Metro Tunnel
Ms WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (09:41): Last week I accompanied the Premier alongside Minister Allan and Minister Carroll for a visit to the site of the future Parkville train station in my electorate. Parkville will be one of the five new stations that will be part of the Metro Tunnel, which will slash travel times by up to 50 minutes per day and create capacity for more than half a million extra passengers each week in the peak. The visit was to mark an important milestone in the project, which is that we are now recruiting more than 100 new train drivers to operate additional train services when the new Metro Tunnel opens a year ahead of schedule in 2025. The new drivers will undertake an intensive 44-week training program to ensure that they are ready to operate the 65 new and bigger trains that will run through the Metro Tunnel and to get them up to speed on project features such as the next-generation signalling system and the platform screen doors. During my visit I was pleased to see construction on the Metro Tunnel progressing well, with crews preparing to lay tracks on the new twin tunnels in the coming months. For those interested, if a life as a train driver is for you, why not apply and head to bigbuild.vic.gov.au for all the details.