Structure type Underground Opened 24 January 1981 Status Premium station Platforms in use 4 (2 island) | Operated by Metro Platform levels 2 Owner VicTrack Level 2 Station status Premium station | |
 | ||
Location La Trobe Street, Melbourne Line(s) Alamein (weekday pre-peak and post-peak only)BelgraveCraigieburnCranbourneFrankston (weekday peaks and weekends only)Glen WaverleyHurstbridgeLilydalePakenhamSandringham (weekends only)South MorangSunburyUpfieldWerribee (weekends only) Similar Melbourne Central Shopping, Flagstaff railway station, Flinders Street railway st, Parliament railway station, Southern Cross railway st | ||
Melbourne Central railway station is an underground station on the metro network in Melbourne, Australia. It is one of five stations (and one of three underground) 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 2013/14 it was the 3rd busiest station in Melbourne's metropolitan network, with 15.925 million passenger movements.
Contents
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 168 metres (551 ft) long and 22.5 metres (74 ft) wide, 29 metres (95 ft) deep at the Swanston Street end and 22 metres (72 ft) 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 opened as Museum on 24 January 1981 after the adjacent Melbourne Museum in the State Library of Victoria complex on 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 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 Melbourne Museum moved in 1995 to its current premises beside the Royal Exhibition Building in the Carlton Gardens, with the station being renamed after the shopping centre on 16 February 1997.
The station concourse was redeveloped in 2002/03 as part of the renovation of the wider centre, while the direct escalators from the concourse to Swanston Street closed in November 2003, and were replaced by a path through the shopping centre.
Facilities
Melbourne Central, 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. 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:
Platforms & services
Platform 1 - Clifton Group
Platform 2 - Caulfield Group
Platform 3 - Northern Group
Platform 4 - Burnley Group
Transport links
Transdev Melbourne operate seven routes from Lonsdale Street (Melbourne Central side):
Transdev Melbourne operate twelve routes from Lonsdale Street (Myer side):
Transdev Melbourne operate nine routes from Swanston/Lonsdale Streets (QV):