In a recent PESO shot, I showed the Grand Concourse of Sydney Central Station which is from circa 1906. In this one, we jump forward 118 years.

Sydney has had underground stations since the 1920s. Two of them, anyway. Two more were built in the 1930s to link with the Harbour Bridge. Another one (which is actually above ground) linked those two branches to form the City Circle in 1956. Then nothing else happened until the building of the Eastern Suburbs rail line in 1970s, which added the Martin Place underground station in the middle of the City Circle.

What Sydney has NOT had, until relatively recently, is a proper Metro system with smaller, lighter, single deck trains of the type that you'll find in many European cities. More specifically, the newer type like the one found in (for example) Torino Italia where the carriage doors align with doors on the platforms for enhanced speed and safety.

Proposals to create a true metro date back to the early years of this century. Various state governments hemmed and hawed about the options. In mid-2012 a fresh Liberal government was elected with a dominant majority. That gave them a free hand, with little opposition. They decided to bite the bullet and build a metro link out to the north western suburbs. That one would eventually connect to a new tunnel under Sydney Harbour, then run through the city and out to the south west. The south west leg would replace the Bankstown heavy rail line.

The last stage out to Bankstown is now under construction. However last August the north west Metro connected to the North Sydney station named Victoria Cross. From there it runs under Sydney Harbour to the city, and two completely new stations. There is a third interchange station which connects with the aforementioned Martin Place heavy rail underground station. The Metro's last city stop is at Central Railway Station, which again connects with heavy rail services as well as buses and trams (light rail).

When I go into the office, I must head back to Central when I go home. (My train departs from the intrastate terminal there.) Previously I did that by walking back to the North Sydney heavy rail station and taking the oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-how-slow-this-train-is service back to Central.

Today I tried the Metro for the first time, since it's the first time I've been in the office since the Metro opened. I had to wait 4 minutes for the next (fully automated) train to arrive, but when it did... "WHOOSH!" I was at Central within a few minutes, and from there it was straight up the stairs to the intrastate platforms. I was impressed. Also, the Metros had functioning air conditioning.

(I don't mind the OSCAR (Outer Suburban Car) train sets that I have to ride into and out of the city, generally. Certainly they're better than their proposed replacements (whichever decade those eventually arrive) in several ways. However the air conditioning on an OSCAR blows. Only metaphorically, not literally. In the cool morning with few people in the carriage, that's not a problem. In a well populated carriage baking in the afternoon sun, I hope you've remembered to bring your USB powered fan. But the Metro's air conditioning... that was the business.)

Some of the metro stations have taken their cue from some Russian and Ukrainian metro stations in that they feature artwork. Victoria Cross, on the other hand seems to have taken its design cues from 1960's sci-fi films, and I mean that in a good way.

As we can see here, this station would not have looked out of place in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or possibly one of the live action Gerry Anderson series from the early 70's, but with a bigger budget. To me... that's pretty cool.