Another broken promise for users of the Upfield train line. The opening of the Metro Tunnel has delivered some minor timetable tweaks. But that’s it. Yet again, we are forced to wait for more services.

We have long been promised that the opening of the Metro Tunnel would lead to more services. In the 2022 state election, Labor candidates promised 71% more services on the Upfield line, once the Metro Tunnel was built.

But the frequency of services on the Upfield line is limited by the single track north of Gowrie. Only one train travel can along the 4 km track to Upfield and then return. This can also lead to delays. To make up time, the operator sometimes turns the train around at Batman, forcing train travellers to wait for the next train. Duplication is one of the main advocacy priorities of Merri-bek Council. 

A year ago, we learned that a planned turnback at Gowrie had been quietly shelved. During the 2025 federal election, a series of promises were made – see here – in particular a promise of $7 million by Federal Labor for upgrade planning of Upfield and Craigieburn lines.

In the May 2025 state budget we were promised that the opening of the Metro Tunnel would bring to the Upfield line “an increase in off-peak services with trains running at least every 20 minutes on the line, including late at night and on weekends”

In October 2025, the state government announced that there would be a Big Switch on February 1 and “a new timetable will be in place everywhere – including buses, trams, regional and metropolitan trains”. That has happened for other routes, but not for us.

Minor timetable tweaks for the Upfield Line

Peter Parker from the Melbourne on Transit blogsite has looked at the effect of the new timetable for the Upfield line. He has summarised them as follows::

• The new timetable does not add a single trip on any day of the week for the Upfield line.
• Weekday peak services are more evenly spaced with approximately 16 minutes between trains. This is an improvement.  
• However the improved peak spacing comes at the cost of frequency from the city around 7:30-8pm which is reduced from ~20 to 30 minutes. This is a cut. 
• Overall the new timetable is a disappointment for Upfield line commuters, especially since the government had raised expectations that the ‘Big Switch’ would deliver improvements everywhere.

Parker notes that “The Metro Tunnel Business Case in 2016 proposed 10 minute off-peak services for most of the Upfield line (and all of Craigieburn) as part of the project. However the new timetable does not deliver these. Both peak and off-peak services are less frequent than planned. This is not helped by the project’s descoping which affected the Upfield line.”  

Nevertheless, he notes, “there is still capacity to do some service upgrades but the opportunity to implement them was not taken. Instead we’ll have to wait until later in the year when the 2025 budget boosts come in, leading to a maximum wait of 20 minutes.”

More information

Here is More Trains for Melbourne’s North reel of the politicians’ promises

Here are our local links about upgrading the Upfield line

Here is our recent blogpost on improving public transport in Fawkner