So now we know the when Metro Tunnel will open: Sunday 30th of November, with a temporary timetable dubbed the “Summer Start” – then the full service commencing on Sunday 1st February 2026.
Summer free rides
I’ve been told by the State Government that the previously advertised free fares on weekends in December and January will now include Sunday 30th November.
I’m assuming for now that it does not include the Saturday of that weekend, and I’m also assuming that the free days will start and finish at 3am, in accordance with the usual “end of day” of the fare system.
If you’re planning any V/Line weekend travel on summer services that take bookings, you’d be well advised to get those bookings as early as possible.
Summer weekend service
The summer service through the tunnel will be limited hours, with a train mostly every 20 minutes – alongside the existing City Loop services.
First train from Dandenong headed north-west through the tunnel is the 9:28am, arriving Anzac 10:07. On Sunday 30th November, this will be the first public service using the tunnel, but only by a couple of minutes. UPDATE: 30th Nov will run a slightly different timetable. See bottom of post.
First train from Sunbury headed south-east is the 9:28am, arriving Arden 10:09.
The two first trains are scheduled to cross between Parkville and State Library.
While it’s mostly a 20 minute frequency, there seems to be a 40 minute gap after the first service headed north-west (towards Sunbury) on weekends.
A few trains on weekends will run the entire length of the line – it takes just over two hours from Sunbury to East Pakenham or vice versa.
Interestingly the timetable I’ve seen shows trains heading south-east terminating at Clayton, not Westall. That might change on the final timetable, as it doesn’t quite make sense, given that north-west bound trains do start at Westall.
On weekends the last train towards Sunbury is 6:47pm from Anzac, 6:58pm from Arden.
Last train towards Dandenong is 6:29pm from Arden, 6:40pm from Anzac.
Summer weekday service
On weekdays:
First train from Westall at 10:01am, arriving Anzac 10:27.
First train from West Footscray at 10:01am, arriving Arden 10:10.
Trains run every 20 minutes in each direction.
The last towards West Footscray is 3:07pm from Anzac, 3:18pm from Arden.
The last towards Westall is 2:50pm from Arden, 3:01pm from Anzac.
So they’re avoiding running through the tunnel during peak commuter hours.
Timetable from 1st February
From 1st February the full timetable starts, with Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham trains coming out of the City Loop, and running through the Metro tunnel permanently.
Full details of this haven’t been announced yet, but the big test in August implies at least a 10 minute frequency between Dandenong and West Footscray from first to last train, extending as far as Watergardens during daylight hours.
Branches to Cranbourne/Pakenham and out to Sunbury would be every 20 minutes.
Peak will be more frequent; mostly every few minutes.
This is all pretty good for suburban journeys, but a 10 minute service outside commuter peaks through the central/CBD section is underwhelming. Let’s hope that gets improved soon.
Other lines
It’s unclear how many related changes will be from 1st February, or later in 2026.
- Frankston line back into the City Loop, presumably anti-clockwise only
- Craigieburn/Upfield lines upgraded to run at least every 20 minutes at most times (apart from Night Network, overnight Fri/Sat, remaining hourly)
- Sandringham line to connect through to Newport (Werribee and Williamstown lines)
- Sandringham line to run every 10 minutes between the peaks on Weekdays (improved from 15 now)
- Some extra Werribee line services in peak
- Werribee and Williamstown lines to become pink on the map!
Hopefully there’s more coming, because missing from the known upgrades are fixes for the 30-40 minute frequencies on weekends and evenings that still plague passengers on most lines.
Other things to note
Summer Start timetables are on display at Middle Footscray, and possibly other locations. (Thanks to “ShadowStar” for noticing this first)… at least most of them – I couldn’t find the Weekend timetable for the south-east direction.
Middle Footscray is also one of few stations around the network with no Passenger Information Displays on the platforms. This potentially means confusion when trains will be heading to the City Loop or to the Tunnel during the “Summer Start” period… and beyond, when they may be going to Westall, Dandenong, Cranbourne or Pakenham. Take care to check the displays on the trains!
What we don’t know
We don’t yet know precisely what the final (February and beyond) tunnel timetable will look like; as per above, it’s a guess based on testing.
We also don’t know how long the various related timetable changes we know about (and perhaps more?) will take to be implemented. It’s possible they’ll be staggered through 2026.
Which tunnel stations will be open overnight on Fri/Sat nights? Given of the existing CBD stations, only Flinders Street is open, will it include State Library, or just Town Hall?
