Lilydale railway station, Melbourne

MelbourneRailwayStation1
NAME=Lilydale
IMAGELINK=Lilydale1.jpg
CAPTION=Comeng train in the 'back' platform at Lilydale
CODE=LIL
DISTANCE=37.8 km
LINES=Lilydale
PLATFORMS=2
TRACKS=4
STATUS=Premium Station
FACILITIES= [http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/stop/view/19876 Link]
TIMETABLES= [http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/stop/view/19876#lineInformation Link]

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=-37.755516,145.347683&spn=0.012571,0.019956 Link]
ZONE=2

Lilydale is a railway station (station code: LIL) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located at end of the Lilydale line, at Main Street in the suburb of Lilydale. It is 37.8 km from Flinders Street Station, the center of the city's suburban railway network, and in Metcard ticketing Zone 2.

Lilydale is a Premium Station, meaning that it is staffed from first to last train, and has extra customer services available. It is also a terminus station, with most trains terminating here rather than at earlier terminus stations. The station has an enclosed waiting room, also contains former refreshment rooms which are opened by the Victorian Railway Institute on Friday afternoons and evenings.

History

The line at Lilydale once continued onto Healesville (opening in 1889), but was truncated to Lilydale in 1980, with the track between Yarra Glen and Healesville now used by the Yarra Valley Tourist Railway. The track from Lilydale to Yarra Glen, including Coldstream and Yering is now disused. The Yarra Valley Tourist railway originally leased the entire line, however they discontinued their lease on the section from Lilydale to Yarra Glen, because of the bad condition of the bridges in that section. However, there are hopes to eventually restore the entire line.

Also branching off at Lilydale was the Warburton railway line. It opened in 1901, and closed on the 1st of August, 1965. The track was removed in the early 1970s, as was the bridge over Maroondah Highway. Most of the right-of-way is still intact, and has been turned into the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail. The exception to this is the part of the line approximately 800 metres beyond where it branched off at Lilydale. Mount Lilydale Mercy College currently leases this part of the line, which runs through its property. This is the only part of the line that is currently obstructed.

The station was upgraded to Premium Station status on July 31 1996.cite journal
year = 1997
month = October
title = Upgrading Eltham to a Premium Station
journal = Newsrail
publisher = Australian Railway Heritage Society (Victorian Division)
pages = page 310 ]

References

MetlinkAndClosedStations
Line1 = |Lilydale line
Previous1 = Mooroolbark
ClosedLine = Continued as the Healesville line
ClosedNext = Coldstream
ClosedPreviousplain = see Lilydale line
ClosedLine2 = Warburton branch
ClosedNext2 = Mount Evelyn
ClosedPrevious2plain = Junction
VICORMELB=Melbourne