infrastructure improvements including: a station on the Upfield line at Campbellfield; and electrification of the Upfield and Broadmeadows lines to Craigieburn.”
1998: Upgrades on the Upfield Line were completed, including signalling upgrades, replacing the manual gates with boom gates, duplicating the line from Fawkner to Gowrie.
1996 onwards: The Upgrade Upfield Coordinating Committee continues its advocacy.
1994: The Upgrade Upfield Coordinating Committee released their “Northern suburbs transport plan”. (Available in the Merri-bek Libraries). They called for the modernisation of the Upfield Line (including automatic signaling and boom gates) and linking Upfield Station to the Craigieburn Line (the Somerton Link). It called for a “Passing loop” at Gowrie Station, and a single platform station at Campbellfield (opposite the shopping centre).
1992-1995: The Kennett Liberal government won the state election in 1992. They proposed to shut the line and use part of the reserve for Citylink.
In April 1995, after negotiations with the Australian Railways Union, the sympathetic Liberal Minister for Transport Alan Brown agreed to upgrade the line.
1990: The Urban Land Authority suggests the Upfield Line be extended to Craigieburn in conjunction with the development of the new suburb Roxburgh Park.
1988-1990: The Cain Labor government proposed that the Upfield be converted to light rail (eliminating trams on Sydney Road). Campaign groups formed around each station, and united under the Upgrade Upfield umbrella, supported by the unions and conservation groups.
1980 – 1982: The Hamer Liberal Government commissioned the Victorian Transport Study (the Lonie Report), which recommended closing the Upfield Line and replace it with buses. Campaigns quickly sprung up along the line, with various action groups formed. There were petitions, along with large public meetings and demonstrations. The Cain Labor Party won the state election in April 1982 and promised to retain the Upfield Line.
*Note: In 1974, off-peak trains ran every 20 minutes (however there were no weekday trains after 7pm and none on Sundays at all).
References for years to 1990: Down the line to Upfield: a history of the North Melbourne-Coburg-Somerton railway, compiled by Jon Saul and Wendy Moore, Coburg Public Transport Group (1991). This book is available in the Merri-bek Libraries.
More information can be found in this 2008 thesis article by John Stone.
To see more about more recent activities, see the Upgrade Upfield website put together by tireless community advocate John Englart, who passed away in mid-2025.