After a decade of work by thousands of Victorians, the Victorian Government’s Metro Tunnel has been officially opened.
Premier, Jacinta Allan and Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Gabrielle Williams, joined with Victorians on Sunday to celebrate the official opening, travelling on the first-ever timetabled service through the Metro Tunnel.
The Metro Tunnel is the biggest transformation of the city’s public transport system in 40 years – it has doubled the size of Melbourne’s underground rail network.
“Today, thousands of Victorians will ride the Metro Tunnel and get to experience the biggest change to our rail network in 40 years,” said Premier Allan.
“This project is about fairness. It means getting to work, uni and home faster – saving you more time, wherever you live.”
“Today belongs to the thousands of Victorians who have spent the past decade building the Metro Tunnel – without you, none of this would be possible.”
The first services departed Sunbury at 9:28am and East Pakenham at 9:03am respectively – converging beneath the city and arriving almost simultaneously at Town Hall Station – before continuing their journeys along the 97-kilometre-long line.
The Government said high-capacity signalling – which was was rolled out across the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines – unlocking fast, frequent, turn-up-and-go services, made it possible.
To celebrate, the Government has confirmed travel across the network is free every weekend until Sunday, 1 February.
Also from today, the Summer Start timetable begins, with more than 240 extra services to run each week along the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury corridors, stopping at all five new underground stations – Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac.
In addition to existing services through the City Loop, services will run through the Metro Tunnel every 20 minutes from 10:00am to 3:00pm on weekdays, and from 10:00am to 7:00pm on weekends between Westall and West Footscray, with some weekend services extending to East Pakenham and Sunbury.
From 1 February, the Big Switch will fully integrate the Metro Tunnel into the network. The Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines will run exclusively through the tunnels, supported by a new timetable and more than 1,000 extra weekly services.
The Big Switch is also the day when Frankston line services return to the City Loop and a new timetable will be in place everywhere – including buses, trams, regional and metropolitan trains.
Since the Metro Tunnel was first announced, more than 7,000 workers have carved out 1.8 million cubic metres of rock and soil, built twin tunnels, laid 40 kilometres of Australian-made track, poured 754,000 cubic metres of concrete and installed 157,000 tonnes of steel.
