Melbourne’s first new CBD train station in more than four decades is officially complete, with construction wrapped up at Town Hall Station. This is one of five new stations being delivered as part of the state’s Metro Tunnel project.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams toured the finished station today, announcing it will open a full year ahead of schedule.
Located beneath Swanston Street between Collins and Flinders streets, Town Hall Station will offer direct access to some of the city’s most visited landmarks, including Federation Square, Birrarung Marr, Southbank, the Arts Centre and St Paul’s Cathedral.
“This is the first new station in Melbourne’s CBD in 40 years,” Premier Allan said. “We invested in public transport – and just look at the results. The Metro Tunnel will cut congestion and get you to work, uni and home sooner – and it opens this year.”
The main entrance will open onto a redesigned City Square, set to become a new civic hub. A pedestrian underpass will also connect the station to the heritage-listed Campbell Arcade and Degraves Street subway, creating a seamless transfer between the Metro Tunnel and Flinders Street Station without the need to tap off.
The station’s 18-metre-wide platforms rank among the world’s widest underground metro platforms, built within a unique ‘trinocular’ tunnel design featuring cathedral-like arches. Stretching 260 metres long and 33 metres deep, the space required moving more than half a million tonnes of rock and soil.
Inside, the scale is equally impressive: 44 escalators, 12 lifts, nine retail and hospitality spaces, and more than 7,000 cubic metres of concrete and 2,200 tonnes of steel used in construction.
Testing is already underway with trains clocking over 265,000 kilometres through the new tunnels. Town Hall Station will open with the Metro Tunnel later this year.
