Waking up in Geelong

One of the marketing lines for Metro Tunnel project is ‘More trains across Melbourne’ – both for the railway lines which will run through the new tunnel under Melbourne, and those which won’t. So how does that work?

The PR puff pieces

Over on the State Government’s ‘Big Build’ website they give a high level overview.

Untangling the City Loop means more trains, more often. It will make travel easier for you with more frequent trains carrying more people to destinations across Melbourne.

Some of Melbourne’s busiest metropolitan train lines – Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham – will run exclusively through the new tunnel. By taking these lines out of the City Loop, other lines will be able to run more services.

As a result, room will be created on the network to enable over half a million additional passengers per week across Melbourne’s train network to use the rail system during the peak periods.

They also break it down.

Line by line.

Cranbourne / Pakenham lines:
The Metro Tunnel and associated network improvements will create room for 121,000 passengers every week on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines during peak periods. That’s 45% more peak capacity.

Sunbury Line:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 113,000 more passengers every week on the Sunbury Line during peak periods. That’s 60% more peak capacity.

Craigieburn Line:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 54,000 passengers every week on the Craigieburn Line during peak periods. That’s 27% more peak capacity.

Upfield Line:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 45,000 passengers every week on the Upfield Line during peak periods. That’s 71% more peak capacity.

Werribee and Williamstown lines:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 63,000 passengers every week on the Werribee and Williamstown lines during peak periods. That’s 24% more peak capacity.

Frankston Line:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 36,000 more passengers every week on the Frankston Line during peak periods. That’s 15% more peak capacity.

Sandringham Line:
The Metro Tunnel will create room for 72,000 more passengers every week on the Sandringham Line during peak periods. That’s 48% more peak capacity.

So where did those numbers come from?

Enter the ‘Wider Network Enhancements’

Turns out building a new tunnel across Melbourne to divert trains from the existing City Loop isn’t all that’s needed to increase overall network capacity, but a package of other works are needed around the network.

The Metro Tunnel business case from February 2016 lists these in a chapter titled ‘Wider Network Enhancements’.

Melbourne Metro will create a through-running suburban corridor from Sunbury in the west to Cranbourne and Pakenham in the east (the Sunshine – Dandenong Line) through two new 9km tunnels with five new stations. The new twin tunnels connect the existing Sunbury Line to the existing Cranbourne / Pakenham Lines, allowing this corridor to operate independent of the existing City Loop and creating capacity through the inner core of the network to support service growth on other corridors.

Melbourne Metro will also facilitate delivery of a range of Wider Network Enhancements to capitalise on this additional capacity in Central Melbourne and, together with other planned works, deliver an uplift in service frequencies on the new alignment as well as the Werribee, Craigieburn, Upfield, Sandringham and Frankston Lines.

The Wider Network Enhancements comprise a range of works, including infrastructure to facilitate access to sidings, turnbacks, signalling headway improvement works, other works to support service frequency across the existing network and some changes to the operation of the tram network. More work is being undertaken to refine various aspects of the works.

The Wider Network Enhancements will facilitate delivery of the benefits of Melbourne Metro. The nature of the works will be further developed to ensure the benefits are maximised and that interfaces with other Victorian works are coordinated to efficiently deliver an optimal solution.

Appendix 3 of the business case titled ‘Scope of Works’ went into the Wider Network Enhancements further.

Sunshine to Dandenong corridor works

• Systems and infrastructure to support a safe and reliable operation to meet the service requirements on the Sunshine – Dandenong rail corridor including HCS
• Passive provision for future works in corridor – Melton electrification & Sunshine -Deer Park West quad track
• Infrastructure to support service continuity during planned and unplanned disruption (Resilience for Day 1 Operation)

Other corridor works
• Turnback facility to allow turn-back of services from the Cross City line (Eastern Turnback)
• Infrastructure to facilitate short turnback of services at Gowrie
• Signalling improvements to support additional services on Craigieburn Line
• Infrastructure to facilitate short turnback of services at Essendon
• Reconfiguration of Carrum stabling access
• Signalling upgrade on Cross City Line
• Turnback capacity to terminate new services at Cheltenham

With the business case detailing the reasoning behind each enhancement.