But it’s exciting times. New infrastructure, new services, a step towards a Turn Up And Go network, and enabling quicker more convenient trips across inner city Melbourne.
Update 21/11/2025: the timetables for 30th November have been posted on the Premier’s social media. They are different from the weekend timetables previously seen – most trains will run to/from Dandenong rather than Clayton/Westall, and the 40 minute gap heading north-west in the morning has been filled.
And the first train to arrive at one of the new stations will be from the Sunbury end.
21 replies on “What we know about the Metro tunnel opening”
I’ve seen the 10.01 from West Footscray on the Platform 2 PID for a number of days now (obviously not taking passengers at the moment), I saw it yesterday run through Sunshine on its way to West Footscray.
Presumably the legacy services on the Sunbury line will still run on legacy trains so you should be able to tell where the train is going by the type of train?
One thing I’ve noticed is the latest information on the Metro Tunnel website (e.g. the “Using the Metro Tunnel” page) doesn’t show the Werribee and Williamstown lines through-running with Sandringham following the Big Switch. They’re still shown in green and terminating at Flinders Street, with the pink Sandringham line terminating at Flinders Street from the other direction.
I agree with Ross. The information I’ve read on the ‘How to use the Metro Tunnel’ clearly states Werribee/Williamstown will run direct to Flinders Street. There is no mention of through-running to Sandringham.
Do we know if during the “Summer Start” wether the Sunbury line will be using HCMT’s for the loop services? if not that avoids some confusion at Middle Footscray, to those that know their train types
Hopefully train displays are correct as they aren’t always. Don’t get them much and many weekends and had few times wrong display.
@Robert K Smith, the HCMTs are not allowed in the Northern Loop (although they are allowed in the Caulfield Group). This is because in the City Loop, the Sunbury line (where the HCMTs are allowed on) is not isolated from the Craigieburn and Upfield lines (where the HCMTs are not allowed on). Often in the City Loop, the Sunbury line train often moves on to either Craigieburn or Upfield lines. So it is unlikely that HCMTs will run in the City Loop (the Northern Loop that is).
Do we know if all Metro Tunnel trains will stop at Malvern, or just some interpeak as present? What about Frankston line express trains? I expect a lot of transfers from Frankston to Tunnel trains since there is a convenient exit at Town Hall straight onto Collins Street, and this will be a nightmare if it all happens at Caulfield
@Ross, yes – it’s unclear if this is poor comms, or the connection of Newport (Werribee/Williamstown) through to Sandringham will be delayed until later. But something would have to change if the Frankston line is moved to the Loop, therefore no longer connected to Newport.
Possibly it’s delayed due to timing of Sandringham getting its 10 minute weekday frequency.
@Robert K Smith, very unlikely they’d allow HCMTs through the Northern Loop.
@Tim, from the test days it appears trains will stop at Malvern all day.
I wonder when PTV Journey Planner will start recognising the new stations.
I need to go to Sunbury on 30 November, and I thought I might try catching a train from one of the new stations, instead of going via North Melbourne or Southern Cross as I usually do. (I really do have to go to Sunbury on that day. I have a family thing to attend. It’s not just to try out the new Metro Tunnel.)
I went onto PTV Journey Planner, as I always do when planning a trip to Sunbury, to try and minimise the time I spend sitting at stations, tram stops, and bus stops.
But Journey Planner doesn’t recognise any of the new stations.
Searching for Parkville just brings up a bunch of tram stops, bus stops, and addresses in Parkville. Searching for Arden brings up Gardenvale, Watergardens, and the like. Searching for Anzac brings up the tram stop on St Kilda Rd, but not the new station. And so on.
A ten minute off peak frequency is not a turn-up-and-go service when you’re changing from another line. It’s up to ten minutes wasted, on top of the up to ten minutes you waited for the train you’re changing from.
With the proposed frequencies, the Metro Tunnel is largely pointless except for the station at Parkville. Rob Doyle was absolutely correct when he said it would be a “once in a century catastrophe” for Melbourne if there was no station there; it was probably that interview of his on ABC Radio all those years ago which tipped the politics into actually getting it built. But Anzac is forty years too late and the precinct has been moving from offices to residential, and Arden may do more harm than good by forcing out creative industries in the area. (I will personally use Anzac a lot for access to the Botanic Gardens.)
