It was fantastic to see so many people out and about at yesterday’s opening of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel. Many of you came to say hello and we had some interesting conversations!

I will make a video about the opening day and Metro Tunnel in general in the near future. To be honest I’m not in any rush because I know there will be hundreds of other videos from others covering the day.

For now, this post is to give my initial top of mind thoughts and observations in a post format.

Main thoughts

I was very impressed. Although I have been to most stations on previous tours and visits at various points, it’s not the same as seeing the completed product with people and trains using them.

There was a terrific atmosphere. Despite the weather, tens of thousands of people came out to ride the trains and see the stations, including families and young children.

Obviously there were a lot of gunzels around too. My main observation about this is that the Metro Tunnel is the first large transport project in Victoria that has opened during the ‘social media age’. The last project that we’ve had of this scale – the City Loop – opened many decades earlier in 1981 when the gunzel scene was much smaller, low-key and not popularly recognised. Even the Regional Rail Link opened ten years ago in 2015.

I saw one Twitter user who had also been at the opening of the City Loop comment that he felt the atmosphere was completely different. There was certainly no chanting and far fewer gunzels openly celebrating or even identifying as such.

As for the infrastructure itself, the stations look better than ever. This project has set a new, high standard for Melbourne and Victoria. They are spacious, intuitive and pleasant to use. For many it would have been jarring travelling from these well-designed and shiny new buildings back to a windswept suburban station with no seats, PIDs or even shelter. Hopefully this contrast sparks interest and action to upgrades across the rest of the network.

I was especially impressed with Town Hall. I made a point to test the interchanges into existing stations here and at State Library. These were both excellent. The transition is seamless and intuitive and easily the best interchange experience anywhere on our network.

The stations coped very well with the large number of people on the day. The wide corridors, plentiful escalators and lifts, and (mostly) intuitive wayfinding made them handle the crowds with no problem.

It was also great to see that some of the feedback from the earlier station tours and events had resulted in changes. For example, many of the wayfinding signs were made much larger and easier to read – a big improvement from the tiny ones we saw earlier.

Of course a post like this wouldn’t be complete without some complaints. One of the first things I noticed when I went to Arden was that all of the advertising screens were turned on. At the very least they could have been left off for the opening day, ideally for the first couple of weeks. I understand that they are apparently a necessary evil nowadays but it did seem a bit tacky – particularly the space left for a future massive right inside the beautifully-designed Collins Street entrance.

I am also not a fan of the new City Square. It’s been closed for years for construction and I was very much looking forward to seeing how it looked. Unfortunately I was pretty underwhelmed. While I appreciate the need for a large, open space in the CBD, this feels too open. There is little to no shade and not much seating in an area where finding somewhere to eat lunch or just people watch is in very high demand. The design with garden beds and steps along Swanston Street visually and physically disconnects the Square from the rest of the street – something that the old City Square’s design did not do. I may do a separate post on this in the future.

Overall the day seemed like a big success. It’s a fantastic project and the organisers did an excellent job at making the day feel like a special event. We don’t get many opportunities like this to celebrate civic pride in this day and age. So when it does happen it feels extra special.

Finally, while this is all well and good, the real test of this project will be how many of the potential benefits are actually realised across the transport network. MelbourneOnTransit did a great video on this topic that you can see here. Nearly everyone I spoke to yesterday spoke about how much they were looking forward to the increased train frequencies – not just on the Cranbourne / Pakenham / Sunbury Lines but elsewhere too. Hopefully they are not disappointed!

As I said I will be making a full video on the day and possibly the Metro Tunnel in general. Just maybe in a little while once the hype dies down a bit and I have the time to properly dedicate to making it.