Infrastructure to facilitate short turnback of services in the east to service the Cross City Line

The increased service frequencies (which reflect demand) on the Cross City Line on project opening results in a difference between peak period, inter-peak period and off peak services levels from the eastern and western ends of the corridor.

To balance the service frequencies required on the east and west side of the corridor, turnback locations are required to turn back more frequent trains to the Werribee end of the corridor. Existing network infrastructure on the Cross City Line may not facilitate the number of turnback moves required and therefore additional turnback infrastructure may be required.

There are more services from the western side of the Cross City Line as the population and rate of growth is higher at Wyndham/ Werribee, and there are also services from Laverton via Altona and Williamstown. In comparison, the Sandringham line serves an established area and therefore customer demand is not growing as quickly.

A turnback will therefore result in some services from the west being able to turn back to the west without having to travel for a significant length of the Sandringham line. This will reduce the number of train sets required to serve the Cross City Line and associated operating costs.

Infrastructure to facilitate short turnback of services on the Craigieburn Line

The increased frequencies on the Craigieburn Line on opening requires a turnback in the vicinity of Essendon to achieve the most efficient train paths and stopping patterns and maximise the number of services that operate on that line.

To effectively meet customer demand on this corridor, not all services need to go to Craigieburn. Some services can start in the vicinity of Essendon, which is a major interchange station, particularly in the peak periods. This will help to serve customers south of Essendon station, whilst reducing the number of train sets and operating costs serving the Craigieburn line, as not all services will need to operate all the way to Craigieburn. It also reduces the need to further upgrade infrastructure north of Essendon for a higher number of trains operating in the AM / PM Peak hour.

Infrastructure to facilitate turnback of services on the Upfield Line

Delivering the required uplift in service frequencies on the Upfield Line requires a turnback short of Upfield to mitigate the existing single line section of track between Gowrie and Upfield. This single line, when combined with sharing the Northern Loop with the Craigieburn Line, represents a significant constraint in increasing the number of services operating on that line.

Infrastructure to facilitate short turnback of services on the Frankston Line

Whilst some services on the Frankston line already commence at stations other than Frankston, the increased frequencies on the Frankston Line on opening requires a turnback in the vicinity of Cheltenham / Mordialloc to achieve the most efficient train paths and stopping patterns and maximise the number of services that operate on that line.

To effectively meet customer demand on this corridor, not all services need to go to Frankston. Some services can start in the vicinity of Cheltenham or Mordialloc, which are major interchange stations, particularly in the peak periods. This will help to serve customers north of Cheltenham / Mordialloc station, whilst reducing the number of train sets and operating costs serving the Frankston line, as not all services will need to operate all the way to Frankston. It also reduces the need to further upgrade infrastructure south of Cheltenham / Mordialloc for a higher number of trains operating in the AM / PM Peak hour.

Improvements to access to sidings on the Frankston Line

In order to achieve the increased frequencies on the Frankston Line on opening, efficient access to the limited stabling facilities available on the Frankston line is required to achieve the most efficient train paths, stopping patterns and limit moves that have the potential to impact upon the reliability of the service.

Signalling headway improvement works

Signalling infrastructure will largely determine the frequency of train services that can be run on any given line because it will dictate how close together trains can be scheduled. Conventional signalling works on a system of blocks (defined by lineside signals) where a train may only enter a block or section of track once the train in front has cleared it.

Existing constraints on the network preclude achieving the full uplift potential of Melbourne Metro in service frequencies. Upgrades and improvements are required to reduce the number of minutes between scheduled trains to accommodate the frequencies prescribed for opening of Melbourne Metro and beyond and remove unnecessary constraints on train moves.

