The railway to Altona was constructed by the Altona Bay Estate Company, a private land developer, and opened on 9 November 1888 to a station named Altona Beach, which was about a kilometre to the east of the current station. As a result of the collapse of the 1880s Land Boom, regular services to Altona Beach ceased after August 1890, and the Victorian government declined the offer of the owners to gift it the line. In the 1890s, the company opened a brown coal mine near the terminus of the line, and in 1907, a siding was built in the same area to enable sand to be despatched by rail. In 1910, the Altona Brown Coal Colliery Company began railing quantities of brown coal, using a siding which was a north-west extension of the Altona line. In 1917, the owners of the railway entered into an agreement with the Victorian Railways to provide a regular passenger service, having guaranteed to cover any operating losses. On 1 December 1917, the VR opened a new Altona Beach station on the present site. For a period of time, de-motored McKeen railmotors were used as carriages on steam-hauled passenger services. By 1924, the private owner of the Altona line owed the VR £7,289, being the accumulated deficit on operating passenger services, so the VR took full control of the line on 1 October 1924. The track was electrified in 1926, and the station was renamed Altona in 1938. Apart from a few direct trains between Altona and Melbourne in peak periods, all trains were run as shuttle services between Newport and Altona. By the early 1980s, the station, and the line itself, was under threat of closure, as recommended in the Lonie Report. In October 1981, the rail service was drastically cut, with all shuttle services withdrawn, and only two morning and evening trains being run to and from Melbourne. However, a change of state government in 1982 saw the restitution of many services in July that year. The line was subsequently extended to Westona on 21 January 1985, and to Laverton, on 14 April 1985.
Platforms and services
Altona has one platform. It is served by Metro Trains' Werribee line trains. Platform 1:
Werribee line: all stations and limited express services to Flinders Street, Werribee & Laverton
