Melbourne Metro Tunnel LIVE updates: Commuters ready to board first trains to five new stations

For those watching at home: The first train to take passengers through the Metro Tunnel is set to depart Sunbury at 9.28am.

It should enter the tunnel in South Kensington about 10.06am and then arrive at the first Metro Tunnel station, Arden, in North Melbourne in time for a 10.09am departure.

A pin to mark the first train ride to the Metro Tunnel from Sunbury station.Credit: Patrick Hatch

The first train coming in the other direction leaves Pakenham East at 9.03am and is due at Anzac station for a 10.12am departure, so the Sunbury train should narrowly claim bragging rights as the first to enter the tunnel.

From Arden, it will continue through the four other new stations – Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac – before emerging from the tunnel in South Yarra about 10.25am.

From there it will travel all the way to Dandenong.

The next train from Sunbury at 9.48am will travel the whole length of the new cross-city line, all the way to East Pakenham – an almost two-hour, 100-kilometre journey.

The Metro Tunnel stations, such as at Arden station, have platform screen doors – the first in Victoria.Credit: Justin McManus