Sunbury electrification opens today

Melbourne's electric rail system expanded electric trains service Sunbury and Diggers Rest. 

At most times every second train from Watergardens extended / started at Sunbury. Frequencies were 40 min off-peak during the day (including Sunday mornings) and 60 min at night.

The evening service was later upgraded to 30 min with all trains from Watergardens extending to Sunbury. Further even bigger service improvements are likely under the Metro Tunnel timetable when that starts in late 2025. 

Also starting on that day were bus network and timetable reforms in the Coburg - Broadmeadows area. Details at: https://bcsv.org.au/vm/2012-11-18-broadmeadows-glenroy-changes/

Note: This item was added retrospectively for the historical record.  

Pictures of the new South Morang Station

Taken on the first weekday of operation.

New Metro timetable - 10 min frequencies for Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston as three new stations open

Today four big things happened to transform train services in Melbourne. 

* The Epping line gains another station with an extension to South Morang, the subject of a community campaign for many years. 

* New stations opened at Cardinia Rd on the Pakenham line and Lynbrook on the Cranbourne line. Both serve growth area catchments. 

* Weekend train services to Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston were doubled from every 20 to every 10 minutes between approximately 10am and 7pm. This provided turn-up-and-go service over most of the day. However weekend evening and Sunday morning headways remained at every 30 minutes. 

* Extra run time was added to Metro timetables, making punctuality targets easier to achieve. And indeed there was a major improvement in reported punctuality after this change. 

More on page 6 of the DoT Annual Report: 

https://www.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-06/DOT-Annual-Report-2011-2012.pdf

 
Daniel Bowen's item: https://danielbowen.com/2012/03/07/fkn-line-first-metro/

March 7 Age article about the change here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/citys-train-services-set-for-major-overhaul-20120307-1ujkl.html

Metro website announcement: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20120408204403/http://newtimetable.metrotrains.com.au/

Note: This item has been added retrospectively for posterity.