The much-hyped opening of a $21.6 billion metro rail line which promises to reshape Sydney has been shelved, meaning the stunning John McAslan + Partners (JMP)-designed Waterloo station will not be unveiled to the public just yet.

There is currently no new opening date set, but a series of bus route changes intended to coordinate with the new metro line will proceed as scheduled starting Sunday, August 4.

It may take several weeks for Sydney Metro, the government agency responsible for the line, to gain approval from the National Rail Safety Regulator for the project's launch. Additionally, the rail body needs to address safety concerns raised by members of the Fire Brigade Employees Union regarding the new trains and the 15.5 kilometers of tunnels.

In a hastily-arranged interview, NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen told the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, “I’m putting safety ahead of popping champagne corks,” she said. Asked when commuters would be able to use the line, the minister replied: “I’ll be back here with more information for the travelling public so that you can plan your journeys. It’s not going to be long.”

More than a decade in the making and designed by John McAslan + Partners (JMP), the station will connect Waterloo to the city and beyond on high-frequency driverless trains every four minutes during peak times. The station signals the beginning of a new era for inner-city Waterloo whilst celebrating the suburb's ancient and living history.

JMP’s design is informed by Waterloo's rich Indigenous, social and industrial history, and establishes a strong connection to place through the use of materials, colours and artworks. The 9.7m image of Roscoe, the young Indigenous dancer, is one of three embedded artworks by Monks that create a strong identity for Waterloo, and is the station's defining feature.

Roscoe

Roscoe - Artwork by Nicole Monks. Image: Peter Bennetts

"Through consultation with Indigenous advisors, Yerrabingin, we learnt the phrase ‘the past is in the earth and the future is in the sky’. That became the conceptual framework for our design, which takes passengers on a journey shaped by Waterloo's layered heritage," JMP director Troy Uleman, who leads the firm's Sydney studio, elaborates.

Waterloo Station's distinctive southern station box, the first new landmark structure in the station precinct, features a striking aluminium facade perforated with an image derived from early maps of Waterloo’s historic marshlands, connecting directly with Waterloo's tens of thousands of years of continuous human habitation.

Spread across three levels, Waterloo Station’s design nods to the ancient on platform level and rises to the present at street level, unified by a consistent palette of locally informed colours, textures and materials, and Monks’ commissioned artworks.

Passengers arriving on the platform 25 metres below ground are greeted by rust-coloured wall linings perforated with abstracted imagery of a stone blade fragment found on the site during archaeological excavation.

The perforated panelling is repeated on concourse level, with an imprint of the once-endemic banksia scrub. The soaring 73m by 21m concourse has glass-reinforced concrete wall panels that echo the stratified Sydney sandstone that the station sits deep within. A skylight set within a row of light panels delivers natural light deep into the concourse, reaching as far as the platform.

Skylight

Image: Peter Bennetts

"Natural light makes stations nicer places to be and is a trademark of our transport work around the globe," notes Uleman.

Dramatic escalators carry passengers up from one of the deepest concourses on the Sydney public transport network, past walls embedded with another of Monks' artworks, 'Footprints on Gadigal Nura'. The artwork, which represents a map of the local area created from sparkling gold and silver cast aluminium footprints, shows walking tracks and place of significance to the Indigenous community.

Artwork

'Footprints on Gadigal Nura' – Artwork by Nicole Monks. Image: Peter Bennetts

Image credit: Peter Bennetts

Branko Miletic

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