Submitted by John Mullany via email.

Here’s an interesting rail planning map from 1969, presumably produced in association with the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan. It outlines all the improvements planned for Melbourne’s metropolitan rail system, including a whole bunch of new branches as shown in blue. According to the map, the works depicted were to be completed by 1985.

Fast forward to 2015 – some 30 years past that deadline – and only the City Loop (opened between 1981 and 1985) and the extension to Westona (1985, now part of a loop on the Werribee Line) have been built. The rest remain unrealised, with the Doncaster Line being a fine example of a project stuck forever in “planning hell”.