Metro Tunnel celebrates third station milestone 

It’s officially three down, two to go on the Metro Tunnel Project.

Major construction at Anzac Station is now complete – the third of the five new state-of-the-art underground train stations after work at Arden and Parkville finished earlier this year. 

Victorians will be able to access 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 via train for the first time. 

Trains on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines will stop at the new station when it opens in 2025, with passengers on every other line able to make a single change at Melbourne Central (to State Library Stations) or Flinders Street (to Town Hall Stations) to get there. 

Anzac Station, 15 metres below St Kilda Rd, includes four entrances with stairs, lifts and escalators that link 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 Road 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.

Over the past six years thousands of workers have built the station canopy and entrances, realigned St Kilda Rd four times, created the new Anzac Station tram stop, poured concrete for the station platform and pedestrian underpass and installed 12 escalators, six lifts and Victorian-first platform screen doors.  

The tram stop, which opened in 2022, has extra-long platforms that can fit four trams at a time for large crowds attending events such as Anzac Day and the Melbourne Grand Prix.  

The stop will be Melbourne’s first direct tram/train interchange, providing a seamless connection between tram and train services, while the station takes pressure off the world’s busiest tram corridor.  

The project also completed the final section of separated bike lanes on St Kilda Rd between Dorcas St and Toorak Rd last month with cyclists now enjoying safer travel on St Kilda Rd.

Domain Rd is expected to reopen to traffic from mid-October 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. •