Melbourne Metro Tunnel train services will soon begin

After months of speculation, the Victorian premier has announced the long-awaited Melbourne Metro Tunnel will begin taking passengers in early December.

The Metro Tunnel will connect the Sunbury line in Melbourne’s west to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines in the south-east via five new underground city stations: Anzac, Arden, Parkville, State Library and Town Hall.

“It is the biggest overhaul of our transport system since the 1980s,” the premier, Jacinta Allan, says.

But trains will only run every 20 minutes during the so-called “summer start” period in December, with commuters having to wait until 1 February for “turn up and go” services.

Here’s what we know about the Metro Tunnel’s phased launch.

When does the Metro Tunnel open and how often will trains run?

Passengers can begin riding the Metro Tunnel during the “summer start” period in December, before the full timetable comes into effect in February. From early December, trains will run through the tunnel every 20 minutes from Westall, on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line, and West Footscray, on the Sunbury line, between 10am and 3pm on weekdays.

On weekends, they will run every 20 minutes from 10am to 7pm, and extend to East Pakenham every 40 minutes and Sunbury every 60 minutes. These 240 services are in addition to existing trains on both lines, which will continue to operate as normal through the City Loop.

Allan says the phased launch follows “international best practice”, pointing to the City Loop, which opened over four years.

She says launching over the summer – which is typically quieter – also allows for testing of new infrastructure and technology in “real-world conditions”.

“If there are any bugs that need to be ironed out, we can do that within the Metro Tunnel part of the project without affecting and disrupting the rest of the train network,” Allan says.

Commuters, she says, will also be able to use the time to “get familiar with the new system and its stations” before the “big switch” on 1 February.

What’s the ‘big switch’ and when do ‘turn up and go’ services launch?

The “big switch” is phase 2, which happens on Sunday 1 February, when the Cranbourne-Pakenham and Sunbury lines move out of the City Loop and begin running exclusively through the Metro Tunnel. The Frankston line will then move into the City Loop.

Allan says this phase will involve an “overhaul of Victoria’s entire public transport network”, with the timetable across metropolitan and regional train lines, buses and trams also set to change.

The government is yet to release this new timetable but Allan says it will include 1,000 extra weekly services on the Cranbourne-Pakenham and Sunbury lines, with trains to run every 10 minutes from 6am to 10pm between Watergardens and Dandenong.

During peak periods, this will increase to every three to four minutes, which is a “turn up and go” service.

What else do we know about the timetable?

While we know services will increase from every 20 minutes in the Metro Tunnel during the “summer start” to every three to four minutes during peak periods from February, we don’t know a lot else about the timetable changes.

But Allan stresses they will be significant.

“I want to be clear about this. It is a massive change. It will cause flow and effects to the entire system,” Allan says.

Why no launch date?

Allan says the government has announced an “early December” launch rather than a specific date because it is still awaiting approval from the national rail safety regulator.

She says this is a lesson “learned from Sydney Metro”, which opened in August 2024 but was delayed for a fortnight after it failed to receive its approvals in time.

What’s the reaction been?

The opposition leader, Brad Battin, has been critical of summer launch, saying the Metro Tunnel should deliver more services “as soon as its ready to go”.

“Most people go to work at about 9am and finish at about 5pm, and most [services] are either before or after that,” Battin says. “It’s a real problem.”

Daniel Bowen, a Victorian public transport advocate, says he understands, given the government had said the tunnel would “open in 2025”, that people were expecting it to be fully operational. But he says it “makes sense to start off gently and and then ramp it up over time”.

“The last thing they would want is some sort of major disruption due to infrastructure issues, causing a packed peak-hour train to get stuck in a tunnel and delaying thousands of passengers,” Bowen says.