Outer Circle railway line, Melbourne
| Outer Circle | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Type | Melbourne suburban service |
| Status | Part retained as the Alamein line; Chandler Highway; otherwise parkland |
| Connecting lines | Hurstbridge, Lilydale, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines |
| Operation | |
| Opened | May 30, 1890 |
| Closed | April 4, 1893 |
| Number of tracks | Single track |
The Outer Circle was built in 1891 as a steam-era suburban railway line, in Melbourne, Australia. It covered much of the modern City of Boroondara, including the suburbs of (from north to south) Kew East, Camberwell, Burwood, Ashburton, and Malvern East. At its longest stage, it ran from Fairfield station, on what is today the Hurstbridge line, to Oakleigh station, on the current Pakenham and Cranbourne lines.
The Outer Circle railway was first advocated by a group known as the Upper Yarra Railway League in 1867 who suggested that the Gippsland Railway could be brought into Melbourne via the outer suburbs, but the term itself was first conceived in 1873 by Engineer-in-Chief of the Victorian Railways, Thomas Higinbotham who suggested an "outer circle route".
Construction of the Gippsland line was authorised in 1873 but the line could not be brought into Melbourne by the direct route used today as the private Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Company controlled the lines from Flinders Street station to South Yarra, and no connection existed between Flinders Street and Spencer Street stations. By 1879 this issue had been solved, with the direct railway opened and the M&HBUR purchased by the government in 1878.
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