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.
36 replies on “Big Switch timetable released”
it’s 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 doesn’t 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.
Tottenham station got shafted.
It certainly is counterintuitive to have Frankston expresses stop at Malvern in the AM peak, but not the PM peak.
Hopefully this is an oversight and they standardise the stopping pattern.
Pretty disappointing tbh. Anyone on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line has had trains off peak every 10 min for years during the day. New multi billion dollar tunnel opens with…exact same daytime frequency.
Not to mention those at South Yarra and Richmond losing that whole line, with minimal uplift in other lines to compensate.
Really needed to have at least moved to every 5 min daytime off-peak in the core section of the tunnel to show off what the investment provided.
The pdf of the whole line that Daniel posted is quite good.
The whole turnback thing is weird. Only a few services on the southeast side start or end at Westall or Dandenong, whereas the use of West Footscray as a turnback is significant – maybe need to get some value out of that third platform! So far example at weekends all trains in the southeast go to East Pakenham or Cranbourne, whereas that service is more limited in the west. If they were serious about higher frequency through the core there must be more trains terminate at Westall.
@John V
The CBN/PKM print timetables have always been way too verbose. I wonder if there is a case for a simplified “core” print timetable that is just Dandenong-Watergardens, excludes bustitution stops, excludes connecting services.
We need a 5 minute off-peak frequency between Westall and West Footscray. Why the hell is it 10 minutes in the tunnel?
I think some of the comments are simplistic and wrong. I think a 10-minute frequency during the day is a good thing (especially between Watergardens and the city, which was previously 20 minutes during the day moving up to 10 minutes during the day from 1 February). I don’t think there is enough demand for 5 minutes during the day yet, but it could happen in the future if demands need be. And as Daniel mentioned in the main text, a 10 minute frequency during the day is a good start, and I have to agree here, as I have mentioned in this post that a 5 minute frequency might not be needed yet, but has been future-proofed if we do go to 5 minute frequency in the future when demands need be.
With Night Network, State Library being closed is logical as Melbourne Central is closed, but I would open Parkville on Night Network for those who work at the hospitals. I would keep Arden closed during Night Network at first due, but open it up when the area become more built up.
For those wondering, there is a better PDF timetable on the Transport Victoria website which has all the stations (including Hawksburn, Toorak and Armadale, which in my honest opinion are unnecessary as trains to Cranbourne and Pakenham does not stop at those stations), but no East Malvern or Glen Waverley or Darling.
Moving on to buses, there will be changes down the track so we need to look at making buses better, because I don’t think people would use a bus if it has a 40 minute frequency (which is common in the western suburbs). If it is more frequent, people will get out of their cars and go by bus more often.
And with the 241, a higher frequency is needed, and should run later (like 10pm at the earliest, like the current 401) for students (and in particular postgraduate students who tends to have classes at night), and possibly integrate the 241 into the Night Bus network, again when need be.
Thanks for all the comments everyone.
@Nikila, they really should increase the Night Network frequencies. A lot of support staff on duty for just one train an hour.
@Darren, I think they sensed problems at Caulfield which is why they moved to make Malvern an interchange too.
@Steve, the locals in Tottenham are not happy with their station being skipped. It’s a long way either way to Sunshine or West Footscray, and I’m hearing the peak stopping trains are pretty crowded.
@Tim, the new Upfield peak service every 16 minutes fits in nicely with Craigieburn mostly every 8 mins.
Good point about evenings. The 30 min service has crept forward by almost an hour.
@Anonymous, the main changes for Traralgon line seem to be more regular counter-peak services in the morning (5 leaving Melbourne before 9am instead of 4) and the 40 minute frequency goes later, until about 9pm leaving Melbourne.
What are the peak loads like these days?
@Craig, thanks for the extra detail!
@John V and @Bruce, try the special PDF timetable.
@Bruce, the Sandringham 10 minute service is coming later this year. It’s connected to Werribee/Williamstown through-routing, which can’t happen until Werribee level crossing works are finished.
@Jeremy, yeah it’s hard to see many people giving up on very frequent but crowded St Kilda Road trams to switch to trains that will probably take longer due to waiting times.
I do wonder if they need to figure out a way of providing an off-peak frequency increase that is not simply doubling the service. For instance every 15 mins Cran and Pak, with a combined 7.5 min frequency Dandenong to Watergardens.
