Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Harris,left,Transport for NSW director of Aboriginal engagement George Shearer,Transport Minister Jo Haylen and MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich try out a wooden bench on one of the platforms.Credit:James Brickwood
About 9000 people are forecast to pass through Gadigal’s gates during the morning peak between 6.30am and 10am on weekdays,while almost 13,500 commuters are projected to enter and exit the new Martin Place station. At Town Hall station,about 38,000 tap-ons and tap-offs are recorded during the morning peak.
“[Gadigal] is going to be one of the target stations in the CBD that a lot of people are ultimately looking to end up at,” Lawson said.
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Geographic Name Board ran a process to name the station and many stakeholders including the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council believed it was the right name for this station.
“I think Sydneysiders will also agree that recognising Indigenous culture and heritage in the middle of our city is the right thing to do,” she said. “Next year Sydneysiders will enjoy what is a transformational public transport service.”
Plans to name the station Gadigal were thrown into doubt early last year when the then-transport and veterans’ affairs minister David Elliott proposed an alternative,suggesting it honour Captain Reginald Saunders,the first Indigenous Australian to be commissioned as an army officer.
The City of Sydney’s first Aboriginal councillor Yvonne Weldon said Gadigal country was ground zero in the devastation wrought by colonial incursion,and the station’s name was a small way to honour Sydney’s first people.
“Recognition and representation in the public domain is an important form of truth-telling,” she said.
The installation of signage,benches,seating,public address systems and passenger screens is nearing completion as part of the final work.
Giant murals calledThe Underneath by Melbourne-based artist Callum Morton adorn walls in the cavernous north and south entrances. “They’re very vibrant,but they’re trying to reflect the railway,the tunnels,and also the Tank Stream that ran across this site,” Lawson said.
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A 39-storey office tower is under construction above the station’s northern entrance on Park Street,while a 39-storey apartment building is being erected above the southern entrance,near the historic Edinburgh Castle Hotel on the corner of Pitt and Bathurst streets.
The Metro City and Southwest rail project has beendogged by cost blowouts and challenges converting the 128-year-old line between Sydenham and Bankstown into one capable of carrying driverless trains. The government estimates the conversion will cost anextra $1 billion,pushing up the bill for the entire project to $21.6 billion – almost double the price tag last decade.
The main section of Metro City and Southwest has to open before a 13-kilometre stretch of the Bankstown line can be closed to commuters from the third quarter of next year to allow workers to complete the conversion of the track to metro train standards.
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