Flinders Street railway station
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Flinders Street Station (frequently just called Flinders Street; the context indicates whether the station or the street is being specified) is the central railway station of the suburban rail network of Melbourne, Australia. It is on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets next to the Yarra River in the heart of the city, stretching from Swanston Street to Queen Street and covering two city blocks. Each weekday, approximately 105,000 commuters and 1,500 trains pass through it.
It is serviced by Connex's suburban and city loop services, and V/Line's regional services.
The Melburnian idiom "I'll meet you under the clocks" refers to the row of clocks above the main entrance, which indicate the departure time of the next train on each line (though some of the clocks refer to discontinued lines). This is a popular meeting place, at the corner of two of the city's busiest thoroughfares. The original analogue clocks were replaced for a short time with digital ones, but due to a public outcry analogue ones were quickly returned. Plans in the 1970s to demolish the station and replace it with an office building were soon dismissed.
History
The first railway station to occupy the Flinders Street site was called Melbourne or City Terminus, and was a collection of weatherboard train sheds. It was completed in 1854 and was officially opened on September 12 by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Charles Hotham. The terminus was the first city railway station in Australia, and the opening day saw the first steam train trip in the country. It travelled to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne), over the Sandridge Bridge(which has now been redeveloped in 2006 as a pedestrian and cycle bridge across the Yarra River), traveling along the now light rail Port Melbourne line.
Melbourne's two other early central-city stations, Spencer Street Station (now Southern Cross Station) and Princes Bridge, opened in 1859. Princes Bridge was originally separated from Flinders Street, even though it was only on the opposite side of Swanston Street. Once the railway line was extended under the street to join the two, Princes Bridge slowly became amalgamated into Flinders Street. Federation Square now occupies its site.
In 1882 the government decided to build a new central passenger station to replace the existing ad-hoc construction. A world-wide design competition was held in 1899, with 17 entries received. The £500 first prize went to railway employees J. W. Fawcett and H. P. C. Ashworth, whose design included a giant dome and clock tower. Work began in 1901 and ended in 1910.
Train platforms
Flinders Street Station's platforms are numbered from north to south, with Platform No. 1 being the furthest north.
Platform 1: Epping & Hurstbridge
Platforms 2/3: Lilydale, Belgrave, Glen Waverley & Alamein
Platforms 4/5: Werribee, Sydenham, Broadmeadows & Upfield
Platforms 6/7: Pakenham, Cranbourne, Frankston & Stony Point
Platforms 8/9: Sandringham & Williamstown
Platforms 10-14: Various services, depending on day and time.
Note that the eastern end of Platform No. 1 is designated as Platform No. 14, past the Platform 1 escalators.
Station redevelopment
Flinders Street is currently undergoing long-overdue redevelopment. It will involve badly-needed cleaning and repair, as well as improving general accessibility in the station.
The works include:
- Refurbishment of Platform 10, including resurfacing
- New escalators to provide better access to Platforms 10, 12 and 13
- An additional lift on Platform 10 (giving a total of two lifts for Platforms 10, 12 and 13)
- New lighting
- Relocating the V/Line booking office to the main ticket office
- Developing a new commercial area on the site of the V/Line booking office
- Improving the subway from Elizabeth Street to Southbank and Degraves Street to Flinders Street
- Waterproofing the roof
- Developing a business case for possible uses of vacant space, including the disused ballroom
- Steam cleaning the façade
In recent years more than $13 million has been spent on strengthening the deck of the station concourse, parts of which were built in 1906. The works have addressed the deterioration of steel work and concrete arch slabs below deck level, which form the concourse floor system. This will ensure the longevity of the concourse structure.
Works commenced in January 2005 and have been completed on all platforms, except Platforms 3 and 4 which are due for completion by early 2006.
$150,000 has also been put aside to investigate the potential of the public spaces in the station. The investigation will be overseen by a taskforce comprising representatives from Veolia, the Committee for Melbourne, Melbourne City Council, Heritage Victoria and the National Trust.
Trivia
- The main steps are embedded with electrical circuits to keep them dry, fitted in June 1985.
- Platform No. 1, where Epping & Hurstbridge line trains depart, is the longest railway platform in Australia, and the fourth longest in the world, at 708 metres long.
- The building contains a ballroom (not in use), and a creche was inside the main dome when the station's offices were still in use. It included an open-air playground on an adjoining roof.
- One of the original platform verandahs from the Melbourne Terminus building was dismantled and re-erected at Hawthorn station, in the inner-eastern suburbs.
- It is rumoured that the original plans of Flinders Street Station were designed for the central station of Mumbai (then Bombay), India, but were mixed up in the London office and sent to Australia instead. This perhaps explains the unusual (for Australia) arches and alcoves that feature in the Banana Alley section, which would have been intended for street vendors. Of course, this means that the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai should have been built at Flinders Street!
| Station Navigation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan service | ||||
| "City Loop" | ||||
| Anti - Clockwise | Parliament | | | Southern Cross | Clockwise |
| Alamein, Belgrave, Cranbourne, Frankston, Glen Waverley, Lilydale, Pakenham & Sandringham lines | ||||
| Previous Station | Refer to City Loop | | | Richmond | Next Station |
| Epping & Hurstbridge lines | ||||
| Previous Station | Refer to City Loop | | | Jolimont | Next Station |
| Regional service | ||||
| Bairnsdale line | ||||
| Previous Station | Southern Cross → | | | → Richmond | Next Station |
| Entire metropolitan network | ||||
| Entire regional network | ||||