Leongatha railway station, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Leongatha is a railway station in the town of Leongatha, Victoria
Leongatha, Victoria
Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. The town is the commercial, religious, educational and civic centre of the region. At the 2006 census, Leongatha had a population of 4,504.The Murray...

 on the former South Gippsland railway line in South Gippsland
South Gippsland
South Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills descending to the coast in the south and the Latrobe Valley in the north. Low granite hills continue into Wilsons Promontory, the southernmost point of Victoria and mainland...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The station opened in 1891 as a terminus
Terminal Station
Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

, the line being extended to Welshpool
Welshpool railway station, Victoria
Welshpool was a railway station on the South Gippsland line in South Gippsland, Victoria. The station formerly served the small town of Welshpool. The station was opened during the 1890s and operated until the 1980s. The site of the station contains a preserved platform and the base of its crane....

 the next year. , the station is the terminus of the South Gippsland Tourist Railway, and has been since regular V/Line
V/Line
V/Line is a not for profit regional passenger train and coach service in Victoria, Australia. It was created after the split-up of VicRail in 1983. V/Line is owned by the V/Line Corporation which is a Victorian State Government statutory authority...

 passenger operations on the line ceased east of Cranbourne station in 1993.

The track south of Leongatha has been dismantled and turned into the Great Southern Rail Trail
Great Southern Rail Trail
The Great Southern Rail Trail is a Rail trail from Leongatha to Foster in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The trail is 49 km long and travels through open farmland, before passing through the Hoddle range to Foster. , there is a 3 km section between Koonwarra and Meeniyan where...

. The station precinct includes a well preserved red brick station building, goods shed
Goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train.A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...

, water tower
Water tower
A water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated drinking water storage container constructed to hold a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system....

 and footbridge
Footbridge
A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...

. The goods shed has since been demolished with a view of converting the unused railway reservation for a shopping plaza, which has not yet eventuated.

The track "down" from Leongatha Station ends at the rear of a petrol station, approx 500 metres away. The Home signal for trains approaching Leogatha from Koonwarra remains, however due to no rail for any significant distance from the signal, it has been decommissioned. From the end of the rail, the reservation is a crushed rock pathway mainly used by bicycles and pedestrians.

V/Line Bus terminus

Leongatha Railway Station is used as a terminus for the V/Line
V/Line
V/Line is a not for profit regional passenger train and coach service in Victoria, Australia. It was created after the split-up of VicRail in 1983. V/Line is owned by the V/Line Corporation which is a Victorian State Government statutory authority...

 Road Coach service, and as a stop on the Coach route to Yarram. The railway station toilet facilities have recently become available to V-Line Bus passengers, as the buses have no toilets, and the platform provides a cool shady waiting area in Summer.

Location

Leongatha Railway Station is located on Long street, Leongatha. Long Street is accessible from the Strzelecki Highway
Strzelecki Highway
Strzelecki Highway is a short 55 kilometre highway that connects the towns of Leongatha, Victoria and Morwell, Victoria, through the major junctions of South Gippsland Highway and Princes Freeway....

 and Nerrena Road, just off the South Gippsland Highway
South Gippsland Highway
The South Gippsland Highway is a partially divided highway in Victoria, Australia which connects the city of Melbourne with the South Gippsland region of Victoria, ending in the town of Sale...

.

Trains from Leongatha

Leongatha is part of the South Gippsland Tourist Railway service, which provides trains for visitors on Sundays and public holidays. In school holiday
School holiday
School holidays are the periods during which schools are closed for study. The dates and periods of school holidays vary considerably throughout the world, and there is usually some variation even within the same jurisdiction.- Christmas holiday :In countries with a predominantly Judeo-Christian...

periods, trains are also run on Wednesdays.

Leongatha is part of the journey for special trains run as "Dream Come True" (Driver Experience), Dinner Trains and Summer Shopping Shuttles to and from Korumburra.

V Line Coach Services to Leongatha and Yarram

A recent Vic-Link issued timetable provided for additional bus services from Spencer Street station (Melbourne) to Leongatha and Yarram. These were promised as part of the trade-off for the government not re-opening the railway to Leongatha for passenger services. This is despite the re-opening of the line forming part of a key regional public transport program of the former Labour Party government back in 2002.

The present timetabled services provide for 8 coach services daily, four of which continue through to the former railway terminus at Yarram. Weekend timetables provide for four services on each of Saturday and Sunday.

The increased timetable had proven popular, with some services needing two coaches to cope with the traffic.

The rail line north of Koo-Wee-Rup is slated for potential reopening.
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