One of the complexities will be ensuring V/Line services (on both sides) can get through.
Something that Daniel didn’t mention in the post (which I only found out on the bus this morning) is that the 403 (Footscray to University of Melbourne) is being discontinued. I don’t think the 403 is needed anymore because there are now trains going to the main employment hub which is the medical area of Parkville, as well as the University of Melbourne.
@indigohex3 – Transport Victoria have also have added a mention that 403 is being deleted to the bus changes summary article now (still omits Kinetic inner north changes.
Other than the train, the 402 still runs between Footscray & the Parkville precinct, albeit via the busy level crossing at Kensington, with a 10 min frequency all day.
403 shuttle was an oddity in it ran interpeak only, following a 2014 state election promise to improve connections to interpeak V/Line trains after they began bypassing North Melbourne due to Regional Rail Link.
Potentially the 403 funding had an end date but still unclear to me how they are spending the balance of 401 service kms beyond the half-hearted half-hourly 241 weekend service.
The absence of weekend buses on 401 occasionally caught people going to the hospitals out, especially given the ultra high frequency on weekdays.
Now on the V/Line website homepage is a link to an index of Feb 1st timetables
But they didn’t spurik the extra trains on Seymour Line, Echuca Line or Traralgon Line that so far only mentioned in the Minster Williams’ media release 🤷♂️
Transport Victoria also fails to mention them…about as much effort as they put in to promote special NYE buses across 50 routes
Wish I had a ten-minute service on my line to complain about…
Friday website updates:
* Werribee, Williamstown and Frankston Line temporary data uploaded until Thursday 5 February due to ongoing LXRP works
* Master timetable for these lines still shown from Friday 6 February onwards
* No inbound trains via Altona Loop (as now)
* Reduced volume of trains through single platform at Mordialloc
* Morning peak hour expresses on Frankston Line revert to express Cheltenham-Caulfield-Malvern-South Yarra, no longer stopping at Southland, Highett or Moorabbin
* Most morning locals originate at either Carrum or Cheltenham
* Afternoon express trains to Frankston stop South Yarra-Caulfield-Chelteham, not Malvern (matching current temporary timetable and new master timetable)
* Most PM local trains continue to terminate at Cheltenham but no longer return in service (empty cars back to Richmond)
* Metro Trains website still shows misleading Master Timetable data for early February and display issues for City Loop stations/Southern Cross on Frankston timetables
* Dates for new V/Line data corrected to display new timetables from Monday 2 February – Thursday 2 April
Any chance they can straighten out the sharp-angled spaghetti track on the Sandringham/Frankston lines between Flinders Street and Richmond once the Dandenong line is Metro Tunnel only?
Like Jeremy’s comments I can’t see any change to the Dandenong line times. For years we have had every 10 mins to/from Dandenong and every 20 minutes to/from Pakenham or Cranbourne.
If they can’t at the very least chuck in a West Footscray – Westall service so there’s three trains through the tunnel in either direction every 20 minutes, I don’t know what to say. What happened to ‘more trains more often’? It’s very frustrating but oh so predictable to continue spending billions on infrastructure but do nothing with it.
With the big switch happening just after the AO finishes, I am very curious how the network will handle round 1 of the AFL, when Richmond and Southern Cross are no longer a one stop journey from Dandenong.
Something something Metro Tunnel, cough More Trains More Often cough.
https://old.reddit.com/r/MelbourneTrains/comments/1qfrx5v/30_minute_sunday_morning_frequencies_handling_ao/
[…] Sunbury line essentially sees a doubling of frequency. As someone who used to live in Diggers Rest, the removal of 40 minute frequencies at some off-peak […]
Daniel do you have any info on how big events at mcg and marvel will be handled for Dandenong corridor passengers? EG For MCG are you anticipating passengers will all have to pile on to a Frankston train (already packed) and change at Caulfield? This feels like a disaster waiting to happen given the current Richmond platform capacity after events at mcg. Likewise for southern cross passengers after marvel events will we see 10,000 passengers trying to change at town hall or state library? Some info on planning for this is super interesting and lack of comment from PTV so far is mildly concerning. Ideally I’d like to see “footy special” Richmond/SoutherCross to Dandenong trains but I won’t hold my breath.