Metro Trains Melbourne awarded seven-year franchise

Metro Trains Melbourne is a 60%-owned subsidiary of MTR Corporation, which holds the Crossrail concession and is one of the new operators of the South Western Railway. It began operating the 390km Melbourne metropolitan train service in 2009 and has overseen extensive service improvements on punctuality, reliability, safety, asset management and customer satisfaction during that time.

Under the new operations and maintenance agreement, MTM is committed to delivering further enhancements to railway operations, asset maintenance and customer service in Melbourne by:

• Adding more peak services
• Higher reliability and punctuality performance through increased maintenance to improve infrastructure and rolling stock reliability
• Upgrading 500 CCTV cameras
• Improving the passenger experience with more information and cleaner trains and stations
• Creating more than 600 new jobs across the franchise.

“MTR has a widely recognised reputation for efficiency, operating performance, and quality of delivery around the world and this franchise renewal is the latest recognition of that,” said Jeremy Long, CEO European Business, MTR Corporation. “The quality already demonstrated in Australia and the ambition for the future is precisely the sort that MTR aims to deliver to its UK passengers through its operation of the Crossrail concession and South Western Railways franchise, and in its active business development programme.”

The new franchise will start from 30 November 2017 and includes up to a three-year further extension option.