Metro Tunnel – a story to tell

Residents 3000 was there from the start. Every year until the grand opening of the new rail service on November 30, 2025, the Metro Tunnel team presented at our February event.

On February 2, 2017 (nine years ago) Residents 3000 members and guests heard about a scheme to expand Melbourne’s rail network. The presenters then were the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority and John Holland Group.

This was a proposal to upgrade Melbourne’s train network via nine km twin rail tunnels under the city, connecting the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines with five new unnamed, state-of-the-art underground stations. This was the biggest upgrade since the City Loop opened in 1981. The City Loop was at capacity with Melbourne’s population growing rapidly.

Residents’ first reaction …

How can you possibly build a tunnel under our precious city? Right down the middle of Swanston St? Oh, that is so dangerous! The soil is not stable enough. The geology is so variable. The buildings will crack. Maybe even topple.

How are you going to remove all the rock and sand out of the city? There will be a lot of dust. It will disrupt our lives. You will use trucks? They will clog our roads.

You plan to go down 40 metres? How are people to get down there? Impossible.

You cannot block this street and that? What about the construction noise?

What really happened

“Best for City” outcomes were achieved through consultation and planning with Yarra Trams, City of Melbourne, Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority, and Metro Trains. There was extensive public consultation throughout the design and planning stages.

At our ninth event on February 5, 2026, we heard from Barry McGuren (who was there for all nine events over the years), Yusuf Bardi (State Library Station plus others), Alan Nargessi (architecture) and Minh Li (Metro Tunnel Project Office).

On the night, residents began to understand the inside story how such a huge project came together delivering some amazing infrastructure for our city within the planned time scale. The key principles followed were:

Prototyping strategy – get it right above ground first.

“Kit of Parts” to facilitate construction underground.

“Value Engineering” to balance architecture and cost.

Planning and re-planning for timing and construction logistics.

Refinements to the construction methodology along the way.

Design focus to determine an optimal solution.

Think about the logistics of building stations 40 metres underground. Imagine taking construction materials so far underground only to find they do not fit together or that they are not functional.

That scenario was avoided by setting up an offsite test station where all aspects of the station design were built, then re-built with considerations.

We were shown quite a number of photos (one included here) of first design and final design. Value engineering can mean changes to architectural niceties for practical cost considerations.

There was prototyping of complex structural elements (e.g. the State Library portal) involving large concrete structures that needed to be shipped to site on trucks and fitted together like Lego. These designs were practice built off site until construction techniques, strength and safety, and installation procedures were ironed out before they were applied in the middle of the bustling Melbourne CBD.

At this last meeting of the Metro Tunnel team, the Residents 3000 audience were given a small insight into the brilliance of the design and construction of this enormous project for Melbourne.

Is there to be a documentary?

The general feeling was that this project needs to be recorded in a documentary! Letting the stories just fade away as the tunnel and its infrastructure becomes every day would be such a pity. Is there a documentary in the pipeline?

Next Forum 3000

Thursday 2 April 2026, 6pm for a 6.30 start. Kelvin Club, 14-30 Melbourne Place

Topic: Safety in the City – How are we progressing?

We welcome Dean Robinson from the City of Melbourne to tell us what progress is being made. How is the safety officers scheme working? How effective is the enhanced CCT camera system in catching criminals? Are we winning the graffiti war? What is the situation with rowdy motor bikes and noisy motor vehicles?

These matters are so important to the amenity of living in the city. Come along and ask questions. Regular Residents 3000 members know Dean and look forward to his interesting presentations.

Further details will be found on our web site: residents3000.org.au •