On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August we will be trialling Metro Tunnel services between Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham East.
There will be more services compared to the usual weekend timetable, with the team running as many trains as possible to trial new systems and infrastructure.
Passengers heading to and from the city will need to disembark the train and change to a different service as part of their journey.
Passengers heading to the city will need to get off at Caulfield (Cranbourne/Pakenham lines) or Footscray (Sunbury Line) to switch to a Frankston or Werribee/Williamstown service to finish their journey.
When heading out of the city, passengers will need to catch a Frankston Line train to Caulfield and change to a Cranbourne/Pakenham line or catch a Werribee/Williamstown line train to Footscray to change to the Sunbury Line. Trains will run through the Metro Tunnel without passengers.
Things to look out for:
- The Transport Victoria Journey Planner will show the timetable for the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines on the day, however there will be no live updates in the event of an incident.
- Information displays on trains and some automatic announcements will announce services travelling through the Metro Tunnel eg. showing a Sunbury train's destination as Pakenham via the Metro Tunnel.
- Listen out for live announcements and station staff for the best source of information.
There will be plenty of staff at the stations to make sure everyone gets where they need to go.
More information on passenger changes for the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines are available on the Transport Victoria website.
During the first full day of trial operations in June, trains ran more than 3,400 kilometres between Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham East.
Thorough and extensive trials are crucial to ensure that the new infrastructure, systems and processes are safe and ready for passenger services when the Metro Tunnel opens later this year.
Want to learn more about this new phase of trial operations? Network operations expert Shannon Rollinson explains.