St Kilda railway line

It ran for 4.5 kilometres from the Melbourne (or City) Terminus (on the site of modern-day Flinders Street station), crossing the Yarra River via the Sandridge Bridge, to branch off from the Port Melbourne line and after stopping at three stations along the line – South Melbourne, Albert Park, Middle Park – ending at St Kilda.

The line was originally to be closed in 1981, and replaced with buses as recommended in the Lonie Report.

Plans were sufficiently advanced for Melbourne-Brighton Bus Lines to have taken delivery of six Volgren bodied Volvo B10M buses before it was decided to retain the rail service after much opposition.

[3] The line was officially closed on 31 July 1987, and reopened as part of the Melbourne tram network on 21 November 1987.

The section from Southbank Junction to St Kilda was converted to light rail, requiring the conversion from 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge used by the Melbourne rail network to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge tram track as well as reducing the overhead voltage from 1,500 V DC to 600 V DC required for the trams.