These include:
– Signalling improvement works on the Sunshine – Dandenong Line
– Signalling and other rail infrastructure improvement works on the Werribee Line
– Signalling improvement works on the Craigieburn Line
– Signalling improvement works on the Frankston Line.

And delivering them

The 2016 Metro Tunnel business case also looked at how and when the Wider Network Enhancements should be delivered.

The Wider Network Enhancements are being considered separately to the other packages, consistent with the approach recommended in the 2013 Procurement Strategy. The key reasons for considering the wider network works as a separate package (or series of packages) are as follows:

– The scope and location of these works means that they can potentially be undertaken independently of other scope elements.
– They have very different technical characteristics to the tunnel and stations works, are geographically separate, are of a brownfield nature and will be undertaken in a live operating environment with significant interface and stakeholder management issues.
– The required timeframe for procurement and delivery of these works differs to the rest of the project. These works need to be completed to coincide with completion of the tunnel and stations works, but have a much shorter construction duration.

Wider Network Enhancements will be packaged with other works where there are clearly demonstrable benefits such as procurement and/or delivery synergies. As noted above, the eastern turnback will form part of the Rail Infrastructure package and the signalling upgrades on the Sunshine – Dandenong Line will form part of the Rail Systems package. Other Wider Network Enhancements may ultimately form part of these packages and, where appropriate, works will be incorporated with the Level Crossing Removal Project to reduce costs and minimise disruption. Further detailed assessment of any such opportunities will occur as part of the detailed pre-procurement planning activities

So what’s happened?

Signalling improvement works on the Sunshine – Dandenong Line are well underway, with the High Capacity Signalling rollout well underway.

And upgrades to stabling along the Frankston line were delivered as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project – the troublesome single compound leading into the siding at Carrum has been ripped up.

To make way for a new elevated railway station.

Photo by Philip Mallis, via Wikimedia Commons

With the stabling yard relocated to Kananook.

Cheltenham station also got a new, more flexible centre turnback siding as part of the recent level crossing removal works.

But no changes at Essendon station – the third platform there is still too short for a 6-car Metro train to stop at, despite the level crossing at the city end being removed.

And the Upfield line has also missed out, with Gowrie station the same as it was back in the 1990s.

So what is left?

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office detailed the current scope of the Metro Tunnel project in a June 2022 report, including scope cuts made in May 2022.

As of May 2022, Rail Projects Victoria forecasts that the overall project will cost $12.58 billion. This is a $1.55 billion (14 per cent) increase over the 2017 approved project budget.

This comparison does not allow for the wider network enhancements and High Capacity Signalling work which have been descoped. Adjusting for this, the overall project increase over the 2017 approved is $1.88 billion (17 per cent).

The value of the savings? $244.8 million by removing the Eastern Turnback and signalling upgrades from the Wider Network Enhancements scope. Rail Projects Victoria gave this reason for the cuts.

RPV’s rationale for this request was that pre-cursor works assumed in the original Metro Tunnel Project business case have not been done, and therefore the original network enhancements scope cannot achieve network benefits. The funds released by the government’s descope decision have been reallocated within the wider MTP budget

So will the Craigieburn and Upfield lines be able to make the most of the extra track capacity through the City Loop released by the Metro Tunnel project?

It looks like the answer is “kinda sorta” – more trains will be able to run than today, but even more trains could run if the cancelled Wider Network Enhancements works had have been delivered.

A High Capacity Signalling footnote

The Metro Tunnel project has also saved $91 million by cutting the High Capacity Signalling scope by about a third (or 27 kilometres of double rail track) — from the original announced scope of Watergardens to Dandenong, to a new scope of West Footscray to Westall.

Note that this dollar figure was based on the original estimate for the work, with Rail Projects Victoria estimating in 2022 that the actual cost would more likely cost between $300 million and
$500 million.

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