Meanwhile, 70 more trains will be cancelled early tomorrow morning due to further strike action against Metro.

A four-hour stoppage is planned between 2am and 6am on Saturday, the third consecutive day in which industrial stoppages will force trains off the rails.

Metro has cancelled 66 morning services and four late night services after 1am, meaning sone late-night revellers may be stranded in the city.

Those four last train cancellations are on the South Morang, Hurstbridge, Lilydale and Belgrave lines. Fairfax Media has asked Metro for a full list of the other 66 cancellations.
The union movement has rallied around the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, which has been attacked by the Labor government for shutting down Melbourne's train and tram networks.

John Setka, CFMEU secretary, encouraged striking workers to use finals fever to their advantage in their bitter industrial fight with Metro Trains and Yarra Trams.

"It's finals time soon, what a wonderful time to have some industrial action," Mr Setka told a rally of several hundred at Trades Hall on Friday.

Metro chief Andrew Lezala said stopping trains during AFL finals would be "an outrage".

Trains ground to a halt on Friday from 10am as Metro staff including signallers and controllers walked off the job, but commuters endured delays and disruptions from as early as 8.30am.

However, many CBD workers chose to work from home, or take the day off, leaving small businesses struggling with reduced trade.

Mark Wild, the chief executive of Public Transport Victoria, said the city had coped well with the disruption and peak-hour services were expected to operate smoothly.

Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said the strike action had affected the local economy, but it was hard to quantify the impact.

"Not everyone has the chance to choose to work from home or take a day off," she said.

"Some people are just going to be in the situation where they have to lose a day's pay because they haven't been able to get to work today, and they're the people who have every reason to feel angry and fed up with this action that's been taken."

Meanwhile, about 500 union supporters marched along Swanston Street towards Flinders Street Station from 11.30am, blocking traffic.

Rail union state secretary Luba Grigorovitch has accused Metro of treating its staff like "fools".

"Metro thought that if they offered us a little more money we would roll over," Ms Grigorovitch said.

She called the government's decision to support Metro's failed attempt to shut down the strike at Fair Work "tragic".

Yet Ms Allan said the industrial action was "just so unnecessary".

"Certainly the government is fed up with this sort of action and indeed passengers and the community have every reason to also feel to fed up and angry," she said.