Metro Tunnel opening - What's happening when?

Yesterday we were told the most important date associated with the Metro Tunnel. 

Sunday, February 1, 2026 

This is the first day that a full service timetable will operate on Metro Tunnel stations. 

The government is calling it The Big Switch. 

Sunbury and Pakenham/Cranbourne line trains will shift out of separate City Loop portals to being joined via five new stations at Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac. That will form a through line underneath the CBD with frequent service. 

How frequent? We are told every 3 to 4 minutes in peak periods. Not a lot different to now, especially from the Dandenong side. I would expect that there will be some use of the West Footscray turnback. 

Outside peaks a service will operate every 10 minutes or better from first to last train between West Footscray and Dandenong stations. That's good for suburbs like Dandenong but is a bit light on for the inner core where a 5 minute service would be much more compatible with Metro-style high volume short trip needs. Without such a frequent core you can't really do tram reform and thus reap the full cascading benefits of the Metro Tunnel project.  

East of Dandenong trains are likely to alternate between East Pakenham and Cranbourne, to provide the outer portions with a 20 minute service. That compares to now where gaps can be 30 minutes at night and as long as 70(!) minutes on Sunday mornings. The other great thing is that forced transfers will be pretty much a thing of the past for Pakenham and Cranbourne passengers with the trunk almost always double the frequency of the branches.

Something that's not clear is Night Network. If they stick with the network-wide hourly frequency then that could feature hourly trains from Sunbury to either East Pakenham or Cranbourne with the other line getting a shuttle from Dandenong. Although if they were feeling generous then they could avoid that by running a half-hourly service to Dandenong with trains alternating east.   

On the west side some trains will terminate at West Footscray, some at Watergardens and others at the end of the line at Sunbury. The termini will alternate between Sunbury and Watergardens most of the time, with Sunbury generally getting a 20 minute service and Watergardens a 10 minute service. 

However the latter won't be to last train; in something bound to annoy after 9pm travellers half the trains will finish at West Footscray. Hence the premier's media release saying that the frequent service to Watergardens is 6am to 9pm only. Still, the every 20 minute late evening frequency that Tottenham - Sunbury will get is better than the current 30 minute gaps.  

You need to be aware that this is a government whose record is to love spending on capex (ie building stuff) but hate opex (ie running stuff). Largely as new hospitals and stations can be built on borrowed money and opened with ribbons while nurses and service frequency need funds raised from taxes (or efficiencies) and are less visible.

A period of low interest rates made the skew even more notable, though it is probably fair to say that without it the Metro Tunnel that we can talk about today would not have been built. But conversely it meant that various attempts to add service hatched within the department (eg 2012's Network Development Plan (Metropolitan Rail), the 2016 Metro Tunnel Business Case and bus reform in 2015 and 2023) were either canned entirely or happened in much reduced form. Sydney, in contrast, continued to invest in frequency, leading to a widening Sydney - Melbourne gap in public transport service levels.  

Having said that the need for better service over longer 7 day spans is an enduring truth that occasionally sees the light of day, even if behaves like a recessive gene compared to infrastructure builds. One such understanding is the 14 hour rule - that is public transport should operate at a relatively high frequency for about 14 hours a day, every day. That is significantly better than current rail timetabling practice (particular on weekends) where even our best served lines see frequent service for only about 9 hours (comparing unfavourably with both Perth and Sydney).

When DTP is asked to plan things you sometimes do get longer periods of frequent service specified or happening. The Metro Tunnel Business Case (which was heavily informed by the NDP) typically specified 10 minute service on main lines for all but late night periods. And recently tabled bus reform documents define a 6am to 10pm (actually 16 hours) core period where rapid and connector buses should run every 10 minutes. While that plan's bold bus reforms were rejected, the idea of running frequent service for more of the day did guide some things that did happen.

Notable recent examples that continued relatively frequent service into the mid-evening include bus upgrades like for 905 and 907 in Manningham, 170, 180 and 192 in Wyndham, and most recently a selection of Craigieburn routes funded in the 2025 state budget.

You'll be able to add the Metro Tunnel to that next year. Tottenham to Watergardens will enjoy a 10 min or better service from 6am to 9pm. That is 15 hours which while inferior to Dandenong (18 hours) and Sydney (20 hours) still beats any Melbourne line today (including Frankston).    

It's not just the Sunbury, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines that are changing. 

A big justification for the Metro Tunnel is the cascading effect where it frees up capacity. In this case the Frankston line returns to operating via the City Loop, like it did 15 or so years ago. Like the Pakenham and Cranbourne line it will be running anti-clockwise all day. 

