Five photos from the new Melbourne Metro
State Library, by 1 min this exit is closer to my house than Parkville or Arden
And ten facts about it I asked Preplexity to give me
But first some background - the new metro line is two twin 9 km rail tunnels that connect the Sunbury line in the west to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines in the south‑east. This takes pressure off the existing City Loop and creates 5 new stations Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac.
Arden is the coolest of the above ground buildings
Sunday was opening day - we had no real intention on visiting them but we were having coffee at a cafe near Arden and we figured we would jump the train to Parkville (as our house in half way between the two) and walk home from there. But Arden was interesting, so then we decided to go to State Library and then we thought we can complete the set so we walked down to Town Hall, caught the train out to Anzac and then back to Parkville, so we saw all five stations. All in all they are really impressive on the platforms it looks like Singapore, the entrances feel more European as they are embedded into the city quite well (except Arden which is a empty field waiting for the buildings to surround it.
The arch of Arden
Oh and the ten AI generated Facts, I'm not that convinced that AI has performed that well here, or that it understands the concept of Quirky. Oh Well
The tunnel is about 9 km long in each direction, effectively adding two new underground railways under the CBD.
It links Sunbury to Cranbourne and Pakenham, creating one continuous cross‑city line instead of separate stub lines into the city.
There are 5 brand‑new underground stations, each with modern platforms and concourses.
Anzac Station on St Kilda Road is Melbourne’s first proper tram–train interchange built into the same precinct.
High‑capacity signalling in the tunnel allows more trains per hour than the older parts of the network.
The arches in State Library, Town hall is similar
New high‑capacity trains running through the corridor have walk‑through carriages, better info screens and more space for bikes and prams.
line is designed to ease crowding at big CBD stations by giving people extra entrances and underground links to Flinders Street and Melbourne Central.
Quirky: Parkville Station basically becomes an underground shortcut between major hospitals and university buildings, so staff and students can “commute” between them by train instead of walking in the rain.
Quirky: Anzac Station lets you hop off an underground train and jump almost straight onto a St Kilda Road tram, so you can go from deep under the city to cruising past The Tan and the Shrine in minutes.
Full integration of the Sunbury line into the tunnel is planned so that, once complete, those services no longer run through the City Loop at all
The surprisingly Light Parkville concourse, this is trying out from some black and white photography