Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel has officially welcomed its first peak hour commuters, with the Big Switch now having turned on extra services for the dedicated Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines.

Thus far; more than 800,000 passengers have visited the new stations, and trains have travelled over 64,000 kilometres through the tunnel since its opening on 30 November 2025.

The Big Switch has enabled additional services across the dedicated Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines

© Victoria’s Big Build

At peak times, trains will arrive at each of the new Metro Tunnel stations up to every 3 minutes, with trains running at least every 10 minutes between Watergardens and Dandenong stations in both directions for most of the day, 7 days a week.

The Big Switch has seen also seen the return of Frankston Line trains to the City Loop for the first time in five years. They run anticlockwise around the loop and thus can no longer run cross city to either Werribee or Williamstown.

Doubling the size of Melbourne’s underground rail network; the Metro Tunnel is the biggest transformation of the city’s public transport system in the last 40 years. The first phase of construction began in 2019, following initial plans formed in 2015.

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