Trains will be arriving at one of Melbourne’s Metro stations early—a whole year early.

The new Town Hall station, one of the five new train stations in Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel project, is so far ahead on schedule it will open in 2025 rather than as planned in 2026.

It also means a section of Flinders Street that has been closed for four years will now be reopened in October this year.

Currently, work is under way on eight soaring columns that will be a signature feature of the concourse level.

▲ A render of the inside of Melbourne's new Town Hall train station, courtesy of Hassell.

The station sits under Federation Square and has its entrance opposite the Flinders Street Station, near SBS’s headquarters.

Hassell, Weston Williamson and Partners, and RSHP are all involved in the project through the CYP Design and Construction Joint Venture.

The station will feature vaulted ceilings in a nod to the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral.

More than half-a-million people are expected to travel on the new line each week.

▲ A render of the entrance to the underground Town Hall train station in Melbourne.

Other projects Hassell has been part of include Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport, Sydney Metro City, South West- Waterloo Station, Sydenham Station and Linewide, Perth’s METRONET Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal Project and several Melbourne-based level crossing removal projects as part of the Western Program Alliance and the South Eastern Program Alliance.

Hassell is an international design studio with offices in Asia, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.