{"id":326189,"date":"2025-12-01T09:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=326189"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:25:27","slug":"metro-tunnel-is-spectacular-but-it-wont-transform-melbourne-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=326189","title":{"rendered":"Metro Tunnel is spectacular, but it won\u2019t transform Melbourne yet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Melbourne\u2019s new Metro Tunnel has been called \u201cthe biggest transformation of our rail network in 40 years\u201d, but don\u2019t throw away your train timetable just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening of the $15 billion underground train line<\/a> on Sunday deserves celebration as the first piece of major public transport infrastructure the city has had in decades, but it won\u2019t be a game changer without more frequent services and continued investment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Passengers young and old on the train at Anzac station in the Metro Tunnel.CREDIT: SIMON SCHLUTER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before boarding the first train through the tunnel, Premier Jacinta Allan said it was \u201cbloody amazing\u201d and described the Metro Tunnel as \u201ca fairness project that will connect people to jobs, to services, to university education\u201d. Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the Metro Tunnel would \u201ctransform the city\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Metro Tunnel, a project 17 years in the making, opens up new connections across the city, particularly for passengers travelling to the hospital\u2019s precinct, Melbourne University and the Botanic Gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There were smiles all round on its first day of operating as even the most hardened cynics turned into train enthusiasts \u2013 or \u201cgunzels\u201d \u2013 for the day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The new stations, described by their architect as \u201cunderground cathedrals\u201d, are spectacular, with soaring ceilings, exposed concrete and pops of bright yellow and orange metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stations highlight Melbourne\u2019s artists through installations, such as the large Patricia Piccinini mosaic artwork Vernal Glade<\/em>, which runs along the wall of the Parkville station with its retro-looking colourful ceramic tiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trains on the Metro Tunnel will operate for only five hours a day for the first two months, and trains will run every 20 minutes outside the peak periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing has been done for the trains to operate at a frequency of every three minutes, but the government has given no indication of what the timetable will look like beyond February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clearest indication is that we might expect off-peak services every 10 minutes, which is good for Melbourne \u2013 where train waiting times can sometimes stretch to 40 minutes \u2013 but not by global standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-frequency services for which you don\u2019t have to look at a timetable and can just turn up to the station are what is really needed to coax car-obsessed Melburnians out of their four-wheel-drives and onto the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Pittman, education fellow in transport planning at the University of Melbourne, says if the Suburban Rail Loop is eventually built it will provide a way for people to travel between suburbs rather than only into and out of the city, but the Metro Tunnel as it stands does not provide this type of connectivity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Age and Commentary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne\u2019s new Metro Tunnel has been called \u201cthe biggest transformation of our rail network in 40 years\u201d, but don\u2019t throw away your train timetable just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":325089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1168,10073,47],"tags":[993,8],"class_list":["post-326189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-metro-tunnel","category-myki","category-rail-news","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326193,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326189\/revisions\/326193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}