On the weekend the Metro Tunnel project held a limited public open day for local residents at the recently completed Anzac station, and I was lucky enough to be able to take a look. So let’s head inside!
Headed in
The open day was held on the closed off section of Domain Road, east of Anzac station.
With food stalls.
And kids activities.
Including a train ride.
But the reason I was there was to see inside Anzac station itself.
Touring the station
We headed downstairs.
The Domain Road entrance having a single up escalator and a flight of stairs.
As well as a lift, that doubled as a light well.
We were then greeted by the unpaid area concourse, which passes beneath St Kilda Road.
And the tram stop above.
A trio of escalators and a lift connect the station concourse to the south end of the tram stop.
And a single escalator, steps and lift to the northern end.
The unpaid area walkway then continued west to the station entrance on Albert Road.
With a pair of escalators.
Along with a lift.
Down to the platforms
Now it was time to head down to the platforms.
Obviously no trains running.
But the passenger information screens had been installed.
Through the ticket gates.
With sunlight still streaming in from the glass roof above.
We went past the pair of lifts down to platform level.
And took the escalators down instead.
A wide island platform greeting us.
But still no trains.
Temporary fencing in place across the platform screen doors, with a demarcation still in place between active rail tunnels and the under construction railway station.
But network ‘strip maps’ already displayed.
Along with customer help points.
The big orange pendant light fittings also a design feature.
Along with the orange ceiling details.
It was then time to head back out again, so we took a trio of escalators back to the concourse.
And then back out of the same ticket gates we entered through.
Past the customer service counter.
Past the hidden away back of house area.
Back down the unpaid concourse towards Domain Road.
Back up the escalator.
And back into the sunlight.
Ending the tour.
Footnote: a few other things I noticed
Anzac station isn’t completely finished yet – the retail spaces are still taken up by temporary facilities for construction workers.
With a few bits of wall cladding also missing.
I also noticed a separate set of stairs beside the Domain Road entrance.
Locked away from public use, for firefighter access in case of emergency.
I also found a second lift door hidden away at the back of the Domain Road lift – presumably it leads into the back of house area of the station.
And on Domain Road the tram tracks have been rebuilt, with new platform stops installed – despite route 58 trams still using the tracks along Toorak Road West they were diverted along back in 2017 to make way for the construction of Anzac station.
But a key question is: is there any improved accessway actually from ANZAC Station, to the War Memorial and the Botanic Gardens attractions beyond ?
Good luck for tourists knowing it is near either of those landmarks, the executive panel came up with this name and ignored the voice of the people
https://danielbowen.com/2017/09/07/metro-tunnel-stations-names/
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fnews%2Fvictoria%2Fnew-figures-reveal-popular-choices-for-melbournes-metro-tunnel-station-names%2Fnews-story%2F36100e858ce2859708ce4355c13620fd&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=GROUPA-Segment-1-NOSCORE
https://danielbowen.com/2017/09/07/metro-tunnel-stations-names/
I really hope that they see sense re the 58 tram and leave it where it is. Breaking the existing tram-to-tram interchange at Anzac station would be criminal.
I would’ve gone to Anzac if I knew about it and was advertised (either on your blog or Daniel Bowen’s), especially as I am on the Sunbury line (which will be connected to Anzac Station). I did go to Arden a couple of years ago, but no doubt Anzac had more on the weekend than Arden when I went.
It was intended for staff and local community (a friend of mine who lives nearby also visited) but Metro Tunnel social media team DMed a few gunzels with large social media followings offering tickets to it as well.
Duly noted. Hopefully they will do an Open Day for the wider community in the near future, similiar to Arden a few years ago (which I went to).
Hopefully Anzac station will get the same PA system as Southern Cross, so passengers will be greeted by helpful booming announcements that sound like “Humma-munga booma-banga rolla-bolla city loop moomba doomba. Burra burra.”
The problem at southern cross is the ambient noise is so high they destroy the speakers trying to compete. Not sure they can make a worse accoustic environment if they tried.
https://www.sennheiser.com/en-au/stories/success-stories/southern-cross-station They do have a custom designed wireless audio system, as the RF environment is also noisy.
Although the route 58 tram lines at Domain Road have been re-instated, the other end (at Park St/Toorak Road) are still a dead end. No indication of when/if they’ll be relaid and connected.
I also noticed the reinstated tram tracks on Domain Road still lack overhead wires!
That one escalator next to the stairs, surely that’s got to be a bottleneck in the making?
Their thinking was that Domain Road will be the quietest entrance to the station, so only a single up escalator would be adequate.
Nah, it will be fine. There are 3 other entrances, all of which have stairs, lifts and up/down escalators. Plus a lift at that very same entrance. I live in Santiago, Chile, and many metro stations here have multiple entrances, and often they will only have 1 escalator going up, plus stairs and a lift. It works fine, as the vast majority of users are capable of walking down the stairs. The few who cannot, will use the lift or another entrance. The important thing is to provide mechanical assistance for going up, and one escalator will do the trick.
Any more photos of the cycling infrastructure on Domain Rd
It’s just unprotected painted kerbside bike lanes, which pass over kerb side of the platform tram stops.
It’s a little premature but already the future 605 bus stops in Domain Road are on Google Maps and Moovit already shows the altered bus route. PTV does not.
PTV published an article about it a few weeks ago, then yanked it from their website –
https://twitter.com/thatone0022/status/1843462369764356319
Story I heard is that it is still going to happen, but the implementation was delayed.
In recent tram news, transdev are set to take over Yarra Trams from 1st December (Source: PTUA Newsletter). I hope they maintain trams better than they did the buses.
Hopefully. But remember that the last time Transdev was involved in running the trams in Melbourne, they did very well. I think they got fined once for poor service, and that was due to an incident on CityLink and not Transdev. Note that this was post-reunification, and I am not sure of their record when they only operated half of the tram network.
In regards to the Metro Tunnel, there is now a section on it on the Public Transport Victoria website and it will open in 2025. The website for those who are wondering, it is at https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/more/metro-tunnel/. Next, we will find out the opening date of the tunnel (as Yours Truly is on the Sunbury line, I am looking forward to travelling in it sometime next year).
Great photos. Any word on whether the tactile wayfinding for those with a visual impairment is finished? And if they got anyone to check it? From your photos there are a couple of tactile strips that lead people straight into a wall, instead of, y’know, in and out of the station
Reminds me of Southern Cross platform 15/16, where the tactile strips near the southern lift don’t actually get you to the platform…