Flinders Street Station

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Flinders Street Station is the central public transport hub of the capital of the Australian State of Victoria, Melbourne. The station building is located in the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street, the back of the railway facilities is the Yarra River. The station building is located higher than the railway facilities that could be designed as a through station street level and a level.

Importance

Flinders Street Station approximately 85,000 commuters and 1,500 trains are dispatched daily. Flinders Street, making it the busiest station of Melbourne, while the Southern Cross Station is structurally larger and has long-distance transport, but only use it about half the passengers from Flinders Street.

History

The old station

The first station on this site was called Melbourne Terminus. He belonged to the first steam-powered railway in Australia and was, together with the railway Melbourne - sand Fingered (now Port Melbourne ) opened on 12 September 1854. The receiving equipment consisted initially of a few shacks and there was a single, 30 -meter platform. It was not until 1877 followed by a second, in the 1890s, a third platform. 1879 telegraph office was added, and a ground level track to Spencer Street Station (now Southern Cross ) down. This was later moved to a viaduct 1889 level. From 1883 there were two signal boxes in the station.

On the opposite side of Swanston Street itself was originally Princes Bridge Station. After the two stations were connected in 1865, Princes Bridge went on in the facilities of the station Flinders Street.

The current station

Construction

Since the 1880s, a discussion was held to modernize this important railway station of the city. However, the process dragged on slowly and ultimately took more than 20 years. In 1882 there was the government's decision to build a new reception building. But the architectural competition to was only in 1899 carried out. Competition won James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth, who suggested a reception building in the style of Neo - Renaissance, whose eye-catching were a dome over the main entrance and clock tower at the other end of the building. The design was originally developed for the Victoria Station in Bombay. Subsequent interventions in the original plan, among other things prevented the originally intended platform hall.

Construction began in 1900, at the reception building in 1905. At the same time, the station was expanded to 13 platform tracks. The building was for reasons of cost, instead of the originally planned, executed not in stone but in brick. The costs amounted to £ 93,478. Since 1906, the dome was built. The contractor could not meet the completion date in 1909, was fired and replaced by the building department of the Victorian Railways. The inauguration took place in 1910 then.

Reception building

The facade of the reception building with the slanted to the intersecting streets here Flinders Street and Swanston Street main entrance is considered an architectural landmark of Melbourne. The building is a monument of culture.

The station building has, as a result of a gradient in the field, at the east end and three on the west end of four floors up. On the long frontage to Flinders Street numerous shops were built, provided the upper floors mainly for the railway administration.

In the 1960s and 70s, the station building was repeatedly threatened with demolition. Too large, structurally neglected and dirty and a testimony to the then unpopular historicism, it should be replaced by a modern building. An appropriate " development agreement " was in 1962 already signed by the Minister of Transport, the investor decided to but then for another building site. In 1967 there was another interested who wanted build over the station area with a shopping center. However, this failed because of the opposition to the project. In 1972, the idea was taken up again, then had to be abandoned in 1975, when in the wake of increased appreciation historicist buildings, the public began to campaign for the preservation of the historic station building but. In 1989, on the plan, "only" the land to build over behind the reception building. But this failed because the investment could not be applied.

1982/1984 then there was a reorganization and modernization of the historic building, which was particularly in the Swanston Street facing wings heavily criticized for their impact on the historic inventory. While the facade was left more or less untouched, was heavily intervened in the interior on the entrance level. The entrance area was increased for shops and service providers to three times. A city councilor from Melbourne described the intervention as " vandalism ", the National Trust of Australia in 1997 as judged them incompatible with the historic inventory.

1997/98, the tracks were transformed radically in the station, so that the Federation Square, was built on the opposite on the side of Swanston Street. This also part of the station Princes Bridge was finally eliminated.

Last renovated in 2007 to the building: the roof was renewed, improved handicapped accessible entrances, the ticket office all moved to the main entrance and comprehensively introduced a passenger information system with LCD screens.

Watches

A well-known landmark of the station are the watches that show the departure of the next train. They play a major role in local folklore. The watches come from 1860 and were purchased in England. As the old station building was demolished in 1904, they were installed from and 28 at the four main entrances of the new station building from 1910 again. They were converted from a railroad worker, who used to a long pole, by hand, a process which had to be carried out during an eight -hour shift about 900 times. When the watches were expanded in 1983 with the aim to replace them with digital displays, there was an outcry by the public, which was so great that the decision had to be revised after one day. Thus, the historical watches were obtained at least at the main entrance, but now controlled by a computer.

A clock tower owns the station since 1883. Already in 1853 existed in close proximity to the train station later a public clock, which was attached to a water tower that stood up to the station renovation in 1905. Also the reception building of 1910, a clock tower, was built in the 1906. The mechanical clock had to be wound up daily. It was sold in 1967 to a private collector, but now came into a public art museum. The visible today clock is electrically operated.

Platforms and transport

From Flinders Street Station in 1919 drove the first electric train railway in Victoria. 1926 should have been even the busiest in the world of the station.

The tracks 12 to 14 are the eastern extensions 10, 11 and 1 track 11 is currently not used. There is currently no rail. The previously existing tracks 15 and 16 were eliminated in the Umbau1997/98. The platforms are connected at three points: Over the main entrance hall, an underpass in the middle of the platforms and another for disabled underpass at the western end of the station building.

Transport links

Flinders Street Station is served by 15 tram lines and a bus urban transport.