Melbourne’s economy is set to take a $10 million hit from Friday’s train strike.

With thousands of people opting not to make the journey into the CBD, the City of Melbourne says it will be businesses who suffer most.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the disruption could end up costing Melbourne as much as the heatwave did, earlier this year.

‘We know it’s about $10 million a day,’ Mr Doyle said.

‘That’s directly into retail and into hospitality.

‘Retail is 20,000 jobs in the city and hospitality is probably another 7000.

‘And this is in a week where the ABS (Bureau of Statistics) brought out figures to show that retail is flat.’