The South Gippsland railway line was opened from Dandenong to Cranbourne in 1888 and extended to Koo Wee Rup, Nyora and Loch in 1890, Korumburra and Leongatha in 1891 and Welshpool, Alberton and Port Albert in 1892.

Following the withdrawal of all rail services beyond Koala Siding, the section of track from Nyora to Leongatha was transferred to the South Gippsland Railway on 15 December 1994.

Services to Leongatha were restored on 9 December 1984, with free train shuttles to Korumburra being provided to mark the occasion.

[4] In 1995, the section of track between Dandenong and Cranbourne was electrified and a station added at Merinda Park, as part of a $27 million Federal Government-funded project.

[8] A significant portion of traffic on the line was superphosphate fertiliser to serve farms along the route; one particularly heavy train recorded on 14 February 1974 conveyed over 900 tonnes (including the weight of the wagons and Guard's van) between Monomeith and Nyora, then over 1000 tonnes to Korumburra including loading attached from the Wonthaggi line.

By the mid-1990s only T, Y and P class diesel locomotives were used on the line, due to their low axle loads, with a 15 km/h speed limit applying to parts of the track.

Local Melbourne community groups continued to organise chartered special diesel and railcar-hauled trains beyond Leongatha until 1991.

[11] A steam and diesel special operated to Barry Beach and Welshpool on 11 November 1989, which was organised to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the Dandenong to Nyora section of the Great Southern Railway.

Both were operated by Steamrail Victoria, and comprised 11-car consists of Victorian Railways E-Type and W-Type wooden carriages, which ran numerous shuttles between Korumburra and Leongatha stations.

After the withdrawal of passenger services to Leongatha, a few more steam-hauled trips were organised before the line was booked out of regular use between Cranbourne and Nyora.

[14] Steam locomotive J515 journeyed to Leongatha on 14 October 1995, for the first time since November 1989, organised by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre and the ARHS.

During the tour, J515 derailed due to a missing guide rail on the locomotive turntable at Korumburra that had been recently relocated from Foster.

It returned to Steamrail Victoria's base at Newport on 29 April 1998, after it was leased to the South Gippsland Tourist Railway (SGTR) in December 1996.

K190 was leased to the South Gippsland Tourist Railway on 7 December 1996, when Steamrail Victoria operated another steam special to Leongatha.

[citation needed] Much of the operational and safeworking infrastructure remains in place in this section, including signalling equipment, level crossings, and easements.

Prior to the 1999 Victorian election, the state Labor Party promised to return passenger services to Leongatha.

The report stated that only 20 per cent of respondents surveyed about their transport needs considered restoring train services to be the main priority.

[20][21] The then Minister for Public Transport Lynne Kosky said that the State Government had provided funding for development of a rail trail between Cranbourne East and Nyora to support tourism in South Gippsland in May 2008.

After the disbandment of the South Gippsland Tourist Railway on 16 January 2016, it was announced that VicTrack would leave the disused rail line between Cranbourne and Leongatha intact and available for future use by freight and passenger trains.

While the reopening the South Gippsland railway line as far as Leongatha was a prominent issue in the region in 2013, that is no longer the case, and the focus has shifted to developing the tourist potential of the expanding rail trail.

[24] In early 2014, a report into possible extensions of the Melbourne metropolitan rail system identified the population growth corridor from Cranbourne to Koo-Wee-Rup, along the disused Leongatha line, as a key planning priority.

[27] One notable milestone for the group was running a successful campaign that saw passenger rail services reinstated to Leongatha on 9 December 1984.

[28] A promise by the Bracks Labor government in 1999 to revive the railway line for freight and passenger services was abandoned by his successor John Brumby in 2008, but a community campaign involving the South and West Gippsland Transport Group continued to lobby, in collaboration with key stakeholders and governments, to achieve the reinstatement of rail services, and the improvement of public transport provision in the region.

There was also the problem of the Dandenong bottleneck, which causes major delays to Gippsland Line services which share the rail corridor from there to Melbourne.