Mernda line

The Mernda line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's eighth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Mernda station in the north, serving 29 stations including Clifton Hill, Reservoir, Epping, and South Morang. The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24 hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hour, headways of up to 7.5 minutes are operated with services every 10–30 minutes during off-peak hours. Trains on the Mernda line run with a two three-car formations of X'Trapolis 100 trainsets. Services on the line began in 1889 when the section between North Fitzroy (on the now closed Inner Circle line) and Reservoir was opened, which was extended to Whittlesea in the same year. The line was closed beyond Lalor in November 1959, while the remainder of the line was electrified. The closed section has since been gradually reconstructed and reopened; to Epping in 1964, South Morang in 2012, and to Mernda in August 2018. Since the 2010s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Mernda line, significant improvements and upgrades have been made. Two major upgrades of the corridor have taken place, with the line from Epping extended to South Morang in 2012, duplicated between Keon Park and Epping, and extended again to Mernda in August 2018. Other works have included replacing sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, the introduction of new rolling stock, the removal of level crossings, and station accessibility upgrades. The early beginning of the Mernda line opened on 8 October 1889, as part of railway extensions into the northern suburbs. What became known as the Inner Circle line was opened from Spencer Street station (now Southern Cross station) via Royal Park station, to a station called Collingwood (now called Victoria Park), and then on to Heidelberg.