Community gets a sneak peek at Anzac Station

Anzac Station was abuzz earlier this month as community members, businesses and Metro Tunnel staff came together to celebrate the finished station. 

The stakeholder and family day was an opportunity to thank the impacted residents and businesses for their patience as crews built the station and surrounding infrastructure over the past six years. 

The 2000 attendees were dazzled by the station’s modern design as they toured the concourse and platform levels while enjoying free refreshments, live entertainment, kids’ activities and showbag giveaways. 

Anzac Station means Melburnians will be able to catch a train for the first time from the Melbourne CBD – via the new Town Hall or State Library stations – to St Kilda Rd’s growing employment, education and residential precinct, as well as some of Melbourne’s most important destinations, including the Shrine of Remembrance, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Albert Park.

Anzac Station – the third of five new underground train stations to be finished last month – sits 15 metres below St Kilda Rd and includes four entrances with stairs, lifts and escalators linking to a new pedestrian underpass beneath busy St Kilda Rd. 

It also includes a bright and colourful artwork called Future Wall Painting by local artist Raafat Ishak featuring abstract representations of iconic St Kilda Rd landmarks.

Anzac Station has been designed as a “pavilion in the park” with its signature 85-metre-long, 21-metre-wide timber canopy’s skylights filling the station with natural light, reducing reliance on artificial lighting. 

It features Melbourne’s first direct tram/train interchange, providing a seamless connection between tram and train services with a tram stop opened in 2022 whose extra-long platforms can fit four trams at a time for large crowds attending events such as Anzac Day and the Melbourne Grand Prix.

The station will take pressure off the St Kilda Rd/Swanston St tram corridor – the busiest tram corridor in the world.

Domain Rd reopened to traffic last week and the Route 58 tram will continue to travel along nearby Toorak Rd.   

The Metro Tunnel will connect the busy Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines via a new tunnel under the city, creating an end-to-end rail line from the north-west to the south-east, giving passengers new connections and more choice. •