Kew Railway Line - History

History

The construction of a railway to Kew was pushed by the Kew Railway League, which urged that the line branch from the Lilydale line west of Hawthorn station, passing on an easy curve on the right side of Bulleen Road, through low-lying vacant land and old brick fields, to Kew and Prospect Hill. A tunnel under Burwood Road would have been required, but that was offset by no cuttings being required.

The line eventually decided upon by the Victorian Railways consisted a single track line 1.5 mi (2.4 km) in length, as described above, the construction contract being let to Noonan Brothers contractors for ?18,086 ($36,172). Residents and members of the Kew Borough Council were unhappy with the course of the line, criticising it for not being the most direct route to Kew.

The first train left Princes Bridge station on 19 December 1887 at 5.40 am, and arrived at Kew to be greeted by the Station Master, a ticket seller, and the signalman. There was no ceremony on the opening, but once the last spike was driven a bottle of Irish whisky was produced from a portable hut near Barker station to celebrate the occasion.

The Age newspaper wrote after the opening of the line:

The gradients are distressing and the curves so sharp that the drivers were unable to see the semaphore arms until tell-tale arms were erected close to the ground. The junction with the Hawthorn – Glenferrie line is highly dangerous. It is possible, by the smallest neglect on the part of the signalman, for either a Glenferrie or Kew train to be cut in halves.

This contingency has caused the officers of the traffic office considerable anxiety, and strict orders have been given to the signalman at the junction box that once he has given 'line clear' for a train to run from Barkers Road, cross the main line and stop at Hawthorn, he must on no account alter his signals for a Glenferrie or Hawthorn train until the one from Kew has passed over the junction points. Under these circumstances the Railway Commissioners, faced by the terrible consequences of the Windsor accident, see the absolute necessity of bringing the line into Hawthorn station on a separate set of rails.And this for a line passing though unsettled park lands and terminating in a cutting, beyond which the line cannot be carried except at an extraordinary cost. (Refer to Windsor Railway Station for further details on the "Windsor accident")

The alterations to the junction were completed by 1907 at the latest. Electrification of the line was commissioned on 17 December 1922.

In the 1920s a reader of the 'Argus' newspaper suggested that Kew trains run as shuttles from Hawthorn at peak hour to save congestion on the Lilydale line. At the time Kew trains from Flinders Street were usually empty, with only 5 people to a compartment, even in peak. At the time the line from Richmond towards Camberwell was only double tracked, unlike today.

On 18 August 1952 all regular passenger services on the line were withdrawn. The Hawthorn and Kew Railway (Dismantling) Act was passed on 9 December 1958.

Reasons for the decline of the Kew railway line are varied. A commonly held idea is that tramway competition led to a loss of passengers. The remoteness of the Kew railway station compared to the tramway which ran along High Street was almost certainly a factor. In his book Marc Fiddian states 'the abolition of though trains to Kew was probably the death knell of the branch line'.