The Big Switch timetables for 1st February have just been released.
You can find them in the online timetables (which still treat the two halves of the Metro Tunnel line as separate) and Journey Planner.
There’s also a nicely formatted PDF with the entire Metro Tunnel line on this page.
Highlights of what’s coming:
- Metro Tunnel services every 10 minutes at most times
- The 10 minute service goes out to Watergardens 6am-9pm weekdays (10am-7:30pm weekends), and Dandenong from 6am weekdays (7am Sundays) until midnight
- Every 20 minutes beyond that, eg to Sunbury, Cranbourne, Pakenham
- More frequent in the commuter peaks – every 3-5 minutes on the central part of the line through the tunnel
A lot of this is more-or-less as expected after observing the test day timetables last year.
It looks pretty good for peak commuting times, and for suburban trips on parts of the line served by the 10 minute frequencies.
- At most times, services to Watergardens and Sunbury will roughly double in frequency – great news.
- For Dandenong/Cranbourne/Pakenham the higher 10/20/20 frequency that is already there in daytime will extend until midnight, slashing wait times in the evenings from up to 30 minutes down to 10 or 20.
Every 10 minutes is not so good for short hops in the tunnel, including journeys connecting to or from trams, or that might replace trams.
- Night Network remains hourly, including through the Metro tunnel
- Most of the new stations are closed during Night Network hours; Town Hall is the only one that’ll be open (with its connection to Flinders Street)
- Surprisingly this includes Anzac, Parkville and Arden being closed overnight, even though they are outside the CBD. (And Parkville would potentially be useful for hospital shift workers)
Other stuff:
- Craigieburn and Upfield peaks are being tweaked given Sunbury will no longer share the Northern Loop tunnel. For instance the odd Craigieburn peak direct services are replaced by Loop services.
- They’ll also get upgrades to at least every 20 minutes at all times – not just yet, but in a few months. (Currently these are 30 mins evenings and 40 mins Sunday mornings, so a big improvement at those times)
- Frankston goes back into the Loop (anti-clockwise only), but there’ll be further changes/extra services soon (when the Mordialloc works are finished)
- Frankston stopping patterns haven’t changed. The expresses stop at Malvern in the AM peak, but not in the PM peak, despite Malvern being promoted as an interchange
- Werribee and Sandringham changes including through-routing will wait Werribee line level crossing works are finished
- There are bus changes to improve regional connections, and changes to suburban route 402, and it looks like a new route 241 to replace the 401 and 202 uni shuttles. And more suburban changes soon.
- Some V/Line changes including an additional Seymour peak service each way (the more the better here; helps with outer urban growth) and Echuca on weekends (going from 2 trains a day to 3).
EDIT: Transport Victoria lists these extras from April, but it appears to be an error. V/Line lists them from 1st Feb. - Tweaks to Traralgon line, a more consistent 40 minute frequency over longer hours, possible now the suburban timetable is getting revamped
- More staff and wayfinding signage has been deployed for the tunnel opening… though it’s not perfect
My conclusion: this is a good start, but it’s got to be just the first step.
They need to keep up the pace of timetable boosts to catch up with population growth and travel demand, not just on trains but also on trams and buses.
Some of us will keep harping on this because the Labor government has been in power more than 11 years, and while they’ve invested heavily in infrastructure, they’ve dragged their feet on service improvements.
There’ll still be widespread 30 minute waits in the evenings: Mernda, Hurstbridge, Lilydale and Belgrave beyond Ringwood (also weekdays off-peak), Glen Waverley, Alamein. And some people will continue to face 40 minute waits on Sunday mornings: Mernda and Hurstbridge (and Sandringham; last I heard that was not being fixed).
Even things that wouldn’t necessarily cost money, like a rewrite of the Ringwood timetables to fix the confusing stopping patterns, have been planned, then fallen by the wayside.
The Metro Tunnel is a big project that substantially boosts CBD rail capacity. To make the most of the investment, they have to use more of that capacity.
So, it’s good to see the 1st Feb changes, and full opening of the tunnel. Looking forward to further timetable boosts in the near future.
17 replies on “Big Switch timetable released”
itโs wild that only town hall will be open for the night network. wish they would increase the frequency for the night network too, because the wait times can be wild (especially if you miss a connection by a few minutes)
Caulfield is gonna be a very busy interchange with people swapping between Loop and Tunnel services!
Without many (or any?) increases on Sandringham/Frankston, then South Yarra is a big loser here with the opening of the tunnel.
Fingers crossed extra services later in the year will provide a massive boost.
The Big (bait and) Switch.
Perhaps a change in government will see Wyndham Vale line added to Metro system, ending where the old Manor station was. That could be an interchange with a new Geelong V-line to the city via Werribee.
This is really disappointing, the “Big Switch” only increasing Metro Tunnel frequencies from every 20m to 10m. Still only 2tph for Belgrave and Lilydale weekday offpeak, so they’ll only match up with other 20m frequencies once an hour! It makes it incredibly frustrating to plan around and they really need to do better.
There shouldn’t really be expresses that don’t stop at Middle Footscray or Tottenham (especially). Poor Tottenham – one station past the turnback and it gets bypassed by expresses!
The Upfield changes are pretty odd. The rationalisation of times in the peak periods are a good start until they one day duplicate the end of the line.
But what happened to the evening off-peak services. 30 minute wait times start earlier in the night than they currently do. It’s almost as if they are making the service worse before they change it to 20 minute waits later in the year.
