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The first station of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel has been built but it will be a year or more before passenger start using it.
Arden Station, the first of five stations mooted for the underground line, is now ready for testing with the underground rail line and scheduled to open to the public in 2025.
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan and acting transport and infrastructure minister Steve Dimopoulos announced the station’s completion on Monday.
The station is part of the new Arden Precinct, 2km north-west from the Melbourne CBD, which has been forecast to have up to 34,000 jobs and 20,000 residents by 2051.
The station is on a former industrial site and features an arched brick entrance, skylights and platform screen doors to improve passenger safety.
There are also bicycle parking spaces, drop-off zones and accessible carparks.
The station is within walking distance of the North Melbourne Recreation Centre, Arden Street Oval and the route 57 tram.
More than $5 billion has been invested by the state government in expanding the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospitals as part of a new biomedical and health sciences hub in the precinct.
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Construction on the station began in 2018 with workers excavating 330,000 tonnes of rock and soil, installing 3000 lights and laying 104,000 locally made bricks.
The Metro Tunnel project will connect the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines via a new tunnel under the city to create a line from the north-west to the south-east, clearing up congestion on the City Loop.
“The Metro Tunnel will save commuters hours every week and change the city forever,” Allan said.
The new cross-city rail tunnel will eventually have five underground stations—Parkville, State Library (CBD North), Town Hall (CBD South) and Anzac (Domain), and the now-completed North Melbourne (Arden).
New high capacity Metro Trains will carry up to 121,000 passengers weekly during peak hours, an increase of 45 per cent, and saving up to 15 minutes on a trip to Parkville and 25 minutes to St Kilda Road.
