Metro has signalled the biggest overhaul of Melbourne’s train schedule in more than a decade with an improved timetable starting from Sunday 8th May.
The new timetable sees 635 new weekly services added across the network – more than double the amount of services added in October, and more than triple the amount added in June last year.
These changes take the total number of services per week to 14,000 – a record high on the metropolitan network.
Metro CEO Andrew Lezala said it was the first major step of a complete re-write of the metropolitan timetable, which essentially involved going back to first principles to enable the untangling of the network.
“We are building a higher capacity, higher reliability railway with a simple timetable that can be expanded to meet Melbourne’s future growth,” Mr Lezala said.
“These changes are part of a step-by-step process to simplify the timetable by segregating lines to improve the reliability of the railway.
“We expect to minimise the effects of disruptions for our customers by isolating each line to help avoid any flow-on effect of delays on other lines. Future stages will see other lines operating independently from each other, minimising the impact of any service disruptions for our customers.”
Mr Lezala said a key priority is ensuring customers are fully informed of all changes.
Some of the major changes include an additional:
– 37 new services each weekday on the Werribee line (including 10 new peak services each weekday);
– 25 new services each weekday on the Belgrave/Lilydale line (including two new morning peak services, one from Blackburn and one from Ringwood, each weekday);
– 18 new services each weekday on the Sandringham line (including eight new peak services);
– 17 new services each weekday on the Cranbourne/Pakenham line;
– 15 new services each weekday on the Frankston line; and
– 4 new services each weekday on the Glen Waverley line (including one morning peak service).
Other key changes
– All morning services on the Glen Waverley line (34 in total) will run at a frequency of between seven and eight minutes and will run direct to Flinders Street. A cross-platform change at Richmond will enable a direct change for City Loop station customers, with connecting Loop services running every one to three minutes throughout the morning peak.
– Weekday service frequency between 9am and 4:30pm for Aircraft, Hoppers Crossing and Werribee stations reduces from the current average of 10 minutes to 20 minutes however, the average service frequency between Newport and Flinders Street will become 11 minutes. There is currently a four and 16 minute service between Newport and the city.
– Peak time service frequency for Williamstown, Williamstown Beach and North Williamstown stations reduces from the current 20 minutes to 22 minutes however, the same number of services will run during peak times on the Williamstown line. All weekday services between 9am and 4:30pm will run through to Flinders Street instead of the current shuttle service between Williamstown and Newport.
Mr Lezala pointed to major works which will help make this timetable change possible. He said further timetable changes will be made possible with the continuation of infrastructure upgrades.
“We’re conducting some large-scale works on the Spencer Street viaduct during the Easter and Anzac Day long weekend, platform extensions at Frankston, as well as works to build new or upgrade existing sidings at Brighton Beach, Mordialloc, Upfield, Craigieburn and Newport.”
Mr Lezala also said at least 20 of the new X’Trapolis trains will be in service when the new timetable comes into effect, giving Metro greater flexibilty with its train fleet.
“We’ve focused these changes on where they’re needed most. More trains means more capacity, and as the rollout of the 38 new trains continues, we’ll keep putting those trains to where they’re needed most.”
