When first trains will stop at Arden station

New images show how a multimillion-dollar Metro station will change Melbourne’s north, with plans revealed for when the first trains will stop there.

Tracks for the new $13.7bn Metro rail tunnel will start to be laid early in the new year, putting the mega project on target for train testing in 2023.

And new images of the multimillion-dollar Arden station obtained by the Herald Sunrevealed details of the internal and external fit-out of the tunnel and how passengers would exit platforms.

Premier Daniel Andrews toured Arden on Tuesday to see the progress, with the station set to be a centrepiece of a new 15,000-person mini suburb.

Construction has now moved to concrete pours for the station’s platform surfaces, with mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems set to be installed.

Rail Projects Victoria chief executive Evan Tattersall, during a tour of the site, revealed that tracks for the 9km tunnels — which run from South Yarra to Kensington — were close to being laid.

“We will start to install tracks next year, from earlier next year onwards,” he said.

“All of our stations should be at the point where we can start train testings in 2023, but that train testing process will commence in parallel with still finishing the stations.

“There’s a lot of work to go once we start testing trains.”

Premier Daniel Andrews and Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan (left) tour the new Arden Street train station construction site. Picture: David Crosling

Once trains are brought into the tunnel for trial runs, there will be thousands of empty services to ensure safety before passengers are introduced by 2025.

However, it is possible the new line, which would ease congestion across Melbourne and particularly in the City Loop, could open in 2024.

Mr Tattersall said a computer model was being established to begin testing systems in the tunnel before trains hit the tracks.

“It’s like a theoretical test of all the software that it makes sense and we can iron out bugs … ahead of doing it in the field,” he said.

Arden will be the first station for Metro Tunnel passengers coming from the west on the Sunbury line, and is within walking distance of the North Melbourne Recreation Centre, Arden Street Oval and the route 57 tram.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the tunnel was already a year ahead of an initial opening date of 2026, and that the brick arches of Arden would be “a landmark for Melbourne’s north”.

When asked why the project seemed to run more smoothly than the crisis-plagued West Gate Tunnel, the premier said “every project presents its own challenges”.

He said the Metro team had been “working around the clock in 2021 despite the challenges of the pandemic, keeping thousands of Victorians in jobs”.