page_title: Melbourne Metro 2
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Melbourne Metro 2 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the proposed tram extensions to the major urban renewal precinct in Melbourne, according to the 2018 Fishermans Bend Precinct Framework. Map depicts two tram proposals along a new six-metre bridge across the Yarra from Collins St, along Turner St in the proposed Employment Precinct, and along Plummer St in the proposed residential suburbs of Sandridge and Wirraway. The map also shows two alternatives of the proposed alignment for the Melbourne Metro 2 tunnel, connecting the Werribee line with the Mernda line. All these proposed alignments come from the Framework, released by the State Government in 2018.
context_page_description: Melbourne Metro 2 is a proposed extension to the Melbourne rail network, consisting of a tunnel from Newport to Clifton Hill via the city centre. Conceived as a follow-up project to the under-construction Metro Tunnel, MM2 would link the Werribee and Mernda suburban rail lines and include stations in the Fishermans Bend development precinct, at Southern Cross and at Parkville, allowing passengers to connect with Metro Tunnel and City Loop lines. Although MM2 has been proposed and refined by a number of government-led and independent reports and proposals, no funding or policy commitment to its planning or construction is in place as of 2019.
context_section_description: The first Metro Tunnel proposal gradually emerged in detail after the 2008 Eddington Report, which identified a new rail tunnel creating an end-to-end line from west to east through the city centre as a major priority for transport investment in Melbourne. In the period between 2008, when the tunnel was first envisaged, and 2016, when construction began, the Metro Tunnel underwent several changes to its scope and proposed delivery, including the combination of what was originally envisaged as a two-stage project into a single-stage construction.
  During this period, the Public Transport Development Authority, trading as Public Transport Victoria (PTV), was established under the state government of Ted Baillieu to coordinate planning for Victoria's public transport services. In 2013, PTV released its Network Development Plan Metropolitan Rail (NDPMR), which presented a 20-year plan in four stages to improve the suburban rail system. The projects suggested by the NDMPR focused both on increasing the capacity of the central rail system and extending the network's reach to serve the growing outer suburbs of Melbourne. To achieve this goal, PTV argued it would be necessary to invest in major infrastructure, starting with the Metro Tunnel, to segregate railway lines on their journey through the city, to maximise the connectivity of the system and minimise the possibility of disruption.
  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.
  By 2015, with planning work for the first Metro Tunnel underway, the Herald Sun began referring to the second tunnel as "Metro 2", as the state government confirmed that the new Parkville station would be designed with provision for future expansion to an interchange. At the same time, the newspaper reported that the state government of premier Daniel Andrews was broadly supportive of the need for a second major rail project at the completion of the Metro Tunnel.
  Then, in October 2016, the inaugural 30-year plan released by Infrastructure Victoria suggested that the entire project – from Newport to Clifton Hill – needed to be constructed simultaneously, but would have enormous costs potentially not offset by its benefits. The report recommended a reconfiguration of the City Loop as an earlier and cheaper measure to improve core capacity in the network, but stated that any redesign of MM2 would need to consider delivering further improvements to the lines through Sunshine after completion of the first Metro Tunnel. On the other hand, the report also suggested that the massive improvements in property values created by MM2, which it estimated as being up to $20 billion, could be used to partially fund the project using a value capture levy or tax.
  After the Andrews government announced an expanded West Gate Tunnel project in 2017, in an attempt to improve transport links from the western suburbs, public transport advocates cited MM2 as a more sustainable alternative to the massive road tunnel. The MM2 project again received attention in December of that year, when the University of Melbourne announced plans to build a new campus for its Melbourne School of Engineering at Fishermans Bend. Although the state government suggested an extension of the tram network could be built to serve the facility, treasurer Tim Pallas admitted that a heavy rail line through the area was unlikely to proceed in the near future. At the same time, however, he mentioned that a "Metr
caption: Map showing proposed tram extensions to Fishermans Bend, and the two alternative paths for the western section of the Melbourne Metro 2 tunnel proposed in the State Government's 2018 Fishermans Bend Framework plan.
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