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.
Melbourne Metro 2
Among the projects envisaged for Stage 3 – the five-year period after the completion of the Metro Tunnel – was the creation of another end-to-end line with a tunnel from Clifton Hill to Southern Cross. The NDPMR suggested that the tunnel would provide the additional capacity needed to serve the booming patronage on the South Morang, as well as providing additional space in the existing Clifton Hill tunnel of the City Loop so that a new line to Doncaster could be accommodated alongside Mernda line services. The NDPMR also recommended that the tunnel be extended in Stage 4 from Southern Cross to a new station at Fishermans Bend, with a view to further expansion to Newport and the Werribee line.