Melbourne Southern Cross Railway Station
| Melbourne Southern Cross Railway Station | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Data | |
| Design | Long-distance traffic: terminus station; Local traffic: through station |
| Platform tracks | 15th |
| Price range | 1 |
| opening | 1859 |
| Website URL | Internet presence |
| Architectural data | |
| Architectural style | Postmodern |
| architect | Grimshaw Architects |
| location | |
| City / municipality | Melbourne |
| State | Victoria |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 37 ° 49 '11 " S , 144 ° 57' 20" E |
| List of train stations in Australia | |
Southern Cross Station is the long-distance station of Melbourne , Australia , but also a station on the city's S-Bahn system. It is one of the largest and most important railway passenger stations in Victoria .
history
Historic facility
Before its complete renovation, the station was called Spencer Street , after the street of the same name on which the station building was located. It was opened in 1859 as a terminus with a platform . Like all main lines in Victoria , the tracks were wide-gauge . It was not until 1874 that the station received a second platform. In 1879 a connection was made to Flinders Street Station , then Melbourne's main train station , and the terminus was converted into a through station . 1888-1894 an extension followed, which included additional platforms and the double-track expansion of the connection to Flinders Street station in high altitude. In 1915 this connection was expanded to four tracks and electrified for suburban traffic from 1918 to 1924 .
From 1960 the station was completely renovated. It had been selected as the terminus of the standard gauge track emanating from the New South Wales railway , which for the first time should enable continuous train traffic between the two states without changing trains. This required a new covered platform, the replacement of the reception building from 1880 and the connection of all platforms with a pedestrian underpass . At the same time, the viaduct to the Flinders Street station was expanded to six tracks and fully equipped for platform changing operations .
New building in the 21st century
Today's - fourth - station building was built between 2002 and 2006. It stands out for its wave-shaped roof that seems to float above the tracks. The design comes from Grimshaw Architects . The construction was not entirely unproblematic: the schedule for the new building wavered during the work and the budgeted costs were significantly exceeded at AUS $ 200 million . As a result, the builders did without some of the elements of the construction program that were initially planned. As is common today at major train stations, a shopping center is integrated into the Southern Cross station. Simultaneously with the opening of the new facility, the station was renamed from Spencer Street to Southern Cross .
The new station building was part of an urban redevelopment for the Melbourne Docklands district and received the Lubetkin Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects for the most outstanding building outside the European Union in 2007 .
business
Southern Cross Station is the third busiest in Melbourne. It has 15 platform tracks. Tracks 1 and 2 are multi- rail tracks which, in addition to the broad gauge otherwise common in Victoria , can also be used by standard-gauge trains for traffic to the neighboring states of South Australia and New South Wales . Long-distance traffic uses tracks 1 to 8, the S-Bahn uses tracks 9 to 14. In addition, there is an additional platform track at the north end of the “house platform”, which is designed exclusively with standard gauge.
Long-distance transport
All long-distance trains to Melbourne end in Southern Cross , both domestic trains from Victoria and connections to Sydney (twice a day) and Adelaide ( The Overland , 3 times a week).
Local transport
Southern Cross is one of five stations on the City Loop , an underground S-Bahn line that circles the city center in a large loop. The train station also includes a large bus station , from which buses to the airport and long-distance buses leave. A 15th and 16th track for a future expansion of local traffic are planned, but not yet laid.
Worth knowing
In the first half of the 20th century, there was a short, narrow-gauge subway between the train station and the post office opposite to transport mail between the trains and the post office.
Individual evidence
- ↑ VICSIG - Infrastructure - Southern Cross
- ^ A b Sid Brown: Batman's Hill to Southern Cross - via Spencer Street . In: Newsrail . November 2002, pp. 335-347.
- ^ The Age: The roof transporting us to tomorrow - March 25, 2005
- ^ Auditor-General's Report on the Annual Financial Report of the State of Victoria, 2005-06.
- ^ The Age: All change at Spencer St - July 9, 2005
- ↑ Murphy, Mathew; The Age (December 14, 2005), Time's up at last for railway landmark . Retrieved December 13, 2005.
- ^ Southern Cross Station in Melbourne Wins Prestigious International Architecture Award . June 22, 2007. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
