Railways in Melbourne
In February 2015, the State Government established the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority to oversee planning for new twin 9-kilometre rail tunnels through the central city between South Kensington station and South Yarra. The new Metro Tunnel will have five new underground stations and connect the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines with the Sunbury line, creating a new route through the CBD as an alternative to the City Loop. New underground stations will be created at Arden, Parkville, Domain and two new CBD stations, State Library and Town Hall. Enabling works were underway by 2016 and major construction work on the tunnel and stations began in 2017.The project has an estimated cost of $11 billion and is scheduled to be complete by 2025.
Trams in Melbourne
Since privatisation extensions have been made to the tram system, with the $28 million extension of the 109 to Box Hill opening on 2 May 2003, a $7.5 million extension along Docklands Drive in Docklands opened on 4 January 2005, and a $42.6 million extension of the 75 to Vermont South opening on 23 July 2005.
It was announced on 27 September 2010 that Bombardier Transportation had won a $303 million contract to supply and maintain 50 new E-class trams, the contract includes an option for a further 100. They will be built at Bombardier's Dandenong factory, with the propulsion systems and bogies coming from Bombardier's factories in Mannheim and Siegen, Germany, respectively. The trams will be 33 metres long and have a capacity of 210 passengers and are due to be in service in 2013. The first E-class tram arrived at Preston Workshops in late June 2013 for testing, with the first two E-class entering revenue service in November 2013.