When Southern Cross Station was built/renovated/unnecessarily renamed, someone made the wise decision to include provision for an extra two platforms: 15 and 16.
These are now being built as part of the (possibly otherwise ill-fated) Regional Rail Link project, and seem to be progressing nicely.
July 2010:
Last week:
There’s a catch.
It’s the big glass wall. It can’t be (cheaply) moved. It’ll have to sit in the middle of the new platforms.
So what will they do? There will be doors in the glass to get through it. Which means if it’s raining, you’d better take an umbrella if you want to use platform 16.
They probably have little choice now. Maybe the planning ahead wasn’t quite so good after all.
9 replies on “New platforms at Southern Cross”
I note that the platforms are no longer “part of the plan” – all of the promotional banners have been removed since the Victorian Transport Plan was canned earlier this year.
Couldn’t they have just moved the unused platform 1 at Box Hill to Southern Cross? That would have saved a bunch of cash… ;-)
“Planning ahead”? I do not recall planning or anything remotley implied by its meaning, to be a strength, when considering the actions of Train Operators, e.g. Metro, Connex, Bayside trains , Hillside trains, Met trains … Dep’t of Transport or Transport ministry.
And Nathan, perhaps they could move some unused sidings like Ashbuton or Mitchum to the cross?? Don’t suggest it, save they might launch a feasiblity study at taxppayer expense.
I get ill with diesel fumes at Southern Cross – when are they going to do something about that?
If the Rail Link was scrapped, maybe they could just put overhead linea above it and use platform 15 and 16 for trains to Werribee to save space during peak hour.
We might someday need the unused platform at Box Hill. Though actually two island platforms would be better.
I’ll have to ask my big brother about that – he’s been one of the plumbers on the job (working underground for most of it!)
I actually like the look of the design there. So you need an umbrella, big deal. You likely need one at your home stop anyway, after all, it is Melbourne.
The more and more I use ‘Southern Cross’ the more I think that it was designed not for the users but more for the architect’s entry into the architechture awards. Oh, and for the fat cats in the city’s towers to look down upon a wavy roof line.
Consider for those who want to catch a suburban train coming from Skybus or indeed any bus. You have to walk outside to get an escalator (or you can walk an even further distance insideish to get the escalator from platform 1) to the windswept and largely uncovered walkway over the platforms. Surely an escalator & lift going direct from the bus platforms to the walkway would have been more sensible – but I suppose, gasp, where would they put the shops.
My other bugbear is the design of the Nunawading platform. Sure it one an architecture award and it does look good from the climate controlled comfort of an expensive German luxury car, but for the poor users on a wet day there is barely any dry platform space and you have to make a run through the rain from platform to the carriage. Of course a sensible design that left an overlap over the carriage and platform would not have won any design awards.
I think all these architects should have to spend 5 years using the follies that they impose on ever suffering public transport users.
Rant over, thanks for your patience everyone.