Metro Tunnel puts safety for all on the agenda

Metro Tunnel puts safety for all on the agenda

If you’ve travelled along St Kilda Rd recently you’ll have noticed major progress at the new Anzac Station, which is taking shape with the final wall and roof structures now in place.

Complex underground work has been achieved, all while trams, traffic, cyclists and pedestrians continued to use St Kilda Rd.

The new station will create a smooth connection between tram and train for passengers, but Rail Projects Victoria CEO Evan Tattersall said there was also a focus on pedestrians and cyclists. About a kilometre of kerbside cycling lanes are being delivered between Dorcas St and Toorak Rd, with cyclists able to ride two abreast, protected from the risk of “car dooring” by a metre-wide concrete separator. 

Pedestrians and cyclists will also find a new, safer way to cross St Kilda Rd.

“The work on the station and the precinct is being done in a way that enables good traffic flow along St Kilda Road for cars, bikes and pedestrians,” Mr Tattersall said.

“A key feature for pedestrians is that there will be an underpass from one side of St Kilda Rd to the other, in the form of a through passage as well as a connection to the station itself. Lifts and escalators will take people up and down from the tram tracks to the train tracks.”

“There will be free passage into the underpass and as you get more into the centre, then you go through the Myki gates to get into the station proper.”

A large architecturally-designed canopy will protect commuters and pedestrians from the weather.

“It will also create the vista that you’d expect with such a prominent location,” Mr Tattersall said.

“It’ll be done in a way that maintains sight lines between one side of St Kilda Rd and the other, to the Shrine of Remembrance.”

Part of the creative vista of the completed station will be precinct-specific art.

“We have a number of initiatives for all of the stations,” Evan said. “There’s a line-wide artist’s approach that creates a connection between all the stations, but then there’s also local artwork for each of the stations and those details will be revealed as we get closer to completion.”

Almost 40,000 people a day are expected to use Anzac Station to get to business precincts and growing residential areas on St Kilda Rd, Kings Way and in South Melbourne •

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