Sunshine railway station, Melbourne

The Melbourne & Murray River Railway (now named the Bendigo line), originating from Spencer Street station, was built in the late 1850s, from Footscray station to Sunbury and Bendigo, however, no station was built at that time on the current site; the closest station was Albion & Darlington, on the site of the current Albion station.[3]

In 1885, the Serviceton line from Melbourne to Ballarat, via Bacchus Marsh, was built, branching off from the Bendigo line, and a station at the junction of the two lines was built. The station opened on 7 September 1885, as Braybrook Junction, named such as it was at the junction of the two lines, and was within the Shire of Braybrook.

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

In 1907, Braybrook Junction station was renamed Sunshine, when Hugh McKay moved his Sunshine Harvester Works adjacent to the station.[2] On 20 April 1908, Sunshine was the scene of the worst train crash in Victorian railway history, the Sunshine train disaster.

The Albion – Jacana line opened in 1929, connecting Sunshine station 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.[4] The works took place as part of the project to construct a standard gauge line from Sydney to Melbourne.[5] Boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Bendigo line, in the same year.[6]

A fourth platform was opened in January 1963, on the adjacent Melbourne – Sydney standard gauge line, to enable passengers to transfer between the interstate Sydney and Adelaide expresses.[4] In 1965, control of signals at Albion station was transferred to the signal box at Sunshine.[4] Boom barriers were provided at the nearby former Anderson Road level crossing, on the Ballarat line, in 1977.[6]

On 5 February 1985, Harris trailer carriage 830T was destroyed by fire, in a vandalism attack, whist stabled in the former down siding.[7]

The sidings leading to Massey Ferguson were booked out of use in 1988, with the lead to the sidings, which crossed the standard gauge line, was removed in February of the same year.[8]

The former station underpass, which connected the platforms to nearby City Place, was completed in 1994,[9] replacing an earlier underpass.[10] It was removed during the station upgrades between 2012 and 2014. Also around this time, the track leading to the former goods shed was removed.[10]

Sunshine was categorised as a Premium station on 26 July 1996.[11]

From 2012 to 2014, the station was rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project.[12] Works included:

• a new bus interchange, completed in September 2013;[13]
• construction of a new footbridge and concourse, completed in January 2014;[14]
• upgrading Platforms 1 and 2 with new canopies;
• rebuilding Platform 3 and a new Platform 4, both completed in April 2014;[15][16]

The completed station was opened to the public on 28 April 2014.

The standalone signal box to the north of the station, commissioned in 1914, was closed in 2016 and its control of the Sunshine and Albion areas transferred to Metrol.[17] Construction commenced in early 2020 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.[18]

On 22 July 2018, the Victorian state government announced that the Melbourne Airport rail link will be funded with state and commonwealth money and that it will run from the Melbourne CBD to Melbourne Airport via Sunshine station.[19] As part of this project, a new "super hub" will be built at Sunshine station for passengers transferring between V/Line services and the airport trains. Construction is planned to begin by 2022.[20]