It’s worse than that on the Lilydale and Belgrave lines. They have 30 minute evening frequencies all the way from the city (with connecting shuttles from Ringwood alternating between Lilydale and Belgrave). That means even a relatively central destination like Camberwell only has a half hour service.
Definitely not was spruiked. Where are the ‘turn up and go’ services? Clayton to Richmond station will take 4 – 6 minutes longer at 8am weekdays if the connecting train is on time. If city commuters jump on the Traralgon line so they don’t need a connecting train overcrowding will be intense. The line from Traralgon to Bairnsdale has not a single extra train or bus in either direction in spite of a huge need, particularly from Sale to Traralgon.
Posted ongoing commentary on Twitter & Melbourne on Transit Facebook page throughout today.
Among the things I’ve noticed:
– Werribee, Williamstown & Frankston Line data uploaded is the MASTER timetable data (footnote on Metro website version confirms this) rather than LXRP TEMPORARY timetables
– Inbound Werribee trains shown via Altona Loop (not until late April)
– Peak hour frequency through Mordialloc displayed is too high for single platform (until mid year). Currently local trains start at Cheltenham or Moorabbin, with express trains stopping all stations to Moorabbin, but this is not shown
– No extended span for Frankston Line expresses (eg last up expresses at 8:06am is way too early for 10am CBD jobs or lectures)
– timetables on Metro Trains website for Frankston Line omits City Loop Stations and has Southern Cross times listed out of order
– Traralgon Line PDF for 2 Feb to 2 April on TV website is the current timetable without 40 mins AM frequency outbound. New timetable then displayed if select from 3 April.
– Same issue with Echuca Line data and third weekend trains added
– V/Line website has new PDFs on their timetable page for Feb 1 (https://www.vline.com.au/Timetables/Additional-pages/train-coach-timetable-list) but no article on homepage yet.
– Both changes above shown
– Clue of more V/Line data effective from 27 September – perhaps that is when to expect more changes, eg West Tarneit Station, 9 car Melton trains, maybe even 20 min weekday interpeak to Waurn Ponds (to match weekends)?
– Promised additional Shepparton trains not added yet despite signal upgrades/coach replacements at end of 2025
– New bus timetables largely for regional town buses (due to V/Line changes)
– in 2021, new timetables for metropolitan buses began in three phases in months following January timetables. Appears same again this time.
– article listing bus changes doesnโt explain 241 is a combination of 202+401 as new link across the inner north (with some handy additional stops added) – and orginally listed incorrectly as 242
– 401 timetable data still displayed until 2 March?!
– New weekend service on 241 however only 30 mins (extremely poor frequency for inner suburbs) with a finish just after 8pm
– 241 destination might be clearer as “Abbottsford” rather than Yarra Bend?
– unclear where service kms/hours for 401 & 403 have gone other than weekend 241 trips (eg 24 buses p/h from North Melbourne drops to 6 buses p/h)
– minor changes for 246, 250, 251 & 350 not listed in summary
– 250/251 offsets on Rathdowne St, Westgarth St & Victoria Rd have been broken at times, particularly Saturdays outbound (2 buses effectively together every 30 mins instead of every 15 mins apart)
– Still waiting for Sunday buses on 536 despite revised Upfield timetable (+ 30 min frequency doesn’t mesh with 16 min trains at Gowrie)
– Warragul/Drouin town buses still finish by 5pm despite 5:30am/6am start
– Issues with local 30 Churchill Loop not meeting Route 2 bus from Morwell since September appear resolved, with town buses now on a 40 min frequency as well although limited margin for late running.
TBH, you have to start somewhere. Let the “big switch” happen and then things can be tweaked from there. Rome wasn’t built in a day. MURL re-config needs to happen, but going to be a hard sell.
Just get this done and let the improvements flow over time. It’s all good.
The downloadable pdf timetables for both Cranbourne and Pakenham lines are a dogs breakfast.
They both include all the city loop stations plus Sth Yarra and Richmond. Both lines includes Glen Waverley in between Dandenong and Yarraman,
and East Malvern and Darling in between Caulfieldand Malvern.
Caranbourne gets Burnely in between Sth Yarra and Richmond. How hard is it to get the stations correct? I have reported this Transport Victoria.
Does give a lot of confidence in the people creating the timetables.
I’m curious where do drivers change in the Metro Tunnel… are they expected to do the entire trip from Sunbury to Pakenham? Or do they change at one of the underground stations? Can’t change at Flinders Street (Unless they do it at Town Hall).
While I expected it, the 10 minute off peak daytime service in the tunnel is disappointing and not a turn up and go service as we were promised. More seats at Metro stations are needed.
So Melbourne gets its first real direct cross city rail line and they do not produce a timetable for MM1, it should show all stations on this line. This is just dumb as the trains must run cross city. Who thinks it is a good idea for the Sunbury and Pakenham timetable to show stations that it is impossible for this line to stop at, like why is Darling & East Malvern shown? Why must we have a timetable for every public holiday? Why can we not have a simple to read summary of x hour trains every 10 min or 5 min and just a summary of what is different from this fixed permanent schedule. Readability I give it 1 out of ten. Fail.
As you mentioned Sandrigham it still remains as a 15 min service it should be 10 min all day. It also shows in backwards order the MATHs stations that it cannot stop at, why? And my pet hate not having a 24 hour clock. It is far easier to read than a 12 hour clock in bold for PM. This line keeps to the same clockface times and could of all lines be summarised very easily. Readability is far better as it does not have stupid slight offsets all thru the day but maybe 3 out of 10.