All aboard: Metro Tunnel open to passengers

Thousands of excited Victorians descended upon the Metro Tunnel’s five new state-of-the-art underground stations on November 30 as the project opened to passengers for the first time.

In the biggest transformation of the Victorian rail network in more than 40 years, the new tunnel connects the Sunbury line to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, and more than doubles the size of the city’s underground rail network.

Five new underground stations are now open, at Arden in North Melbourne, Parkville on Grattan St, State Library and Town Hall on Swanston St, and Anzac on St Kilda Rd.

The state-of-the-art stations feature new technology not seen before on the Victorian rail network, including platform screen doors that open and close with the train doors and displays showing how crowded each carriage is.

The stations include escalators and lifts, customer service counters and help points, wide platforms, braille signage, tactile ground surface indicators, hearing loops, and accessible and Changing Place toilets.

Over December and January, Metro Tunnel services will run seven days a week – between 10am and 3pm weekdays and until 7pm on weekends – as part of the Summer Start.

For the first time people will be able to catch a train to Parkville and St Kilda Rd, while getting to know the five underground stations and seeing how their journeys may change.

Existing services on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines will continue as normal through the City Loop during the Summer Start.

The Summer Start means if there are any issues with the tunnel’s new systems and infrastructure, bugs can be ironed out without disrupting the rest of the train network.

On Sunday, February 1, all services on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines will start travelling exclusively through the Metro Tunnel, freeing up capacity in the City Loop for more services on other lines.

A new timetable will also be introduced, with more than 1000 services added every week to the new Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines timetables.

Frankston line services will return to the City Loop, improving access to the CBD for thousands of passengers.

There will be lots of information provided over the coming months about how passengers can make the most of their new and improved journey plans.

For more details on how to use the Metro Tunnel, visit: bigbuild.vic.gov.au/use-metro-tunnel/home •