The party's Save The 8 campaign began in July when the website was registered. The party has now begun delivering flyers on the issue in the city's eastern suburbs.

Route 8 is one of Melbourne's most overburdened tram routes.

It starts in Toorak, running along Toorak Road and St Kilda Road, down Swanston and Lygon streets, and finishing in Moreland.

The government is considering changing the route,  while adding two other new routes that will help serve the busy corridor.

Under the new plan, trams would still run down Toorak Road but would instead travel via Kings Way rather than St Kilda Road. They would then run through the west of Melbourne's CBD instead of Swanston Street, and finish in West Coburg.

Travellers from Toorak wanting a St Kilda Road service would need to change trams at the Domain in South Yarra.

Traders in Toorak Road and Chapel Street have been angered by the changes, because they want a direct route into the centre of the CBD for shoppers.

But public transport advocates said the Liberal's campaign was dishonest and unhelpful.

"This campaign is scaremongering," said Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen. "It implies that the Toorak Road tram route is going to be scrapped completely, whereas the plan is to re-route it and give it a new number."

The campaign follows a variety of claims, counter-claims and smears made over public transport issues by both Labor and the Coalition during 2014's state election campaign - particularly over plans to change the Frankston train line.

"This is over-politicising a fairly simple and logical change to the tram network, so it's a shame they've chosen to turn it into a political issue," Mr Bowen said.

However Chapel Street traders said it was crucial to keep a direct service to the CBD centre from Toorak Road, and it was an issue that needed state politicians' attention.

"Axing that number eight tram would be devastating for our customers and our residents," said Oskar Cebergs from the Chapel Street Precinct Association, who noted that the Andrews government had also scrapped a link to South Yarra train station in its $11 billion Melbourne Metro tunnel plans.

"Given the rapidly increasing residential population in the precinct, it's a ridiculous decision," he said.

The government has said the decision to remove South Yarra station from the Melbourne Metro project  would save around $1 billion.

Opposition planning spokesman David Davis, who has campaigned on the route 8 issue for several months, said the booming Forrest Hill precinct of South Yarra - where thousands of extra residents had moved in recent years - needed to access St Kilda Road and the north of the CBD.

"There is no reason to do this - they can add tram capacity, but this is substituting it, taking it off one route and putting it on another," Mr Davis said.

"And if you're old and frail, you won't be able to continue on the route you might have been using since 1927," Mr Davis said, adding that tourists would also be unable to get a direct tram from the city centre to the Chapel Street shopping precinct.

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said the tram route was not being scrapped, and the merger of the 8 and 55 routes, if it went ahead following consultation, would allow more trams to carry more people.

"It's not surprising David Davis misunderstands both the proposal and the concept of genuine consultation, given how little interest the former Liberal Government had in better public transport or genuine engagement with the community," she said.