Historically, a few experimental 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways.

The rail network reached a peak in 1942 but steadily declined, as branch and cross country lines were closed until the 1980s.

[9] It was then followed in 1887 by a connection with the broad gauge South Australian Railways at Serviceton, with the Intercolonial Express (now The Overland) to Adelaide running between the capitals.

[1] After World War II, the railways were run down, with Operation Phoenix unveiled in 1950, involving the expenditure of £80 million over 10 years.

[14] Works included electrification to Traralgon, new Harris suburban trains, the Walker railmotors, and approximately 3,000 new goods wagons.

[14] The new line aided freight traffic between the state capitals, and enabled through passenger trains, such as the Southern Aurora and the Intercapital Daylight.

At the same time, the sixties was also the end of steam, with the demolition of the massive North Melbourne Locomotive Depot on 20 January 1961.

[8] By the late seventies, roadside goods and country railmotor services had been replaced by road transport, and branch lines outside the grain producing areas were now virtually non-existent.

[2] The Lonie Report delivered in 1980 recommended the closure of all country passenger service except that to Geelong, elimination of a number of suburban railways, and moving small-volume freight from rail to road.

1981 saw the Melbourne underground loop open in January, followed by the new air conditioned Comeng suburban trains and "N" type country passenger carriages in September the same year.

Trials were also carried out for further upgrades, with locomotive A85 re-geared for 160 km/h operation in a series of test runs between Glenorchy and Lubeck in the state's west in July 1986.

Part of the negotiation involved Victoria contributing money for the track to be upgraded and standardised and for Wodonga to be bypassed.

[26] The Gippsland line will have its signalling upgraded, some track duplicated, a new stabling facility built and platforms added to some stations.

[22] The North East, Shepparton and Warrnambool lines will see upgrades to allow VLocity trains to run on those corridors.

[31] In 2019, the Federal Government pledged $2 billion for a fast rail line to Geelong, promising a travel time of 32 minutes.

In addition, the Victorian Railways experimented with four short narrow gauge lines of 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) in the early 20th century.

be adopted as the standard for Australia; that no mechanical, third rail, or other device would meet the situation, and that uniformity could be secured by one means only, viz., by conversion of the gauges other than 4-ft.

"[44] By the 1950s, interstate traffic was suffering from the break-of-gauge at the New South Wales state border, and a parallel standard gauge line was opened from the Melbourne to join the New South Wales system in 1962, along with a bogie exchange depot to allow wagons to operate across the broad and standard gauge networks.

[47] The Murray Basin Rail Project, commenced in 2014, aimed to convert the Mildura, Manangatang, and Sea Lake lines to standard gauge, in order to allow the grain traffic in the state's north-west to access the ports of Portland, Geelong, and Melbourne, and to enable other freight on the lines to access the national standard gauge network.

Heavier suburban traffic on the Melbourne network saw a greater strain on the block working then used, which required a large number of staffed signal boxes to enable trains to run close together.

[61] Today, the former Victorian Railways locomotive fleet has been split into two, with the N class utilised by V/Line on passenger services, with the remainder with Pacific National or other private operators in freight use.

Experiments were also made with various diesel and petrol railcars for use smaller branch lines, with the DERM being the most successful, remaining in service from 1928 to 1991.

[4][needs update] By 2016, the only remaining general containerised freight services on the intrastate network were operated to Warrnambool, to Dooen, to Merbein and Donald, and to Tocumwal, all originating from the Port of Melbourne and running between three and five times per week.

Other intrastate rail traffic was primarily specialised bulk freight, including mineral sands between Hopetoun, Hamilton and Portland in the state's west; export rice between Deniliqiun and the Port of Melbourne; paper between Australian Paper Mills in Maryvale and Melbourne; and steel to BlueScope steel plants at Hastings and Somerton.

[14] On 16 December 2002, National Express announced their intention to withdraw financial support from their rail operations in Victoria, including V/Line Passenger and M>Train.

[72] Meanwhile, in July 2003, the government announced its intention to retain V/Line Passenger in public ownership,[73] and set up the state-owned V/Line Corporation, which bought the operator out of receivership on 1 October 2003.

[77] In December 2007, Pacific National announced plans to sell or close its grain transport and Portlink rural container business operations in Victoria.

Other country branch lines were also built by private companies: namely the Kerang-Koondrook Tramway and the Deniliquin and Moama Railway,[84] both not being acquired until the 20th century.

[87] In 1962 the Australian Railway Historical Society Museum was established at Williamstown North to house static exhibits,[88] and Steamrail Victoria was formed in 1965 to assist in the restoration of locomotives and carriages for use on special trains.

In 2006, heritage railways carried 542,000 patrons over 161 km of track; with 28 operational steam locomotives, 47 diesels, 14 railmotors, and 192 carriages.