top 10 tram routes, and Melbourne's busiest. The early 1990s saw further changes, with the MTA reborn as the Public Transport Corporation, trading as "The Met". State Governments of both sides of politics began to push for reform of the railway network, proposing conversion of the Upfield, Williamstown and Alamein lines to light rail. These proposals failed, with the Upfield line instead receiving a series of upgrades to replace labour-intensive manual signalling systems. Federal government funding was made available for the electrification of the Cranbourne line, which was completed in 1995. Rationalisation of the Jolimont rail yard commenced, enabling the creation and expansion of Melbourne Park in 1988 and 1996, and the future construction of Federation Square in 2001. Upon the Kennett Government's election in 1992, a number of controversial reforms to the operation of the railway system were initiated, with guards being abolished from suburban trains and train drivers taking over the task of door operation. Stations were de-staffed, and the Metcard ticketing system was introduced to phase out the old scratch ticketing system. Over this period more than $250 million of operating cost was stripped from the Melbourne network, as the government sought to reign in growing state debt of $32 billion. Privatisation In 1997, "The Met" was split into two operating units —Hillside Trains and Bayside Trains, each to be franchised to a different private operator. Ownership of land and infrastructure for rail and tram services was transferred to a new Victorian Government agency, VicTrack. In addition, a statutory office was created in Government—the Director of Public Transport—with specific responsibility for entering into franchise agreements with public transport operators for the operation of rail and tram services throughout Victoria. By 1999, the privatisation process was complete, with Connex Melbourne and M>Train each operating half of the network. In 2003, the parent company of M>Train (National Express) withdrew from operating public transport in Victoria, and their half of the suburban network was passed to Connex as part of a renegotiated contract. The franchising contracts contained provisions for the new operators to refurbish the Comeng trains, and to replace the older Hitachi trains. Connex purchased Alstom X'Trapolis sets, while M>Train chose Siemens Nexas units. In May 2005, the State Government commissioned a A$25 million study into the feasibility of a third track for the Dandenong line to increase capacity for the rapidly growing suburban area. The cost of the