Commuters on the Cranbourne, Pakenham, Frankston and Gippsland lines will face the biggest disruption, with trains pulled off the tracks from April 6-23. Sandringham trains will be cancelled for eight days in April, Warrnambool services will be shut for more than two weeks and Geelong trains will be down for less than one week. The bulk of construction in the upcoming blitz will be focused on building the South Yarra entrance to the $11 billion Metro Tunnel, in addition to level crossing removal works and signalling and power upgrades for the High Capacity Metro Trains. Passengers have been told they should allow up to an hour in extra travel time.

Bus companies Ventura and Dyson are calling on the government to allow buses to use the Monash Freeway's emergency lanes in April. They are teaming up with about 30 other operators to provide more than 600 buses during the disruption. The companies have done this before, with several rail lines closed during the summer period for rail upgrades, but the operators are gearing up for 20 per cent more traffic in April compared with January. "Oh my God," said Dyson's general manager Paul Giusti, when asked if the company wanted priority access on major roads and freeways in April. "In every project, we push for this to ensure we can move people as quickly as possible and minimise traffic queues."

VicRoads said buses would not get priority on the Monash, despite dedicated bus lanes created along Ballarat Road between Albion and Flemington Racecourse during a 2014 rail shut down for the building of the Regional Rail Link. The emergency lane on the Eastern Freeway is used by buses in the morning weekday peak. "It absolutely makes sense to do this," said Public Transport Users Association's spokesman Daniel Bowen. "It is critically important to ensure the buses run smoothly and are not tied up in traffic lights and stuck in traffic with cars." However, VicRoads' director of planned disruptions Sameem Moslih said creating dedicated bus lanes would result in buses sitting in long queues leading up to these lanes.

Instead, buses would receive priority at traffic lights near train stations and roads linking up with freeways, as had been previously arranged during disruptions in December and January, Mr Moslih said. Buses had traffic light priority on Westall and Blackburn roads, which link up to the Monash Freeway, as well as Princes Highway, Nepean Highway and Hallam Road during the summer disruptions. Buses also had traffic light priority at train stations around Federation Square, Caulfield, Frankston and Westall. "We’ll be monitoring our freeways and arterial road network in real-time from a dedicated traffic management centre which will allow us to respond quickly to any incidents and adjust traffic lights to reduce any bottlenecks," Mr Moslih said.

Despite commuter anxiety about the upcoming closures, Ventura and Dyson are assuring commuters that the disruption will be well managed.