Stony Point Line
The Stony Point Line is quite a unique railway line in Victoria. The line remains operational with electric passenger trains operating between Flinders Street and Frankston and diesel passenger locomotives providing a shuttle service between Frankston and Stony Point. There is also a freight service which operates to a BHP steel plant at Hastings with several trains operating per day.
Branch Lines previously connected with this line to Red Hill from Bittern and to Mornington from Baxter. The main line to Gippsland (which used to extend to Orbost) branches off the Stony Point Line at Caulfield.
A siding previosly existed to the HMAS Cerbrus naval base from Crib Point which was since used to store rolling stock for the Mornington Railway Preservation Society however these tracks were removed in the late 1990s.
Stony Point is the furthest location from central Melbourne still considered as part of the suburban public transport system of which a 'Zone 3' ticket applies. When the Victorian public transport system was privatised in 1997 the Stony Point Line was allocated to Bayside Trains which has since become M>Train. The diesel hauled service between Frankston and Stony Point is the only non-electric train service run by this company.
It is quite amazing that the passenger service between Frankston and Stony Point still survives in the 21st century. Indeed there is no other remaining service quite like it in Victorian that operates on the fringe of the metropolitan area with such closely spaced station with services only running as a shuttle to connect with electric services.
Seven services operate in each direction 7 days per week at a frequency of approximately 2 hours connecting with roughly every 8th electric service at Frankston. The trip between Frankston and Melbourne takes approximately 1 hour often running express between Malvern and South Yarra whilst the service between Stony Point and Frankston takes 40 minutes.
The Stony Point passenger service from Frankston was withdrawn in 1981 along with the branch to Mornington as an outcome of the Lonie Report. The service was returned in 1983 by the then Minister for Transport Steve Crabb and has remained ever since.