IN LESS than 24 hours, dumped operator Connex will depart Melbourne's train network. But chairman Jonathan Metcalfe says commuters should not expect a rail revolution.

Mr Metcalfe said new operator MTM, which is owned mainly by Hong Kong company MTR and starts an eight-year contract at 3am tomorrow, would bring technical expertise and a rigorous performance approach to the network, but ''there's no silver bullet''.

Connex chief Jonathan Metcalfe. Credit:Paul Jones

''This is a complicated, heavily utilised, aged railway. Anyone who says a new operator … can walk in here on Monday and things will be fundamentally different and there won't be problems and issues and things that disrupt the railway are kidding themselves,'' Mr Metcalfe said.

He said Connex's biggest challenge had been an unprecedented patronage boom that had almost doubled the number of trips on the network during the company's decade in charge.