Melbourne runs later trains

Melbourne’s newest rail tunnel opened on 30 November 2025, but the bigger change landed on 1 February 2026, when the city switched the Sunbury, Cranbourne, and Pakenham lines into the tunnel full-time and added more than 1,000 extra weekly services. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) (premier.vic.gov.au) That is why late-evening trips suddenly feel different: trains through the Metro Tunnel now run at least every 10 minutes between Watergardens and Dandenong in both directions for most of the day, 7 days a week. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) Before that February switch, the tunnel was running a limited “Summer Start” pattern, with trains every 20 minutes from 10:00am to 3:00pm on weekdays and from 10:00am to 7:00pm on weekends between Westall and West Footscray. (premier.vic.gov.au) The tunnel itself is 9 kilometres long and links Melbourne’s west to its south-east, carrying trains between Sunbury and Cranbourne or Pakenham through five new underground stations: Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall, and Anzac. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au 1) (bigbuild.vic.gov.au 2) Those stations were built to take pressure off the old City Loop, which is Melbourne’s older underground circle in the central business district, by giving three busy suburban lines their own direct path under the city. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au 1) (bigbuild.vic.gov.au 2) The timetable boost works because the project added High Capacity Signalling, a train-control system that lets trains run closer together, and platform screen doors at the new stations to keep boarding predictable. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) (premier.vic.gov.au) At peak times, that means trains can reach the new Metro Tunnel stations as often as every 3 minutes, which is much closer to a subway pattern than Melbourne’s older suburban timetable gaps. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) The knock-on effects spread beyond the tunnel corridor, because Frankston Line trains returned to the City Loop on 1 February 2026 for the first time in 5 years after the Sunbury, Cranbourne, and Pakenham services moved out. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) By early February, more than 800,000 passengers had already visited the new stations and trains had logged more than 64,000 kilometres through the tunnel since opening day, which gave Melbourne enough real-world use to show the line was not just a construction project anymore but a working part of daily travel. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au) So the practical change is simple: a trip home after dinner, a concert, or a late shift no longer depends as much on memorising a timetable, because the core west-to-south-east corridor now behaves more like a frequent metro service than a commuter rail line that shuts down after rush hour. (bigbuild.vic.gov.au)