In some alternate reality governments and planners would have been honest that they never intended to provide a true metro service for most of the length of the line. We might then have ended up with the Upfield line converted to a high-frequency metro running through Parkville and double-deck commuter trains on Sunbury and Pakenham, each appropriate to the demographics and housng types that are in those corridors. The City Loop could have been resignalled to increase capacity for other lines.
But it is what it is, the stations are very nice and make the city feel good about itself (which is worth something), and now it is up to the public to exert political pressure to get increased frequencies on this and the major connecting lines like Frankston.
I do hope they run a high frequency service on the Metro Tunnel on New Year’s Eve. I avoid late night events like that at Flinders St. now, ever since I saw what came close to a fatal crowd crush event on one such night.
@Francis E, I was scared a couple of years ago on New Years Eve that someone would fall onto the tracks at Southern Cross, but last year, there was a noticeable improvement with crowd control there (and I believe Flinders Street as well), as well as Flagstaff, Melbourne Central and Parliament being open until 3am. Plus you are encouraged to stay back after the fireworks to minimise crowds straight after midnight (the entertainment finishes at 1am by the way).
I would like to see the Metro Tunnel open all night on New Years Eve, but I feel that it might not open for New Years Eve 2025. For me, I will need to get to Flinders Street and go to Town Hall to get to Watergardens. But if it is not open this year, then it will be open for New Years’ Eve 2026.
Thats good if all trains stop at Malvern. Maybe they could do something smart like combining the N-S legs of the 16 and 64 tram into one route, and terminating the E-W parts of the 64 and 16 in the median on Dandenong road just past Glenferrie road to make best use of this now major train stop. Lots of schools up Glenferrie road to access from here
How many stations are still lacking PIDs?
@Ross, Werribee/Williamstown trains will not through-run to Sandringham as of 1 Feb due to the Champion Rd / Maddox Rd level crossing removal works. These works will be changing the way that corridor operates until late April. I reckon the switch there will happen in early May.
@Tim and @Ross re Newport through-running to Sandringham not being shown in timetables yet, I believe it’s to do with the level crossing removals in Newport reducing the Werribee line to single-track running during construction for a good part of 2026. i.e. a non-standard timetable. (it might actually be one direction via Altona, the other via the express route? not sure)
@Oliver – from Monday this week (17 November) until late April, all Werribee trains are running via the Altona loop, with trains from Werribee to the City via the express route, and shuttle buses from the Altona loop stations to Newport. I have no idea if this is the reason why they aren’t showing through-running to Sandringham.
Summer start timetable are available from the following Herald Sun links:
https://origin.go.heraldsun.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Metro-Tunnel-summer-start-timetable-Sunbury-to-East-Packenham-1.pdf
https://origin.go.heraldsun.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Metro-Tunnel-summer-start-timetable-West-Footscray-to-Westall.pdf
With thanks to another transport/train blogger (can’t remember where they were posted).
Altered timetables for 30th November have been released. Not yet clear if these also apply to other weekend days in December and January.
https://www.threads.com/@jacintaallanmp/post/DRS0697k3Ie
It’s a special 30 Nov only timetable. All ‘Summer Start’ timetables here: https://transport.vic.gov.au/news-and-resources/projects/metro-tunnel/metro-tunnel-opening
The download pdf timetable published on transport victoria website
https://d2qom9pr4j23vc.cloudfront.net/1763533713324/train-11-2025-11-28-2025-12-04.pdf
is interesting. The To Pakenham times start at State Library. The to City times end at Townhall.
Of special note it also includes Darling and East Malvern staions in between Malvern and Caulfield although it appears that trains do not stop there :-) .
Journey planer includes Metro stations for 30 Nov but not for later dates as of this morning 25 Nov
@John, thank goodness they’ve finally removed the Frankston trains from the Cran/Pak timetable (and vice versa it looks like)… though it has picked up some other line’s services in the City, as well as bustitution stops East Malvern and Darling, so the algorithm clearly isn’t perfect.
It’s disappointing that despite the advantages of running through to Parkville and beyond, it’s not shown on the timetable.
In other news, we’ve learned today that passengers using State Library to Melbourne Central as a shortcut underneath the road (perhaps to escape bad weather) will still be charged a fare, even though they don’t get on a train. Sounds like the fact that they’re separate stations in the Myki system means the Change Of Mind feature won’t work. Presumably same for Flinders St/Town Hall.
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1728495975204533