Port Fairy Line

The railway to Port Fairy was the main line to the south western part of the State. Now truncated at Dennington, the line is utilised by both passenger trains and freight services as far as Warrnambool. Passenger servces were operated by West Coast Railways between Melbourne and Warrnambool until September 2004 when they were taken back by V/Line Passenger. West Coast Railways were one of the two original private companies to take up the Government's offer to run passenger train services in 1993 when it was announced that a number of services would be cut by V/Line. Running for approximately 10 years, West Coast Railways were famous for operating stream hauled services on Saturdays and increased the number of passengers using Warrnambool train services.

The section of track between Warrnambool and Dennington although still in place remains largely unused since the Nestle Factory in Dennington stopped requiring the use of briquettes in 2002. The line remains broad gauge with no plans for gauge conversion in the near future. Two tracks are provided in the section between Melbourne and Geelong with many V/Line Passenger services also operating in this section. The standard gauge track to Adelaide constructed in 1995 now runs adjacent to the Port Fairy Line in the section between Newport and North Geelong. Electrification of the line exists as far as Werribee with metropolitan passenger services operating between this point and Melbourne.