As Melbourne’s new Metro Tunnel prepares to commence operation in 2025, testing of trains through the city-shaping project is ramping up.
Train testing is intensifying on the Metro Tunnel – Victoria’s biggest public transport infrastructure project in more than 40 years – as experts start ‘stress testing’ the project’s complex systems and technology.
This testing phase will involve repeated running of the new systems, trains and infrastructure ahead of opening to passengers in 2025.
Test trains have clocked over 20,000km since the inaugural journey through the twin nine-kilometre tunnels in late July 2023. They will need to travel at least another 150,000km back and forth under Melbourne’s CBD before the test team is confident the new tunnel is ready to open.
The Metro Tunnel has installed technologies never seen before on the Victorian rail network, including High-Capacity Signalling and platform screen doors at the five new underground stations.
This rigorous testing phase will include opening and closing the platform screen doors another 30,000 times to make sure they are in sync with the doors on the modern High Capacity Metro Trains (HCMTs).
Metro Tunnel Project director Ben Ryan said the relentless testing would be about “ironing out the bugs and proving reliability”.
“The Metro Tunnel is going to transform our public transport system and it’s going to transform the way people move around our city, making it easy for people to get to key connections,” Mr Ryan said.
“The trains, the tunnel and the technology all need to work together so when the project opens in 2025, passengers can have that modern, seamless experience that we are bringing to Melbourne’s train network.”
A city-shaping project
The Metro Tunnel is the most significant upgrade of Melbourne’s train network since the City Loop opened in 1981.
It will connect the key growth areas of Sunbury in the north-west and Cranbourne and Pakenham in the south-east via a new tunnel under the city, creating an end-to-end 97km rail line, providing better connections to jobs, healthcare and education.
The project will double the size of Melbourne’s underground rail network and includes five new state-of-the-art stations, freeing up space in the City Loop and allowing the Frankston Line to return to the Loop.
Passengers will have rail access via Parkville Station to Parkville’s world-leading medical and research precinct – home to the University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – and the St Kilda Road employment precinct via Anzac Station for the first time. Arden Station has been built in the heart of an urban redevelopment area in North Melbourne, which will be home to about 20,000 residents and up to 34,000 job opportunities by 2051.
Passengers will have an easy transition between City Loop and Metro Tunnel services with connections between Melbourne Central and State Library stations and Flinders Street and Town Hall stations.
While construction is well-progressed, with two stations already finished, there remains an enormous amount of testing to take place before opening.
Putting the tunnels to the test
Train testing started in late July 2023 with one train in each tunnel at low speed, and quickly ramped up to multiple trains running up to the line speed of 80km/h.
Metro Trains Principal Driver Specialist Suzy Kapteinis was one of the first to drive a train through the new tunnels.
She said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her to work on the project.
“It’s an amazing project to be part of,” Ms Kapteinis said. “It’s one of the highlights of my career, that’s for sure.”
The project reached a major milestone earlier this year, successfully running trains at high frequency through the tunnels in a critical step of the project’s testing program.
During the testing between West Footscray and Hawksburn, a fleet of 12 trains made 18 trips every hour through the twin tunnels using the project’s High-Capacity Signalling system. This 21st century technology has been installed alongside the 20th century system in place on the existing Cranbourne/Pakenham and Sunbury lines.
It’s the first time in Australia that High-Capacity Signalling has been retrofitted to an existing network alongside a decades-old signalling system, with the two needing to be integrated seamlessly.
Major construction at Arden and Parkville stations has also finished – and Anzac will soon be next.
Good progress – but some way to go
Work at Arden Station was accelerated for the team to start testing the systems inside the station, allowing the project to build reliability in the technology for a smoother roll out across the other four stations.
Arden Station.
Mr Ryan said it was a complex phase of the project.
“Everyone is excited about getting closer to opening the Metro Tunnel but we need to make sure we are thorough in testing every element of the project,” he said.
“The testing team has achieved a lot in the past 12 months since the first test trains rolled into the tunnels, but there remains a significant amount of work to do.”
The first passenger load tests were conducted mid-June, with two trains each carrying about 135 tonnes of water.
The trains were both loaded with 42 1,000-litre water tanks and almost 6,000 15-litre water bottles to simulate how they perform with the equivalent weight of a train full of people.
In the coming months, the team will continue testing everything from lifts, escalators, security systems, communications, lighting, plumbing and power to ensure all systems are working together with Melbourne’s modern fleet of bigger, better trains.
As an example, the team will test that a train leaving Arden Station is relaying information on its location and speed to passenger information displays at all the other four stations, so passengers at every platform through the tunnels can see when the train will arrive.
Another example is testing whether train speed and location data is being relayed to the tunnel ventilation system, which uses the information to automatically operate the ventilation system as needed.
Emergency systems will also be tested, including detecting an intruder in the tunnels and fire system responses, to ensure they are communicating with other station and rail systems such as signalling.
The next stage of the project is trial operations. This is where HCMT services will run from Clayton to West Footscray through the Metro Tunnel, using all the new systems.
These trial runs are like a dress rehearsal – they will simulate timetabled services and a range of possible real-life scenarios with station staff, drivers and volunteer passengers.
Trial operations will confirm that everything is ready for a safe, reliable and efficient passenger service to begin when the Metro Tunnel and five new stations open.
Metro Tunnel: quick facts
- The biggest major metropolitan rail investment since the City Loop opened in 1981.
- Twin nine-kilometre tunnels underneath the CBD from Kensington to South Yarra.
- Five new state-of-the-art underground stations – Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall
and Anzac. - Connecting the Sunbury Line and the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines through the Metro Tunnel, creating a continuous rail line from Melbourne’s north-west to the south-east.
- Direct rail access to Parkville’s world-renowned health and education precinct and the St Kilda Road employment district for the first time.
- Easy CBD interchanges between City Loop and Metro Tunnel services.
- Next-generation signalling technology for turn-up-and-go services.
- High-Capacity Metro Trains, with 20 per cent more space and real-time passenger information displays.
- Opening in 2025.
