Distances between Melbourne railway stations – a quick map

I spent a few days putting together a map that shows the distances between railway stations on Melbourne’s metropolitan rail network. The spacing has been calculated and placed onto the current official PTV Victorian rail network map.

The distance data is taken from the Vicsig website’s line guides (which also has a lot of other interesting stuff on railways). I simply subtracted the distance recorded for each station from the next one along the line as the information is displayed as distances from Spencer Street/Southern Cross Station.

Distances shown are not ‘as the crow flies’ but following the route of the tracks. All figures are in metres.

Summary of key points

  • The furthest distance between stations on the metropolitan network is between Newport and Laverton (10,450 metres)
  • The shortest distance between stations on the metropolitan network is between Riversdale and Willison (418 metres)
  • The line with the longest mean distance between stations is the Stony Point Line (mean distance of 3,407 metres between stations)
  • The line with the shortest mean distance between stations is the Alamein line (mean distance of 1,145 metres between stations)

Some more detailed information

The graph below shows the relationship between cumulative distance from Southern Cross/Spencer Street Station and station spacing.

You can see how spacing increases the further away that the stations are located from the CBD.

The 10 furthest and smallest distances between station pairs are shown in the table below.

10 furthest station distances on Melbourne metropolitan rail network

Station pairDistance between stations (metres)
1Newport - Laverton10450
2Watergardens - Diggers Rest9518
3Dandenong - Lynbrook8304
4Dandenong - Hallam6258
5Leawarra - Baxter6208
6Diggers Rest - Sunbury5585
7Newport - Seaholme5572
8Eltham - Diamond Creek5241
9Tyabb - Hastings5150
10Moroolbark - Lilydale4693

10 shortest station distances on Melbourne metropolitan rail network

Station pairDistance between stations (metres)
1Riversdale - Willison418
2Rushall - Merri498
3West Richmond - North Richmond504
4Richmond - East Richmond570
5Collingwood - Victoria Park589
6Flagstaff - Melbourne Central613
7McKinnon - Bentleigh631
8Northcote - Croxton644
9Glenbervie - Strathmore660
10North Richmond - Collingwood671

Get the data

You can download the raw data (.xlsx spreadsheet) here: https://maps.philipmallis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Distance-between-Melbourne-railway-stations.xlsx

13 Comments

Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.

Billreply
23 April, 2018 at 8:59 pm

The link to the full size map isn’t working

Philip Mallisreply
23 April, 2018 at 9:26 pm
– In reply to: Bill

Apologies for that, thanks for pointing it out. Should be fixed now πŸ™‚

Kevinreply
24 April, 2018 at 11:08 am

Given that the Flemington/Showgrounds line does not stop at Newmarket or Kensington, which are stations included on the Craigieburn line, might it be appropriate to include a North Melbourne – Showgrounds station pair for the Flemington line?

Philip Mallisreply
24 April, 2018 at 11:21 pm
– In reply to: Kevin

Hi Kevin, thanks for your comment! I did consider including station pairings like that in similar situations as well (e.g. the MATH stations where Pakenham/Cranbourne Line trains don’t usually stop) but decided that it wasn’t the object of doing this map. Rather, this is designed to show gaps between actual station locations rather than operationally. It would be another interesting exercise though – there would be a few sections in similar situations.

Mad Roosterreply
29 August, 2019 at 3:41 pm

What is the longest distance between stations when you consider express trains? The one I am thinking is Box Hill – Richmond.

Philip Mallisreply
30 August, 2019 at 3:35 pm
– In reply to: Mad Rooster

Good question! It’s hard to answer because there are some rare express trains that run for very long distances to stable at the end of the day, eg Southern Cross to Frankston . You would need some strict parameters to work out an ams

TheTrainManreply
23 November, 2020 at 8:31 pm

Good stuff mate, fantastic information!

Philip Mallisreply
23 November, 2020 at 8:36 pm
– In reply to: TheTrainMan

Thank you! Glad you found it interesting πŸ™‚

Timreply
17 December, 2020 at 9:19 pm

Found this really interesting. Great work, what technology did you use to work it out?

Philip Mallisreply
18 December, 2020 at 12:33 pm
– In reply to: Tim

Thanks! I went through VicSig’s line diagrams and added them into the map: https://vicsig.net/index.php?page=infrastructure&section=lineguide. I edited the map in Adobe Illustrator.

Paulreply
16 September, 2021 at 6:06 am
– In reply to: Philip Mallis

Bell and Preston are 600 metres apart Newport and Laverton have 3 stations between Seaholme Altona and Westona

Jon Wilsonreply
8 September, 2023 at 9:35 am

West Footscray to Middle Footscray is a stones throw. Surely that’s in the top 10 shortest.

Jeofferreply
10 October, 2023 at 11:06 pm

The growth along the Werribee line justifies a station or three to be built along the line between Newport and Laverton. Back in 1985, the station called Mobiltown closed. The area’s population has increased, and a shopping district called Millers Junction has opened across the road from Mobiltown.

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