Melbourne has welcomed the completion of Town Hall Station, the first new underground train station in the city’s CBD in more than four decades. Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Transport Infrastructure Gabrielle Williams toured the finished site today, marking another milestone in the Metro Tunnel project, which is set to open a year ahead of schedule.
Built beneath Swanston Street between Collins and Flinders streets, Town Hall Station will provide direct access to Federation Square, Birrarung Marr, Southbank, the Arts Centre and St Paul’s Cathedral. Its main entrance opens into a rebuilt City Square, expected to become the new civic heart of the city.
Commuters will be able to transfer seamlessly between the Metro Tunnel and City Loop via a pedestrian underpass connecting to the heritage-listed Campbell Arcade and Degraves Street subway at Flinders Street Station—without needing to tap off.
The new station features some of the world’s widest underground metro platforms at 18 metres across and 220 metres long. Its “trinocular” structure—three overlapping tunnels with arched ceilings—creates a striking, cathedral-like effect. The engineering scale of the project is immense: 260 metres of excavation, reaching depths of up to 33 metres, and supported by eight concrete columns, each with three steel branches extending 6.5 metres to the roof.
Construction required more than 7,000 cubic metres of concrete and 2,200 tonnes of steel. Workers moved more than half a million tonnes of rock and soil while keeping Swanston Street open to trams, cyclists and pedestrians. The effort has delivered 44 escalators, 12 lifts, and Victoria’s first platform screen doors.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the new station reflects the government’s long-term commitment to public transport investment. “This is the first new station in Melbourne’s CBD in 40 years,” she said. “We invested in public transport—and just look at the results. The Metro Tunnel will cut congestion and get you to work, uni and home sooner—and it opens this year.”
Minister Gabrielle Williams said the completion marks a crucial step in transforming how Melburnians move through the city. “With Town Hall Station now complete, we’re another step closer to opening the Metro Tunnel later this year—completely transforming the way Melbourne moves,” she said.
The Metro Tunnel is the biggest overhaul of the city’s rail network in generations, creating capacity for more frequent trains across multiple lines by easing pressure on the existing City Loop. With testing already well underway, trains have clocked more than 265,000 kilometres through the new tunnels—roughly six laps of the globe.
As Premier Allan pointed out, the project faced scepticism in its early stages. “Never forget, the Liberals called the Metro Tunnel a ‘hoax’, said it was going to be an ‘absolute disaster’ and refused to fund it while in office. Labor funded it, Labor built it, Labor is finishing it, Labor will open it.”
When the Metro Tunnel opens later this year, Town Hall Station will join State Library, Parkville, Arden and Anzac as part of the five-stop network reshaping how Melbourne connects its inner city.
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