Sunshine railway station

19th century

In the 1850s, the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company began building a line from Footscray to Bendigo. The company encountered financial difficulties and was sold to the Victorian Government in 1856. No station was built on the site of the current station when the line was opened as far as Sunbury in 1859, the closest one being Albion and Darlington, on the site of the current Albion station.^[6]

In 1874, a line to Melton was opened, which branched from the Bendigo line at that point, and a station was built at the site of the junction, which was opened as Braybrook Junction on 7 September 1885. In 1887, the Melton railway was extended westwards to Bacchus Marsh, eventually meeting up with a line extended eastwards from Ballarat in 1889 . That created a direct route from Melbourne to Ballarat. Previously, the rail traffic between Melbourne and Ballarat had to run via Geelong on the Geelong-Ballarat line.^{[7][8][9][10][better source needed]}

In 1887, the Newport-Sunshine railway line was opened, connecting the new station at Braybrook Junction to Newport and Williamstown, Victoria's major cargo port at the time.

20th century

In 1907, Braybrook Junction station was renamed Sunshine, after Hugh McKay had moved his Sunshine Harvester Works to a site adjacent to the station.^[3]

On 20 April 1908, Sunshine was the scene of the Sunshine train disaster, the worst train crash in Victorian railway history. 44 people were killed and over 400 were injured.

In 1929, the Albion – Jacana goods line was opened, connecting Sunshine with the North East line, allowing freight trains to avoid the steeper grades and suburban traffic on the suburban line between North Melbourne, Essendon and Broadmeadows.

The road level crossing at Sunshine was removed when grade separation was carried out in 1961.^[11] The works took place as part of the project to construct a standard gauge line from Sydney to Melbourne.^[12] In that same year, boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Bendigo line.^[13]

In January 1963, a fourth platform was provided on the adjacent Melbourne – Sydney standard gauge line, to enable passengers to transfer between the interstate Sydney and Adelaide expresses.^[11] The platform was constructed with steel framing and timber decking, and was 270 ft (82 m) long, sufficient for four interstate passenger carriages. It was only 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) wide, and about 3 ft (0.91 m) lower than the adjacent broad gauge platforms but connected to the rear of Platform 1 by a 15 ft (4.6 m) wide ramp.^[14]: 13 By February 1964 the platform had been doubled in length, widening of the base of the original ramp and provision of a second, parallel ramp.^[15]: 13

In 1965, control of signals at Albion was transferred to the signal box at Sunshine.^[11] Also in that year, the Grain Elevator Board sidings, that serve the nearby grail silos, opened for traffic.^[3] In 1976, a signal panel was provided to replace an existing panel^[3] and, in 1977, boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Serviceton line.^[13]

White City station was located between Sunshine and Tottenham. It closed on 4 October 1981 and has been removed.^[16]

On 5 February 1985, Harris trailer carriage 830T was destroyed by fire in a vandalism attack, whilst stabled in the former down end siding.^[17][18]

In 1988, the sidings leading to the Massey Ferguson factory were booked out of use. The lead to the sidings, which crossed the standard gauge line, was removed in February of that year.^[19]

In 1994, the former station underpass, which connected the platforms to nearby City Place, was completed,^[20] replacing an underpass.^[21] It was removed during the station upgrades between 2012 and 2014. Also in that year, the track leading to the former goods shed was removed,^[21] and a number of semaphore signals were replaced with automatic colour signals.^[22]

On 26 July 1996, Sunshine was upgraded to a premium station.^[23]

21st century

In mid-2004, the platform on the standard gauge line was removed.^[24] The waiting room on the platform was demolished five years earlier, in 1999.^[25]

From 2012 to 2014, the station was rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project.^[26] Works included:

• a new bus interchange, completed in September 2013;^[27]
• construction of a new footbridge and concourse, completed in January 2014;^[28]
• upgrading Platforms 1 and 2 with new canopies;
• rebuilding Platform 3 and a new Platform 4, both completed in April 2014;^[29][30]

The standalone signal box to the north of the station, commissioned in 1914, was closed in 2016, and control of trains in the Sunshine and Albion areas was transferred to Metrol.^[31] The former signal box is one of the largest surviving examples of a tappet and lever frame box on the Victorian network, having once housed 80 levers. Although mechanical signalling was replaced with electronic interlocking before the box was finally taken out of service, it remains relatively intact as an example of Victorian Railways signal box architecture.^[32]

In early 2020, construction commenced on a new signal control centre south of the station, which will share control of the Sunshine–Dandenong corridor with an existing facility at Dandenong, after completion of the Metro Tunnel.^[33]

From 9 November 2025, SkyBus began operating a direct service from the station to Melbourne Airport.^[34]

Current (Metropolitan)

Current (Regional)