AUSTRALIA: Limited revenue services started through Melbourne’s 9 km Metro Tunnel with a ceremony on November 30, attended by Premier of the Sate of Victoria Jacinta Allan and state Minister for Transport Infrastructure Gabrielle Williams.
The 1 600 mm gauge cross-city tunnel features five new underground stations: Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac. It is served by the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham suburban rail lines with an initial service of a train every 20 min from 10.00 to 15.00 on weekdays and from 10.00 to 19.00 on weekends. These are running between Westall on the Cranbourne/Pakenham lines and West Footscray on the Sunbury Line, with some weekend services extending to East Pakenham and Sunbury.
The full opening is expected for February 1, when all Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham line services will be diverted into the tunnel, providing a combined 3 to 4 min peak frequency, and allowing for the Big Switch network-wide timetable change.
Fleet and signalling
Services are operated by High Capacity Metro Trains, 65 of which were ordered from the Evolution Rail consortium of Downer, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles and Plenary under an A$2bn public-private partnership finalised in 2016. An additional five were ordered in 2021 and delivered by 2024.
The line between West Footscray and Clayton was equipped with what is known locally as High Capacity Signalling; the Urbalis Flo CBTC was installed under a contract awarded to Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) in 2017. The A$310m programme also included the construction of two control centres, one at Sunshine on the Sunbury line and the other at Dandenong for the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines.
Alstom also delivered platform screen doors and core component technologies for the Sunshine Signal Control Centre. Trains started using the new signalling equipment in mid-2023.
The outer sections of both the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines have been extensively upgraded to support the more frequent service, including sections being rebuilt on an elevated alignment. Many level-crossings have been removed as part of the regional grade separation programme, with all due to be removed by 2030.
‘From today [November 30], travel across the network is free every weekend for everyone until 1 February — this is our way of saying thanks to everyone for their patience while we built the Metro Tunnel and to celebrate this huge moment in the history of our state’, Williams said.
- Dig deeper: read a feature article about how the Metro Tunnel project is reshaping the Melbourne network from the November 2025 issue of Railway Gazette International.
