Big day out for Parkville locals exploring the new Parkville Station

A group of Parkville’s workers and residents have been treated to a tour of the recently completed Parkville Station by the Metro Tunnel Project.

Over a single day in June, more than 1000 hospital workers, university staff and the Parkville Association members passed under the station’s 54m-long skylight on Grattan St to its platforms more than 30 metres below ground.

Visitors were able to get up close and personal with the new station’s modern features, as well as the artwork Vernal Glade, by renowned Melbourne artist Patricia Piccini.

They also toured the 44m-long Royal Parade underpass, which will connect the station, hospitals, and University of Melbourne. The underpass will allow pedestrians to cross Royal Parade safely without waiting for traffic.

Peter Mac’s Rose Kinsella said the station would make getting to the hospital easier for staff and patients.

“The last thing you want someone to be doing when they’re going through chemotherapy or radiation is having them struggle getting on and off trams, which is what we have to do at the moment,” Ms Kinsella said.

“That easy lift straight from Parkville Station, straight into the front door of Peter Mac, will be really, really helpful.”

Professor Justin Denholm of The Royal Melbourne Hospital said, “As someone who has been up in these buildings, watching the whole thing go up from the beginning, it’s been wonderful to see it all come full circle.”

The tour came just weeks after major construction was finished on Parkville Station and just days before Grattan St reopened to motorists and cyclists for the first time in six years.

Meanwhile work continues on the Metro Tunnel’s other stations – Anzac, State Library and Town Hall – and train testing is progressing deep beneath the CBD.

The Metro Tunnel is the biggest upgrade to Victoria’s rail network since the City Loop opened in 1981.

It will free up space in the City Loop, creating a new end-to-end rail line from Sunbury in the north-west to Cranbourne and Pakenham in the south-east – via a new tunnel under the city. •