After years and years of digging, drilling and dodging roadblocks, construction at Anzac Station is finally complete. Located below St Kilda Road, the railway station now provides a quick and easy rail connection to key landmarks including our award-winning Royal Botanical Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park.
The long-awaited project – which has been underway since 2016 – comes with some great new bells and whistles. The station has been designed as a 'pavilion in the park', with the canopy above the tram interchange serving as an architectural focal point, providing passengers with year-round protection from our ever-changing weather. There are also large skylights embedded in the canopy that flood the station with natural light.
The interior includes a bright and colourful permanent artwork. 'Future Wall Painting' by Raafat Ishak has been printed onto glass wall panels and features abstract representations of St Kilda Road landmarks and Indigenous flora and fauna.
The station also has four entrances with stairs, lifts and escalators that link to a new pedestrian underpass beneath congestion-prone St Kilda Road, offering commuters a faster, easier and more efficient route. The tram stop also has extra-long platforms that accommodate large crowds attending events such as the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.
It is the third of five new state-of-the-art stations to be completed as part of the Metro Tunnel Project, alongside Arden Station and Parkville Station. And in a first for Melbourne, the main entry to the station is located on a tram platform for safe and seamless commuter transit between tram and train.
Once complete, the Metro Tunnel will connect the busy Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham train lines through twin tunnels under the city, leading to an end-to-end rail line from the north-west to the south-east resulting in a quicker commute and easier way to get around Melbourne. It's been a long time coming.
"The Metro Tunnel is the biggest transformation of Melbourne's network in four decades," said premier Jacinta Allan. "Three stations are done, and there's two more to go, so we're a year ahead of schedule."
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