Everything you need to know about the opening of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel
After years of construction chaos, Melbourne’s $15.5bn Metro Tunnel finally has an opening date, but full services won’t start until 2026. Here’s what you need to know.
The long-awaited Metro Tunnel will open in early December on a limited basis, with full services on the new $15.5bn line due to begin on February 1.
The soft launch of the new line, which connects the Sunbury line to the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines and creates an alternative to the City Loop, will occur once rail safety regulators give it the green light.
Premier Jacinta Allan said this was likely to happen by early December which meant “Christmas is coming early” for passengers on affected lines.
“What an incredible moment for our state – Victorians have patiently waited for this tunnel to get built underneath their feet and behind big sheds, and now they’ll be able to use it,” she said.
The announcement of the soft launch comes just days after the end of construction at the project’s two CBD stations, at the Town Hall and the State Library.
Final testing will now occur across the 9km line and its five stations before it can open for passengers with limited services.
View the Sunbury to East Packenham Summer Timetable
View the West Footscray to Westall Summer Timetable
HOW THE STAGGERED OPENING WILL WORK
When will the Metro Tunnel open?
In early December, trains will start to run through the Metro Tunnel on weekdays between 10am and 3pm, and on weekends from 10am to 7pm. The 9km tunnel has been built between South Yarra and Kensington to connect the Sunbury line to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines and take them out of the City Loop. But from early December through to February 1, regular services on those lines will continue to run through the loop, while the new limited services run through the Metro Tunnel. Those limited services will run every 20 minutes between Westall and West Footscray on weekdays between 10am and 3pm. On weekends there will also be trains running all the way from East Pakenham every 40 minutes, and all the way from Sunbury every 60 minutes.
Why is it a soft launch?
The government says a staggered approach for opening a major new rail line has occurred in other places around the world, and will allow rail operators to bed down the integration of the new tunnel into the existing network. The Allan government had also committed to opening the project this year, and had incentives for builders to finish the project and open it to passengers before the end of 2025. Premier Jacinta Allan said it was “the best way to make sure everything runs well” before a big timetable overhaul, and that in the first two months of operations there would still be an extra 240 services running each week – alongside the existing timetable.
Why don’t we have a fixed date?
The government says it is confident it can open in “early December” but this is subject to the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) signing off on the project, following a full assessment. The ONRSR has been working with Metro Tunnel builders through construction, but the handover of the two CBD stations this week to rail authorities will enable the final testing and assessments to take place. Premier Jacinta Allan says the opening will begin as soon as possible once that approval is in place, and this is likely in early December.
The CBD stations only just finished construction, will they be ready?
Town Hall station is the most complex of the five new stations, because it has entry points at Federation Square, from Flinders St Station, from Swanston St next to the Young and Jackson pub, and from City Square near to the Town Hall. At the soft launch, only the Town Hall and Flinders St connection points will be open, with the other Swanston St entrance likely to open in early 2026. The Fed Square entrance won’t be available until later in 2026, the Premier says, because it will continue to be an access point for construction crews demobilising sites. The two entrances for the State Library station at Franklin St near RMIT and at the corner of Latrobe and Swanston streets – as well as the connection through to Melbourne Central – will be available from early December.
When do full services begin?
On February 1, a broader overhaul of public transport timetables will begin, allowing for full services along the Metro Tunnel line and its five stations at Anzac near the Shrine, Town Hall, State Library, Parkville, and Arden at North Melbourne. At that time, Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines will no longer use the City Loop, while the Frankston line will return to the City Loop. Currently, Frankston line trains run direct to Flinders St Station, and passengers have to switch trains at South Yarra or Richmond to get to loop stations.
How often will trains run from February?
Trains will run through the new tunnel every 3 or 4 minutes during peak hours, between Watergardens and Dandenong. Between the hours of 6am and 9pm, trains will run at least every 10 minutes, while outside of those hours there will be a more limited service schedule. The full timetable changes have not yet been announced; including the benefits to other lines that would be able to increase services due to the city’s busiest lines being taken out of the congested City Loop. The government says once the February 1 changes are introduced, there will be an extra 1000 train services a week added to the network.
Will I benefit if I live in Carrum, Craigieburn, or Coburg?
The business case for the Metro Tunnel showed the benefits of opening the new rail line through Melbourne should open up capacity across the network. In order to do this, wider network enhancements were required, some of which have been done. As revealed by the Herald Sun, some others have been delayed or scaled back.
Passengers will have to wait until the government unveils the timetable overhaul for how their journey times will change, outside of the Pakenham, Cranbourne and Sunbury lines.
Will the February overhaul be the end of the journey?
There is likely to be another timetable tweak next year or the following year, once the new network is bedded down and other public transport projects wrap up. This is yet to be announced, but there is a state election in November, 2026, so there is a possibility of further changes ahead of that event. There will also be broader changes to buses, trams, and regional services introduced from February, but details are not yet clear. There would also need to be a significant funding injection across the network to enable more services to run.
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Originally published as Everything you need to know about the opening of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel
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