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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Station to station: first look at the Metro Tunnel set to revolutionise Melbourne travel
For nearly a decade, deep beneath Melbourne, tunnel boring machines and construction crews have been quietly reshaping the city, through the creation of the Metro Tunnel. Three new underground stations have already been handed over to Metro Trains, with two more to follow within months. By year's end, a new 9km twin rail tunnel – billed as the biggest overhaul of Melbourne's transport network since the City Loop opened in the 1980s – will open to the public. The scale of its impact is clear: the entire city's transport timetable – trains, trams, buses – is currently being rewritten to make way. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Ben Ryan, the Metro Tunnel's executive project director. 'When you look at these sorts of projects, not only within Australia but globally, they really do make a big difference to how people get around the city,' says Ben Ryan, the Metro Tunnel's executive project director. 'Sydney Metro … has been a real gamechanger for Sydney and this will be the same. 'When you see the spaces here, the difference that will make to people's commutes and how it modernises our rail network, it will make a really big difference to Melbourne and Victoria.' The Melbourne-made light fittings at Arden station Above ground, the Victorian government is desperate for its debut. The project may be a year ahead of schedule but it has had no shortage of controversies, including its cost ballooning to nearly $14bn – a heavy burden on a budget facing almost $200bn in forecast debt by mid-2028. Now in its third term and sliding in the polls, Labor's pinning its hopes on the tunnel delivering political capital before the November 2026 state election. So what exactly is the Metro Tunnel? And how will it change your commute? The Metro Tunnel will connect the Sunbury line in the west to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines in the south-east via five new underground city stations, forming a single 97km train line. It will deliver more frequent services from Sunbury to Cranbourne and Pakenham and free up City Loop capacity, returning Frankston trains to the loop. First proposed in 2008 as a 17km rail link from Footscray to Caulfield, the project was repeatedly shelved, revived and redesigned in the years since, amid political and funding fights. The acting transport infrastructure minister, Sonya Kilkenny, said: 'The Liberals called the Metro Tunnel a 'hoax' and the Liberals in Canberra ripped billions out of this city shaping project – but we are getting on delivering it and it will open this year, one year ahead of schedule.' The vertical ceiling baffles that mark stations exits and entries Originally budgeted at $11bn and due in 2024, early works began in 2015, with tunnelling starting in 2019. Construction was then halted when contractors sought an extra $3bn for cost overruns. The finish date was pushed to 2026, then brought forward to 2025. Above ground, preparations have long been under way – dozens of level crossings were removed along the two lines to allow faster trains into the tunnel and High Capacity Metro Trains, with end-to-end walkways, began rolling out in 2021. The trains can carry about 1,400 passengers across seven carriages but the Metro Tunnel platforms have been built to accommodate 10 in the future. Like Sydney's Metro, the tunnel will use screen doors for faster, safer boarding The tunnel also features high-capacity signalling, which Ryan describes as a 'adaptive cruise control', letting trains automatically keep pace and safely run closer together at speeds up to 80km/h. This will support a 'turn-up-and-go' service, with passengers able to board a train without checking a timetable – though the government has not detailed what that will actually look like yet. (In Sydney's Metro, trains run every four minutes during peaks). Test trains have already clocked more than 165,000km. Doors have opened and closed thousands of times. Emergency drills – from fire evacuations to total shutdowns – have been under way in preparation for the tunnel's opening. The stations and their surrounds are the work of Australian architects Hassell, alongside London-based firms Weston Williamson + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. Each is designed to maximise natural light, with Melbourne-made light fittings that nod to the city's past, Melbourne Metro logos scattered throughout and exposed concrete and engineering. The stations also include design cues to help passengers navigate. Vertical ceiling baffles are pink on one side, white on the other, to mark exits and entries. Bright yellow drum lights draw the eye toward platforms. Embedded into the platforms is Tracks, by artist Maree Clarke: 30 oversized animal footprints – including the koala, sugar glider, emu and wombat – laser-cut in coloured granite, in a nod to the five Kulin nation clans of central Victoria. While the five stations share a visual language, each reflects the character of its local area. On St Kilda Road – the world's busiest tram corridor – Anzac station is opposite the Shrine of Remembrance. Its green columns and timber canopies reflect the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens. According to Ryan, it's the only station in the world that has been built with a direct train to tram connection, which will relieve pressure on the tram network and cut trips to the city from about 15–20 minutes to three. He says the construction was 'pretty challenging logistically', with major road closures and heritage work, including dismantling and rebuilding the South African Soldiers War Memorial and preserving the Windsor Oak planted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Inside, bright artworks by Raafat Ishak reflect