Melbourne Central railway station

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Melbourne Central

Station information
Code	MCE
Distance from Flinders St	3.2 km (via Sthn Cross) 2.4 km (via Parliament)
Lines	All lines
# Platforms	4
# Tracks	4
Status	Premium station
Metlink profile	Link
Google map	Link
Metcard Zone	1

Melbourne Central is an underground station in the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia. It is one of five stations (and one of three underground) on the City Loop, which encircles the central business district. The station is under La Trobe Street, between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets, on the northern edge of the CBD. The station is named after the Melbourne Central shopping centre it is beneath, and is not the city's main station — Flinders Street is the main suburban station, and Southern Cross is the regional terminus.

[edit] History

The station was opened as Museum on January 24, 1981 ^[1] (before Parliament and Flagstaff) with services only on platforms 2 and 4. The Elizabeth Street entrance was opened on 5 April 1982. Trains started using platform 1 on October 31, 1982, and platform 3 on May 1, 1984. It was named Museum, after the nearby Melbourne Museum in the State Library of Victoria complex on Swanston Street. The Museum moved in 1995 to its current premises besides the Royal Exhibition Building in the Carlton Gardens. It was renamed on February 16, 1997, after Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, which was built above and around the station concourse in the early 1990s.

[edit] Facilities

Melbourne Central, like the other two underground City Loop stations (Parliament and Flagstaff) has an underground concourse and two levels of platforms below it (2 island platforms and four tracks). Each platform serves a separate group of rail lines that leave the Loop and radiate out into the city's suburbs. It is a premium station, meaning that it is staffed from first to last train and provides extra customer services.

The concourse has two sections separated by the shopping centre food court:

• The Elizabeth Street concourse has stairs and three escalators providing access to the street, a walkway to the Swanston Street concourse, a booking office, ticket barriers, toilets that have been closed for several years, and stairs and five escalators leading down to the platforms.

• The Swanston Street concourse was altered in the early 2000s when redevelopment works were carried out at the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre located nearby. Inside the ticket barriers there are toilets, and two lifts and five escalators going to the platforms. Outside is a food court, an exit to La Trobe Street and Level LG of the shopping centre (which passes under Little Lonsdale Street). There is also a lift and four escalators to the shopping centre level above. On the next level up (Level G) there is access to Little Lonsdale and La Trobe Streets via the shopping centre. Access to Swanston Street is via three escalators rising another floor (or the lift to level 1 and a 70m walk), and a walk through the shopping centre past the shot tower.

The redevelopment works at the Swanston Street entrance to the station have been criticised by many due to the difficulty in accessing the street from the station itself.^[2]

[edit] Images

The Swanston Street side entrance to Melbourne Central Station

One of the Melbourne Central platforms

The Swanston Street side concourse with timetables and escalators down to the platforms

[edit] References

Coordinates: 37°48′36.15″S, 144°57′45.58″E