Melbourne Central railway station


Melbourne Central railway station is an underground station on the metro network in Melbourne, Australia. It is one of five stations on the City Loop, which encircles the Melbourne CBD. 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 which it is beneath. It feeds into Melbourne's main metro network station, Flinders Street and also Southern Cross Melbourne's main regional terminus. In 2017/18, it was the third busiest station in Melbourne's metropolitan network, with 15.859 million passenger movements.

History

The station was built using cut and cover construction. In December 1973 to permit excavation of the station, La Trobe Street and its tram tracks were temporarily relocated to the south onto the site of what is now the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, and moved back on completion of the work in 1978. The pit was long and wide, deep at the Swanston Street end and deep at the Elizabeth Street end. Seven layers of struts were used to support the excavation, with 2,600 tonnes of steel temporary supports required.
The station was designed by architectural firm of Perrott Lyon Mathieson, with concept design by David Simpson, and detailed design by Graeme Butler. The design included the two pairs of platforms, a spacious concourse directly under LaTrobe Street, with entries facing the Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street corners. The Swanston Street corner included a set of raised circular platforms above the entry; during the Royal Visit, Queen Elizabeth was shown around the not yet operational station on the 28 May 1980, and unveiled a plaque naming it the Queen Elizabeth Plaza.
The station was finally opened on 24 January 1981, and was named Museum Station after the adjacent National Museum of Victoria and Science Museum of Victoria in the State Library of Victoria complex on the opposite side of Swanston Street. It was the first station on the loop to open, initially services only operated for the Burnley and Caulfield Groups on platforms 2 and 4, with trains from the Clifton Hill Group starting to use platform 1 on 31 October 1982, and trains from the Northern Group starting to use platform 3 on 1 May 1984. The Elizabeth Street entrance to the station opened on 5 April 1982.
The adjoining Melbourne Central Shopping Centre opened in 1991, being built around the existing escalators to street level, with only minor integration between the station concourse and shopping centre. The station was renamed after the shopping centre on 16 February 1997, and a few months later on July 13, the Museum of Victoria closed on the State Library site in preparation for being relocated to Carlton, where it reopened as the Melbourne Museum in Carlton in 2000.
The station concourse was extensively redeveloped in 2002/03 as part of the renovation of the shopping centre, integrating it into the complex. The direct escalators from the concourse to Swanston Street closed in November 2003, and were replaced by escalators rising into the atrium under the cone in the centre of the shopping centre, making the path through more convoluted. The concourse under LaTrobe Street was integrated into the shopping centre with the installation of numerous shops.
In 2025, Pakenham, Cranbourne and Sunbury railway lines will cease to stop at Melbourne Central Station as the Metro Tunnel Project opens.

Facilities

Melbourne Central, has an underground concourse and two levels of platforms below it. Each platform serves a separate group of rail lines that leave the Loop and radiate out into the city's suburbs. At peak times with a train arriving every 2.5 minutes, the station has a passenger flow of 30,000 per hour. Three elevators were initially provided, as well as 21 escalators. Melbourne Central 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:
Platform 1 - Clifton Group
Platform 2 - Caulfield Group
During 2025 Sunbury, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines services will travel through the Metro Tunnel and no longer service Melbourne Central directly.
Platform 3 - Northern Group
Platform 4 - Burnley Group
operate thirteen services to or via Melbourne Central station, on Swanston, Elizabeth, and La Trobe Streets.
Swanston Street
Elizabeth Street
La Trobe Street
Transdev Melbourne operate five routes from Lonsdale Street :
Transdev Melbourne operate eleven routes from Lonsdale Street :
Transdev Melbourne operate nine routes from Swanston/Lonsdale Streets :