Victoria hopes to open its multi-billion-dollar tunnel project ahead of schedule

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The state government says it's one step closer to opening its multi-billion-dollar Metro tunnel project, now that construction has finished at the new Town Hall Station. Built five stories under the city's CBD the government hopes to open the new train line in the next few months nearly a year ahead of schedule.

Transcript

00:00Once inside, you go down, down and down.

00:07At its deepest point, 33 metres.

00:09A grand design in the heart of Melbourne.

00:1244 escalators, 12 lifts and two platforms at Town Hall Station,

00:17the centrepiece of the new Metro Tunnel.

00:19These twin 9-kilometre tunnels that are going to transform the way

00:24people move around this great and growing city and state.

00:28An end-of-year opening is still on track,

00:30but the government still hasn't locked in a date,

00:33and part of the system is still under construction.

00:36But once online, the new Metro Tunnel will service five new stations

00:40and connect the Sunbury Line to the Cranbourne-Pakenham Line,

00:43taking these services out of the City Loop.

00:46That delivers and enables a turn-up-and-go service down that corridor,

00:50but what does it also do?

00:51It frees up capacity in the City Loop

00:53so that we can continue to add more services

00:55across the rest of our rail network.

00:57This $13.5 billion project is being delivered ahead of schedule,

01:02but it's blown its original budget by more than $2 billion.

01:05Now, the government says it's doing extensive tests

01:08to make sure there are no further surprises.

01:11The new trains rely on advanced signalling technology

01:14that automatically adjusts their speed and distance from other services.

01:18We've run about 265,000 kilometres in the tunnel to date,

01:22and that's all about ironing out the bugs in the system,

01:26making sure the trains stop at the doors.

01:28To help passengers move between existing lines and the new services,

01:32an underground tunnel will connect the new platforms to Flinders Street Station.

01:36And we wanted to make sure that in the design of these new stations,

01:40they looked to the future of how these stations would be used by our city and state.

01:45It's one stop the Premier hopes will keep the city moving.

01:49in the website to the Sentonist Street Station.

01:53And we wanted to make sure that their stations are met in the way

01:56and they did not even make sure to make changes are needed.

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