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Central Walk was fully opened to commuters on Monday.Credit:Wolter Peeters

New Transport Minister Jo Haylen said Central Walk was an important upgrade to Central and would improve the journeys of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who used the station every day.

“Over the next two decades,the number of people visiting Central Station each day is set to double,and Central Walk will support that growth and ensure that passengers and visitors can easily access our transport system in the heart of Sydney’s CBD,” she said.

The 19-metre wide concourse provides a connection for travellers switching between suburban rail platforms,intercity and regional trains,light rail and,by next year,driverless metro trains which will run along the$18.5 billion City and Southwest rail line.

Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins said the concourse would become the major east-west artery of Australia’s busiest train station,relieving congestion at the northern end.

“This is half a billion dollars worth of investment. I’ve seen people go down the escalators and go,‘wow’,” he said. “There are probably many people at the other end of the station who have no idea this exists.”

The opening of lifts connecting the concourse to platforms above also makes it easier for travellers carrying bags to get to platform 23,which is where trains on the T8 Airport Line stop.

Collins,who is also a Sydney Metro director,said the concourse’s construction,which began in late 2019,had been “very difficult” because it involved building metres below operating suburban rail lines.

As part of the staged opening of Central Walk,commuters started using seven new escalators in November,followed by a further two escalators and a lift last month,while the remaining six escalators and three lifts began on Monday.

Escalators and lifts make it easier for commuters to switch between train services at Central Station.Credit:Wolter Peeters

A new above-ground entrance to the station on Chalmers Street,near a light rail stop,and a north-south concourse built above platforms for the metro line are also due to open by late September. Commuters will not be able to access the metro platforms until the main section of the City and Southwest rail line between Chatswood and Sydenham via the CBD opens next year.

Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan said the Central Walk project was an “engineering marvel” and removed a rabbit warren of passages,helping commuters to easily transfer between services. “We are now focused on putting the final touches on the metro platforms,” he said.

The staged opening of the concourse comes amid a$350 million revamp of Central’s main sandstone building,which is expected to take three years. Glass panels will also be installed in the roof over the station’s grand concourse.

Escalators between suburban platforms and the northern end of the concourse opened on Monday.Credit:Wolter Peeters

The makeover is part of a larger and moreambitious plan to revamp a 24-hectare site in and around Central over the next two decades.

Collins said the longer-term plans involved extending the underground concourse further westwards,which would allow commuters to walk between Surry Hills and Haymarket and connect platform one to platform 14.

Platforms 13 and 14,which were temporarily removed for construction of the Central Walk and metro projects,are also due to be reinstated later this year.

They will be used mostly by intercity trains from destinations such as Newcastle,which will allow passengers to interchange more easily with suburban services,as well as the metro trains due next year.

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