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The super train hub emerging deep under the heart of central Sydney
More than 100 passenger trains an hour will pass through sprawling underground stations beneath Martin Place within the next six years.
Work underway on the new metro station beneath Martin Place.Credit: Brook Mitchell
A super rail hub will be created under the heart of Sydney’s CBD by the end of the decade when more than 100 passenger trains an hour will pass through sprawling underground stations beneath Martin Place.
The sheer number of trains underscores the scale of an underground station at Martin Place, which will be opened next year as part of the $18.5 billion Metro City and Southwest line, followed six years later by a giant station under nearby Hunter Street for the $27 billion Metro West line from the CBD to Parramatta. The two will be connected by pedestrian tunnels.
Commuters will be able to walk entirely underground from the existing Sydney Trains station at Martin Place station, through pedestrian tunnels connecting the two new metro stations to Wynyard station and a link to Barangaroo on the CBD’s western edge by 2030.
Sydney Metro’s delivery director for Martin Place, Luke Garden, said the scheduled opening of the new underground station next year for the City and Southwest line would result in more than 75 trains an hour passing under Martin Place, including about 30 on the existing Eastern Suburbs line.
Once Metro West opens in 2030, the number of trains – each capable of carrying more than 1000 passengers – will soar to more than 100 an hour.
“It’s the heart of the interchange for the city. This will be very busy, but obviously the space fits it,” Garden said. “If you’re coming from Metro West and you want to go to Central Station, for example, you’ll go and interchange here.”
Wrapped around the Eastern Suburbs Line, the City and Southwest station’s tentacles stretch between the two existing rail lines at Martin Place. The existing railway tunnels curve through the southern part of the site.
In a sign of how close construction is to where commuters catch trains, public announcements can be heard from the Eastern Suburbs platforms at Martin Place from a pedestrian tunnel being built for the new metro station. Temporary wooden hoardings separate the old from the new.
Almost half a century after the last rail line under Sydney’s CBD opened, a massive atrium at the northern end of the new station will form its core. When opened next year, natural light will flood in from streets to the concourse 35 metres below. Escalators will transfer commuters underground.
Sydney Metro City and Southwest project director Hugh Lawson said the two new underground stations would make Martin Place a super transport hub.
“This is just a completely different world. To the public, they will just see this open space with light. That connection to the street is again really very different to anything people have experienced in Sydney in terms of a deep underground station,” Garden said. “Although we’re very deep down, it’s actually going to be easy and intuitive to find your way around.”
Commuters will use escalators to descend a giant atrium in the Martin Place metro station when it opens next year.Credit: Brook Mitchell
A separate pedestrian tunnel under the heritage-listed state savings bank building at 50 Martin Place, connecting the north and south ends of the new Metro City and Southwest station, means people will be able to walk through without passing ticket gates.
One of the biggest challenges during construction has been excavating within half a metre of the bank’s foundations, as well as above, around and under the Eastern Suburbs rail tunnels.
Old plans and drawings did not entirely match what contractors found as the bank’s foundations ran deeper than the records showed. “That meant we had to change the design and manage that from an engineering perspective,” Lawson said. “We had to make sure that we could do that whole excavation without having to close the Eastern Suburbs railway line.”
Platforms and connecting tunnels are more than 30 metres beneath the surface at the new Martin Place station.Credit: Brook Mitchell
However, Lawson said the fact that the existing structures did not match the old plans was not unexpected. “We did a lot of investigation to find that out in advance and make sure we knew exactly what we were facing. We took a very prudent and cautious approach to progressing the work – checking for movement in buildings [and] tunnels,” he said.
Macquarie Group is erecting a 39-storey office tower above the northern entrance of the new Martin Place station and a 29-storey building at the southern end under plans approved by the government in 2019. Under the deal, the investment bank has contracted Lendlease to build the towers, as well as the station below and pedestrian connections.
A cutaway illustration of the Macquarie Group development at Martin Place with the towers above and the station below. Credit: Sharp Brothers
Transport Minister David Elliott said the new City and Southwest line would take pressure off the existing Sydney Trains rail network, while the metro stations would become “destinations in their own right” given the shops, bars, restaurants and offices to be built above. “People will get on the metro to go to Martin Place just to have lunch or shop at the metro station,” he said.
Sydney transport expert Mathew Hounsell said the new Martin Place station was likely to be a “game changer” for public transport in the central city, encouraging more people to interchange between the existing Eastern Suburbs rail line and the new metro rail network.
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