The $15 billion Metro Tunnel’s full benefits to commuters are in doubt because related network upgrades to two already-strained train lines have been cut from the project to rein in its ballooning budget.
The Allan government says the Metro Tunnel will open by the end of this year and has already launched a marketing blitz trumpeting “more trains, more often” thanks to the nine-kilometre underground line from Kensington to South Yarra.
The new Arden station in North Melbourne was the first of five new inner-city underground stations to be completed. Credit: Wayne Taylor
A Sunbury-to-Dandenong line will operate through the tunnel via five new inner-city underground stations, freeing up capacity in the City Loop. But two of the main planned beneficiaries, the Upfield and Craigieburn lines, could still face overcrowding and infrequent services.
Nearing completion after almost eight years of construction, the Metro Tunnel was intended to help transform Melbourne’s train network from one plagued by waits of up to 40 minutes between trains to a modern “turn-up and go” metro with services at least every 10 minutes, all day, every day.
But transport experts fear this ambition may not be realised after a series of “wider network enhancements” originally included in the Metro Tunnel project to enable service improvements on other lines were sacrificed as the original $10.9 billion budget gradually blew out $15.6 billion.
The cuts include:
- A train turn-back on the Upfield line at Gowrie needed to solve a single-track bottleneck that limits peak hour trains to one every 15 minutes.
- A turn-back and platform extension at Essendon needed to run more trains on the Craigieburn line.
- A turn-back at South Yarra to increase services to booming western suburbs on the Werribee and Williamstown lines.
- The Park Street Link tram line extension in South Melbourne to reroute trams along Spencer Street, rather than Swanston, to boost services in the CBD’s west.
A turn-back is a section of track that allows a train to change direction without having to travel to the end of the line, so more trains can run to stations with high passenger demand.
The Metro Tunnel’s 2016 business case said the network-wide upgrades were necessary to take full advantage of the project and needed to coincide with the completion of the tunnel.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the relatively small upgrades should have been delivered.
“The Metro Tunnel is an opportunity to shake up the timetables and give Melbourne a vastly more usable train network,” he said. “Cutting them … means it will be more difficult to make the most of the capacity boost provided by this huge project.”
Bowen said that without the upgrades, Upfield would continue to have the most infrequent peak-hour trains on the network and overcrowding would be a problem on the Craigieburn line.
South Yarra station, which Dandenong trains will skip when the Metro Tunnel opens, could also be overwhelmed without the proposed turn-back, he said.
A 2022 Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report revealed that Rail Projects Victoria had dropped $236 million worth of wider network enhancements, including a turn-back and some signalling upgrades to offset cost blowouts in the project.
It saved another $91 million by reducing its rollout of high-capacity signalling by 27 kilometres, or by about a third.
High-capacity signalling – which allows trains to run closer together – has been installed only between West Footscray and Westall, rather than between Watergardens and Westall.
In August, The Age revealed the government had agreed to cut the Park Street Link tram extension from the Metro Tunnel works due to insufficient funding.
With the Metro Tunnel set to take passengers off Swanston Street trams, the 300-metre extension on Park Street in South Melbourne would have redirected route 5 and 64 trams along Clarendon and Spencer streets.
A small connection from Elizabeth Street onto Flinders Street also appears to have been dropped. That would have allowed route 19 and 59 to continue to Jolimont and route 57 to Melbourne Park instead of turning around at Elizabeth Street.
Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said axing the Park Street Link was “just absurd” given the benefits it would provide to the tram network.
“The people who did the original [Metro Tunnel] design knew what they were doing and what was needed to optimise it so you get some bang for your buck,” he said. “So what’s come since doesn’t reflect very well on the department.”
Hearsch said the government should publish its proposed network timetables now.
A proposed service plan in the Metro Tunnel business case for day one operations in 2026 showed peak hour trains running every 10 minutes on the Upfield Line (compared to 15 to 20 minutes currently), less than every four minutes on the Craigieburn Line from Essendon (compared to every six minutes), and every five minutes from Werribee (compared to every 10 minutes).
A state government spokesperson said the Metro Tunnel timetable was still being finalised but it would enable turn-up-and-go services for Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury trains.
Opening the tunnel was a first step towards adding more services across the network and improving frequency on the Craigieburn and Upfield lines, the spokesperson said.
The government would wait to see how the Metro Tunnel affected travel patterns before changing the tram network, they said.
Bowen said infrequent off-peak service was the most glaring issue on the network and could be fixed without any new infrastructure.
“People spend too much time waiting for trains, including waits of 40 minutes on Sunday mornings on about half the Metro lines. In Sydney, the most you’ll wait for a train at any time of day is 15 minutes,” he said.
The new Sydney Metro has frequencies of every four minutes during peak times, five minutes during the day on weekdays, and 10 minutes at all other times, while most other train stations across Sydney have services at least every 10 minutes all day, every day.
In Melbourne, Frankston is the only line that currently has 10-minute all-day frequency.
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