The February 1 2026 changes are summarised on the Big Build website and below. 

The 1000 weekly services on the Sunbury line largely comprise off-peak frequency boosts that add 3 trains per hour each way as far as Watergardens to double frequency from 20 to 10 minutes. Half of those will extend to Sunbury, doubling their 40 minute frequency to 20 minutes. Evenings also gain an upgrade from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes at worst and every 10 minutes at best. There will likely be some Sunday morning uplifts improving to 20 minute maximum waits. 

The 100 extra weekly services at the Dandenong end will largely be additions to cut maximum waits to 20 minutes for Pakenham and Cranbourne. The main times to benefit are after 7pm weekends and Sunday mornings. As an example improving from 30 to 20 minutes requires 1 train each way per hour extra. Multiply by 2 (for return trip) and by 2 again (for both lines), then by 10 (for number of week you are upgrading) and you get 40. Fixing up early weekend mornings and adding shoulder peaks would likely get you to 100, noting that counting trains is a poor measure as lengthening runs to avoid transfers and improve frequencies from Dandenong inwards is not rewarded.   

There may be other changes but they're not mentioned above (or on the interactive map), even though they have been the subject of public announcements. I'm talking about things like already funded Werribee, Craigieburn, Upfield and Sandringham timetable upgrades. And also what happens to the generally neglected but potentially convenient cross-city group (which shows as broken on the map in this video). More on them later. 

December 2025

The next date, though sooner, isn't known precisely yet. But we do know it will be in early December 2025.

That was announced yesterday at 7:01am via social media. That's the exact same time and means that the Suburban Rail Loop was announced in 2018.

Major rail openings involving the public most commonly take place on a Sunday so December 7 is a likely hot favourite, though checks and sign-off need to be done first.

The government is calling this the Summer Start, that is the commencement of public services through the Metro Tunnel. You could call it a 'soft opening'. Basically a limited frequency, limited hours service mainly for testing but also for the curious to see the new stations for themselves.

It's a showground ride more than serious transport but it helps people get used to navigating the new stations and features new to Melbourne such as platform screen doors. Timed to suit Christmas shopping, it might even draw people into the city and allows the government to claim that they opened the Metro Tunnel early.

All these have benefits but as I say it's not practical transport for most. For that you should keep using existing services on existing timetables as you currently do.  

The government will be hoping that there will be minimal disruption to existing travel patterns as the new trips will operate in addition to existing unchanged routing and timetables on all lines.

Two months of free statewide weekend travel will be offered, starting from when the Metro Tunnel opens in early December.  

Mid 2026

Now we move to a mid-2026 date that the government is even vaguer about. Indeed it's not in the media release. To the contrary, that leads one to the view that everything will be happening on February 1 2026 with quotes like "A new timetable will be in place everywhere – including buses, trams, regional and metropolitan trains".

However The Age carried an article stressing a third, mid-2026 timetable change with more service improvements. 

These may well include the May 2025 state budget upgrades, including peak boosts for Werribee,  and reduced maximum waits for Craigieburn and Upfield. 

A Sandringham line weekday upgrade to 10 min frequencies was also funded. That would be frequency harmonised with lines from the west such as Werribee and Williamtown. And it would partly compensate South Yarra station for the frequency it lost when Dandenong trains were rerouted to skip it.

This is one of the big uncertainties of the Metro Tunnel project - will the cross-city service continue beyond February 1 or will it be broken (with all trains terminating at Flinders Street) only to be potentially restored mid-year? Not taking it seriously may be one of those cases where operational ease may take a higher priority than passenger convenience.

An up side, as I noted here, the Metro Tunnel experience of seamless cross-city travel, something that Melbourne has so much more difficulty than other cities in mastering, may force an expectation that the cross-city group should be more seamlessly and reliably operated. There is also hope in that the network map the minister is holding in this Reddit thread has a Werribee - Sandringham line in a uniform pink colour, unlike this Metro Tunnel video whose map has them separate.  

It may also be that at least some of the "new timetable in place everywhere" may be implemented in the mid-year tranche rather than 1 February, though again we don't know. The government is talking up the effort this involves. But unless there is a mystery bucket of money it is unlikely that recoordination can be any more than minor tweaks here and there. Although you never know - the recent Ballarat and Gippsland line bus recoordinations are examples where significant sums from unknown sources were found with substantial service increases delivered. 

As we get nearer the start dates more details about the various service levels and patterns will likely come to hand.

Know anything else? Please leave them in the comments below.