surrounding landmarks. Toward the Shrine exit, the colours become more subdued, with artist Fiona Hall's work immortalising two second world war carrier pigeons – known by their signs DD.43.T.139 and DD.43.Q.879 – in bronze. Both were awarded the Dickin medal for bravery – the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross – for delivering life-saving messages under fire. They are flanked by panels depicting native plant species linked to military service. Parkville sits 25 metres below the city's medical and research precinct, connecting 73,000 workers and 55,000 students to heavy rail for the first time. Its blue design nods to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne. It has four entrances: the Grattan Street main entrance with its 55-metre-long canopy; another near the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; one at Royal Melbourne Hospital; and one on Royal Parade. Beneath Grattan Street is a 'street beneath the street' – a retail-lined, traffic-free walkway open to all, featuring a ceramic collage titled Vernal Glade by Patricia Piccinini. Arden's brick arches reference North Melbourne's industrial heritage. Artist Abdul Abdullah's Come Together – two aluminium hands reaching for each other – stretches across the facade, set against mosaic tiles showing local history. The surrounding area was initially meant to become a brand new medical precinct but the plan was scrapped after it was discovered electromagnetic interference from the tunnel was affecting existing hospitals in Parkville. Instead, the government plans to use to land to create 20,000 new homes, including 10% 'affordable housing'. These two stations are yet to be handed over to Metro Trains and are by far the most complex. State Library sits 36 metres below ground, Town Hall 27 metres – twice the depth of Anzac or Arden. 'The reason for that is the Metro Tunnel goes underneath the City Loop tunnels for the train that's already running around the city,' Ryan says. 'Imagine an eight-storey building – we've built that underground and we've done that largely while the city's continued operating above.' The stations are huge – spanning city blocks – and will allow underground transfers between Town Hall and Flinders Street, and State Library and Melbourne Central, without tapping on or off. Arden station, Anzac station and Parkville station Due to their locations, archaeological digs during construction uncovered thousands of artefacts, including 1,000 human teeth from an 1898 dental surgery at 11 Swanston Street and cattle bone dice and jet earrings dropped through floorboards at 13 Swanston Street, once home to hotels from the 1850s to 1920s. Guardian Australia understands the stations are expected to be handed over to Metro Trains within three months, though neither Ryan nor the government would confirm this. 'They're in good shape. We're nearly finished and once they're finished we'll test and get ready to open the entire Metro Tunnel,' Ryan says. The $13.48bn question is: when? The Age recently reported a 'soft opening' was planned for November with limited off-peak services – a claim the government has disputed. 'Everyone's very interested in when it's going to open,' Ryan says. 'We're going to open this year, in 2025. We can't say exactly when yet, but we're on track to open and everyone's working really hard.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
As the world grows more unpredictable, Australia's defence should be focused on people, not purchases
Australians have long taken some comfort in the protection afforded by geography and the tyranny of distance. It was an article of faith that Australia would have 10 years warning to prepare for any conflict, and that the nation the defence minister calls our capital-A ally would spring to our defence. The 10-year buffer was debunked in the 2020 defence review, and the update two years later concluded that the Australian Defence Force 'as currently constituted and equipped is not fully fit for purpose'. As the US administration scrambles many of the accepted norms of the past 80 years and urges all its allies to spend more money to militarise, the reliability of our Ally is now a matter of intense public debate. But this is not just a geopolitical dilemma, or an abstract discussion about scenarios. A recent report by the Australian National Audit Office highlights shortcomings in the defence department in managing contracts and even investigating bribery claims. It also found it failed to provide regular formal and detailed ministerial briefings about the scale of imminent threats. This suggests that greater security would not necessarily be assured by spending billions more on big, shiny machines and weapons that inevitably cost more than predicted and, almost as inevitably, fail to live up to the sales spiel embodied in the tender document. The shortcomings that cause concern about security lie even closer to home. The number of people employed in the ADF has been falling for decades. At last count there were only 57,226 permanent staff in the army, navy and air force, another 32,560 in the reserves and a similar number of civilians in the department. By comparison, Woolworths employs 210,000 people. If the pandemic taught us nothing else, it is that food security is important. But so is national security. That takes on many new dimensions these days on land, sea, air, space and in cyberspace, and most importantly security in our homes, cities and communities. