Mind the gaps: trains and cricket

Those who follow the cricket would know about the Boxing Day Test – a surprising result that saw just two days of cricket rather than the scheduled five.

This caught everyone on the hop, including transport authorities, who had scheduled extra public transport services on Sunday… and social media posts to promote them..

Normal Sunday morning train services have come in for criticism. Ridiculously infrequent 40 minute services still run on about half the network before 10am, on the Sunbury, Craigieburn, Upfield, Mernda, Hurstbridge and Sandringham lines.

Other lines are better, so a heatmap of usual Sunday frequencies from 7am shows quite a mix:

For the cricket, they had an extra two services scheduled on most lines. Play was scheduled to start at 10:30am.

Below are the scheduled train times for the morning of Sunday 28th December. (I assume they still ran.)

I’ve measured them at the last unique stop for each line, and treating some combined services as one line. To keep it simple I’ve excluded the extra Metro tunnel services. The extra cricket services are shown in bold.

Line	Measured at
Werribee/Williamstown	Seddon	07:19	08:02	08:22	08:42	08:49	09:02	09:09	09:22	09:42	10:02
Sunbury	Middle Footscray	07:28	08:08	08:48	09:03	09:21	09:28	10:08	10:28	10:48	11:08
Craigieburn	Kensington	07:26	08:06	08:46	08:56	09:16	09:26	10:06	10:26	10:46	11:06
Upfield	Macaulay	07:02	07:42	08:22	09:02	09:42	10:02	10:22	10:42	11:02	11:22
Mernda	Rushall	07:42	08:22	09:02	09:14	09:34	09:42	10:22	10:42	11:02	11:22
Hurstbridge	Westgarth	07:32	08:12	08:52	09:04	09:24	09:32	10:12	10:32	10:52	11:12
Lilydale/Belgrave	Burnley	07:50	08:20	08:50	09:10	09:20	09:37	09:50	10:10	10:20	10:30
Glen Waverley	East Richmond	07:12	07:58	08:28	08:58	09:14	09:28	09:45	09:58	10:28	10:54
Cranbourne/Pakenham	Carnegie	07:29	08:09	08:39	08:49	09:09	09:20	09:29	09:49	10:09	10:29
Frankston	Hawksburn	07:15	07:55	08:15	08:35	08:55	09:05	09:15	09:25	09:35	09:55
Sandringham	Prahran	07:18	07:58	08:38	09:08	09:18	09:36	09:58	10:18	10:38	10:58

So given the huge gaps in the usual Sunday timetable on many lines, did they just fill those? No. Some lines went to a more frequent service, then reverted back to the infrequent 40 minute gaps, before switching as usual to 20 minutes after 10am.

Presumably the priority was for extra capacity for people arriving about 45 minutes before the start of play.

But it also leaves people who miss those with a long wait and higher risk of missing the start of the game. (Well, if Day 3 had gone ahead.)

For instance what if a cricket fan missed the 9:04 from Mernda, shown above as 9:42 through Rushall, arriving at Jolimont-MCG at 9:53? The next train was 40 minutes later, arriving at Jolimont at 10:33, too late.

Sat vs Sun

And there’s also a huge difference between the overall frequency and capacity that was provided on Saturday vs Sunday… because Saturday also had two extras on most lines, but on top of a much better standard timetable.

Comparing them for the six lines with the biggest gaps (again, the weekend’s cricket extras marked in bold):

Line	Day
Sunbury	Sat	07:28	07:48	08:08	08:28	08:48	09:00	09:08	09:20	09:28	09:48	10:08	10:28
Sunbury	Sun	07:28		08:08		08:48	09:03		09:21	09:28		10:08	10:28
Craigieburn	Sat	07:26	07:46	08:06	08:26	08:46	08:56	09:06	09:16	09:26	09:46	10:06	10:26
Craigieburn	Sun	07:26		08:06		08:46	08:56		09:16	09:26		10:06	10:26
Upfield	Sat	07:02	07:22	07:42	08:02	08:22	08:42	09:02	09:22	09:42	10:02	10:22	10:42
Upfield	Sun	07:02		07:42		08:22		09:02		09:42	10:02	10:22	10:42
Mernda	Sat	07:42	08:02	08:22	08:42	09:02	09:14	09:22	09:34	09:42	10:02	10:22	10:42
Mernda	Sun	07:42		08:22		09:02	09:14		09:34	09:42		10:22	10:42
Hurstbridge	Sat	07:32	07:52	08:12	08:32	08:52	09:04	09:12	09:24	09:32	09:52	10:12	10:32
Hurstbridge	Sun	07:32		08:12		08:52	09:04		09:24	09:32		10:12	10:32
Sandringham	Sat	07:18	07:38	07:58	08:38	08:58	09:08	09:18	09:26	09:38	09:58	10:18	10:38
Prahran	Sun	07:18	07:58		08:38		09:08	09:18		09:36	09:58	10:18	10:38

Two things noticeable here:

• The Saturday timetable for these lines is the same as Sunday, but with half the services missing before about 10am. This may seem obvious in retrospect, but I’d never thought to check before
• The extra trains for the cricket on these lines are mostly at the same times on both days

In fact the extras make a lot more sense in the context of the Saturday timetable, as they are roughly halfway between regular services.

But they are generally slightly later to accommodate shared track (eg Mernda and Hurstbridge), and also so more cricket fans get on the extras rather than the regular services.

So mostly, it appears the extra services are designed against a Saturday timetable, and just replicated onto the Sunday timetable with few changes… which explains why the Sunday+extras frequencies were so uneven.

This is obviously suboptimal. It probably would have made more sense on the Sunday to fill some gaps by running the two extras at Saturday times.

The big problem

This is not just about cricket. Every day there are big and small events on in Melbourne, including on Sunday mornings.

The real problem here is those 40 minute base frequencies on Sunday mornings. They’re a relic of service cuts back in February 1978 which cut frequencies from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. Nearly fifty years later, this level of service is completely inadequate for a big city.

It’s not just about capacity – it’s about convenience, including when making connections to and from other services. Given most people have the option of driving, 40 minute waits just don’t cut it.

Sunday morning trains in #Melbourne are the least frequent in Australia. Long waiting times mean connections are difficult and make public transport less attractive than driving. More trains = less traffic.

— Public Transport Users Association (@ptua.org.au) 2025-12-13T22:06:51.000Z

The good news? A few years ago the Werribee line was fixed, and during 2026 the Craigieburn, Upfield and Sunbury lines should get fixed too.

Sandringham, Mernda and Hurstbridge lines will have to keep waiting, as will those on 30 minute frequencies – Belgrave, Lilydale and Glen Waverley.