Happy long weekend! It’s a big one for events in Melbourne. Footy is back with a Sunday night game at the MCG, thereโs the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park, and Moomba events. As well as any number of smaller events – as happens every weekend.
One thing everyone has been wondering since the Metro tunnel fully opened is the effect on big events at the MCG and Marvel Stadium, now that the Cranbourne/Pakenham and Sunbury lines no longer serve Southern Cross or Richmond stations.
The big MCG test will be this Sunday’s football. There was also NRL at the AAMI Park on Thursday night (about 18,000 attended), and series of Ed Sheeran concerts at Marvel Stadium last week.
For the Ed Sheeran (a well known train user) concerts, extra trains ran on various lines after the event. Curiously, the extra Frankston Line trains only started from Flinders Street, not Southern Cross, which seems illogical – perhaps platform space is an issue at SC, but they’ve done better than this in the past.
This weekend
For this weekend, there are works on the Belgrave/Lilydale and Alamein lines which will mean the hassle of bus replacements for many people.
Obviously not ideal – but to a certain extent theyโre stuck – almost every weekend there are works somewhere – in fact from what I can see, there’s only one day this month when there are no works on the Metro network at all: next Thursday 12th March.
But you’d really hope they tried their best to avoid the busiest lines being hit on the busiest weekend.
Apart from the bustituted lines, they have added extra trains on most other lines – broadly they seem to have targeted many of the worst wait times in the evenings and on Sunday morning, with the maximum wait generally down to 15-20 minutes (from as much as 40). Good stuff.
Grand Prix
Over on the trams, they’ve made adjustments this year to services to Albert Park.
- Anzac station is a good option for trips that used to be done via St Kilda Road trams, especially to gate 5, but also to cut the time and tram crowding getting to gates 8 and 9.
- The usual Spencer Street trams along route 96 run to gates 1 and 2
- A different route to gate 3 on the north side of the Park: a shuttle from Flagstaff station along William St, Market Street/Queensbridge (also close to Flinders Street Station), Kings Way, then turning into Sturt Street/Eastern Road, Park Street, then into Clarendon Street.
I assume that’ll have the gunzels out and about, as the gate 3 shuttle is quite different to the usual route, combining portions of routes 58, 1 and 12. To make all this work, some tram routes are replaced by buses.
What they haven’t got is the Park Street tram link – descoped from the Metro Tunnel project – which which would have allowed trams from Anzac station to easily reach gate 3.
A shame, as the closer you can get people to the track by high capacity heavy rail, the more efficient things are.
South-east, Sunday night
It’s worth highlighting Sunday night – when crowds will be heading home from the Grand Prix, the football, and Moomba events.
Again, there are extra services on most lines (including some V/Line). So how will it go for the south-east, most affected by the Metro tunnel changes?
On the Frankston line, trains will be running every 6 to 7 minutes – in other words three times the usual evening 20 minute evening service. The extras only run from Richmond, so they won’t help the Moomba/GP crowds.
Passengers from the MCG going to the Cranbourne/Pakenham line will have a choice
- head towards Town Hall station (about a 15 minute walk away) for a direct train home
- walk to Richmond (8+ minute depending on crowding) to catch one of those Frankston trains to Malvern or Caulfield, then change
- walk to Jolimont (about 5 minutes) for a train to Flinders Street, then change to Town Hall – but see below
The normal 10 minute frequency on the Cranbourne/Pakenham line is pretty good but they are running extra services after the game.
Curiously these originate at Malvern not in the city, so it appears the official view is that at least some people will catch a Frankston train to Malvern or Caulfield and change there. This directly focuses on MCG crowds while missing most GP and Moomba patrons.
It also seems odd to have them departing just 3 minutes after the regular services – preferably they’d be closer to the following service to more evenly spread the loads.
The other thing thatโs been noticed is that there are no extra trains from Jolimont to the city after the game. This means waits of up to 19 minutes for people who want to head to the city to change onto another train – including Cranbourne/Pakenham but also Sunbury and other western suburbs lines that donโt run via Jolimont or Richmond, and also V/Line.
For many, walking is an option. Many western suburbs people have done this for years and donโt understand the fuss. Itโs a nice walk if the weather is nice.
Apart from the provision of extra services, authorities will need to ensure that they have adequate staff available to help direct people both before and after events.
How this all plays out as anybodyโs guess, but it does seem to me that theyโve only done part of the job in terms of adding extra services to cope with the crowds. Hopefully they’ll thoroughly review and improve arrangements as the year goes on.
It’s a busy weekend, but increasingly, every weekend in Melbourne is busy. Three big events on one day is unusual, but there are often lots of medium-sized events all the time.
It underscores that the usual half hourly services on most lines in the evenings (and worse on Sunday mornings) are just completely inadequate for a city the size of Melbourne in 2026.
Thankfully on some lines they’re improving, but it’s slow progress.
More:
- Transport Victoria advice for AFL at Marvel/MCG; advice for Grand Prix
- Jeremy Burge timed the walk from the MCG to Town Hall (He’s doing some great videos; worth a follow on Instagram)
- ABC Radio: segment on the rail works this weekend (starts at 48 minutes)
- Dandenong Star: Footy test for new Metro Tunnel routes
- My old blog from 2018: How big events can be a catalyst for better public transport
- Blog last year at Moomba time: Weekend trains not keeping up
4 replies on “Big event weekend”
The Grand Prix period is a time when people who rarely if ever use public transport take the train. The Belgrave and Lilydale lines attract their fair share of these very occasional patrons. I can imagine some frustration if these people especially don’t realise there are rail replacement buses operating between Box Hill and Parliament. I can also imagine there will be further frustration in the area around Parliament station where people from the Belgrave and Lilydale, especially those not used to public transport find the tram services to the Grand Prix are some distance away.
At the same time, I like Daniel Bowen’s comments about the gunzel photographers out getting the coverage. I wonder how many later realise their photo collections are overweighted by special workings or one off occasions rather then regular everyday workings. The work of the intrepid enthusiast is forever ongoing.
I am very surprised that a ‘Football Special’ running direct from Flinders/Richmond hasnt been provided for the Cranbourne/Packenham lines. I just assumed this would be the case, espeically for the hour or so at the end of the game to aid the big crowds leaving the G. I expect this will be done for future big games at the G, as the overcrowding on Frankston trains is bound to be terrible/dangerous.
All good points.
I noticed that what seemed like a test of shunting the Metro One trains from South Yarra to Dandenong on 3 consecutive nights is the reverse of the original Sth Yarra to city shunt plan. This combined with Frankston running every 10 minutes made for simple in station interchange. So both lines running every 10 minutes. The original 5 & 6 platforms were used. So in fact with the Frankston dn on platform 4 it was a direct walk across the platform to pl 5 for the connecting train. That then run for a section reverse. I think they will try this on footy nights. The next step could be run the shunt from Richmond – Dandendong on footy nights. Guess this would need a set of points just dn from Richmonmd that does not exist. Curious?
Now I have had another read. How can Metro One dn trains originate at Malvern? This must mean dead running so it can only be a shunt from Sth Yarra or even worse running the entire way thru the tunnel without stopping. I suspect it will be Sth Yarra – Dandenong shunts or even Flinders St – Dandenong shunts that would be an insult not stopping at Richmond.