Southern Cross railway station

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The Southern Cross Station is the railway station in Melbourne, Australia, but at the same time train station in the city's S-Bahn system. He is one of the largest and most important passenger stations of the railway in Victoria.

• 2.1 Highway
• 2.2 transport
• 2.3 Know

History

Historic sites

The station was in front of his full conversion, the name Spencer Street, based on the eponymous street where was the reception building. It was opened in 1859 as head station with a platform. Like all major railways in Victoria were carried out in the broad gauge railway tracks. Until 1874 received a second platform of the railway station. In 1879, a connection to Flinders Street Station, the former main railway station of Melbourne, made ​​while the head station converted into a through station. 1888-1894 was followed by an extension that additional platforms and the doubling of the connection to Flinders Street Station included in high position. 1915, this compound was expanded to four tracks and electrified in 1918 and 1924 for the suburban traffic.

From 1960, the station was a major overhaul. He had been selected as the terminus of the end of the railway in New South Wales standard gauge tracks, which should allow for the first time umsteigefreien, uninterrupted movement of trains between the two states. For necessary were a new roofed platform, the replacement of the reception building of 1880, and the connection of all platforms by a pedestrian underpass. At the same time we extended the viaduct to Flinders Street Station on six tracks and endowed him completely for track change operation.

New construction in the 21st century

Today - fourth - Reception building was built between 2002 and 2006, it stands out with its wavy roof that seems to float above the tracks. . It was designed by Grimshaw Architects. The construction was not without problems: The schedule of the new building came during the works to falter and the estimated costs have been significantly exceeded 200 million AUS $. Then waived the builders on some initially planned elements of the construction program. As customary in today's large railway stations, a shopping center in the Southern Cross Station is integrated. At the same time took place with the opening of the new facility, renamed the station of Spencer Street in Southern Cross.

The new station building was part of an urban renewal district for the Melbourne Docklands and was awarded the Lubetkin Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects as most outstanding building outside the European Union in 2007.

Operation

The Southern Cross Station is the third most frequented in Melbourne. He has 15 platform tracks. The tracks 1 and 2 are multi-rail tracks that can be used by standard-gauge trains of traffic to the neighboring countries of South Australia and New South Wales out of the usual in Victoria broad gauge. Long-distance transport uses the tracks 1 to 8, the S-Bahn, the tracks 9 to 14 In addition, there is an additional platform track at the north end of the " house platform ," which is designed exclusively normalspurig.

Long-distance traffic

In Southern Cross border all long distance trains that drive Melbourne, both of national transport of Victoria as well as the connections to Sydney ( 2x daily) and Adelaide ( The Overland, 3x per week).

Transport

Southern Cross is one of five stations on the City Loop, a subterranean tram route which bypasses downtown in a large loop. The station also includes a large bus station, from which extend, inter alia, airport buses and long distance buses. A 15th and 16th track for a future expansion of the transport are structurally designed, but not yet installed.

Worth knowing

Between the station and the opposite post office was in the first half of the 20th century, a short, narrow-gauge subway to transport the mail between trains and the post office.