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Australia is still low on the list of countries facing imminent invasion or attack but attempts to neutralise the continent could arrive with devastating stealth. The rumble of natural disaster and war is such a constant these days that it is easy to forget that when they land, they erupt in a flash. One day you are going about your normal life and then suddenly it changes, everything you took for granted gone. For years the consequences of these catastrophes have provided an unwelcome backdrop to daily life. Images of death and devastation delivered by terrifying military machines in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and Iran flicker across our screens, competing with images of lives and communities devastated by floods, fires, droughts and cyclones. It is striking that even in the publicly available documents about defence preparedness, climate change is a major talking point. Reading between the lines, it's not hard to see that the destructive regional impact of climate change – inundated islands, devastated economies, shattered lives – keeps defence strategists up at night. Experience has shown that when natural disasters strike, resilience is tested to breaking point. We have become accustomed to hearing that the ADF is being deployed to assist during climate-triggered disasters, sometimes with tragic unintended consequences, as the 2020 Canberra fires and the tragic accident near Lismore during the recent Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The review of defence capacity has made it clear that the ADF should only be used as a 'last resort' during disasters, a recommendation that the government agreed to 'in principle'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion In the last three years one disaster has piled on another and the troops have been rolled out to support the largely volunteer emergency services workers. But there is no public sign of discussion about an alternative civilian defence force being actively developed – people with the skills to know what to do when disaster happens. One of the more important observations in the review that didn't make it into the recommendations was about social resilience. Resilience is an overused weasel word, but making it real means 'equipping communities to absorb shocks, adapt to new conditions, and (potentially) transform itself as a result of particular shocks'. Looking around the world, there are lessons about how this might be done, and ANU's National Security College has begun a national consultation about what Australians think security might look like, beyond the missiles, drones, frigates, fighter planes and submarines. Nations that share borders with potential aggressors, like Finland and Poland, have maintained active civil defence operations, or those living with threat, like Taiwan and Israel, have built bunkers, car parks that transform into hospitals to protect citizens. Nearly a third of the funds that the Nato countries agreed to commit to increased defence spending demanded by the US is going to this civilian security, protecting the infrastructure that makes life possible. In Australia we have barely begun to have this conversation, though we are told almost daily that the threat is growing. The pandemic and natural disasters highlighted the gaps, but typically we stalled on the next steps. Activating real civic resilience could be a KPI for the prime minister's progressive patriotism, much as his predecessor John Curtin once did. This might be more effective than shipping more dollars overseas to buy ever more complex machines that can, as we see nightly on the news, be destroyed by another even bigger machine. Julianne Schultz an emeritus professor at Griffith University and the author of The Idea of Australia
Auto Blog
6 hours ago
- Auto Blog
A Bentley Pick-Up Truck Is More Likely That You'd Imagine
By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. A few years ago, if you wanted a comfortable and quick daily-driver truck, your choices were pretty limited. Maybe a Ram TRX or a Ford F-150 Raptor if you wanted power with some plushness. But what if you had a nearly unlimited budget, wanted uncompromising luxury, and still needed a bed big enough to haul more than golf bags? Believe it or not, Bentley's in-house coachbuilder, Mulliner, could be your answer. 0:09 / 0:09 2025 Ford Explorer vs 2025 Chevrolet Traverse: Which is America's best family hauler? Watch More Mulliner Does More Than Just Fancy Trim Levels Source: Bentley On its website, Bentley says, 'With Mulliner, the possibilities are endless.' Mulliner was the very first coachbuilder and has been reimagining Bentleys since 1923. Most of the time, Mulliner builds involve custom paint colors, personalized interiors, and bespoke details. One of their most recent projects, the Bentley Mulliner Batur, shares the majority of its mechanical parts with the Continental GT Speed, but is built from the ground up to meet its client's request. Only 18 examples will be built, and cost $1.2 million a pop. Not Just A Pipe Dream Source: Bentley In a recent interview with Australia's CarSales, Bentley sales and marketing executive, Christophe Georges, confirmed that a Bentley pickup isn't beyond the realm of possibility. When asked if Mulliner could build such a vehicle, Georges responded, 'Fundamentally, there is no real limitation.' That might sound like PR fluff, but we think it holds some real weight. All that's needed is enough customers willing to bankroll the build. Why A Bentley Pickup Might Make Sense Source: Bentley At first, the idea of a Bentley pickup sounds far-fetched. But think about how much the auto industry has changed in just a decade. Lamborghini makes an SUV. Rolls-Royce does too. Ferrari sells a V12-powered family car. Minis have grown larger than some crossovers, and Dodge makes the Charger muscle car without an engine. Bentley's current lineup includes a grand touring coupe, a convertible, a luxury sedan, and an SUV, with an electric version on the way. The next logical step would be to reinvent the pick-up truck. The name and price remain a mystery, but if history has taught us anything, it'll probably be something overly pretencious like 'Ascendant' and cost ast least $500,000. About the Author Marnus Moolman View Profile
