Do you remember the fuss in November about people being charged to use the paid area walkway between State Library Station and Melbourne Central Station? They were charged a fare even if they didn’t catch a train.
EDIT: It happened because the two stations are considered separate even though they have a direct connection, so the Myki system didn’t treat entering one and exiting the other under the 15 minute “change of mind” feature.
I thought it was a bit of a storm in a teacup.
- Not that many people know about the Myki change of mind feature for taking a shortcut through a railway station.
- Not that many people would want to cut through from State Library to Melbourne Central – rather than just walking across at street level.
- And even fewer would do so without using any public transport on the same day. If you use (paid) public transport within two hours of your shortcut, or you reach the daily fare (Myki daily cap), then being charged for that shortcut would make no difference.
At the time the government fixed this by just leaving gates open, which is obviously the worst way of resolving the problem because it opens two of Melbourne’s busiest stations to fare evasion.
(Note: there’s no issue swapping between the two stations if you’re already in the paid area. You can do that without passing through any gates.)
I’d been told they fixed it properly now so I took a look. And they have, as this video shows – you can go through the gates and not get charged. (On this occasion the gates were left open anyway…)
How did they fix it? From looking at my Myki card’s travel history, it appears they have reconfigured the fare gates to treat State Library Station as part of Melbourne Central Station.
And they’ve done the same with Town Hall Station – made those gates part of Flinders Street Station. This is from a walk from platform 1 at Flinders Street to the Collins Street exit of Town Hall.
There was a big debate when these new underground stations were created over whether they should have separate names, or have the same names as the existing stations that they connect to.
In the end we were told emergency services urged the government to give them different names, to help avoid confusion about locations during emergencies.
(A cynical view is it also makes it easier to claim there are five new stations as part of the project.)
Obviously having separate names could be confusing for train passengers who may not realise that State Library is connected to Melbourne Central and that Town Hall is connected to Flinders Street.
The confusion is real – I’ve been on a train that arrived at Town Hall with a confused passenger who wanted Flinders Street, and didn’t know where to alight.
High-quality wayfinding and announcements can help with that. And people will become more familiar with the new stations over time, so hopefully it’s not a big issue in the future.
In the meantime, enjoy your shortcut.
Meanwhile, on more important issues:
- The Taitset/Philip Mallis collaboration video looking at the Metro Tunnel timetables is lengthy, but worth a look
- On Monday I did a lunchtime segment with ABC Radio Melbourne that included taking talkback callers. Fun – kept me thinking on my feet. Listen here, starts about 4 minutes in, goes for about 10 mins.
Update 29/1/2026: Commenter Michael wondered if they were clever enough to only set the gates to think they’re at their connected stations for people taking shortcuts.
Yesterday I tried a trip from Parkville to Town Hall, exiting via the Collins Street exit. Myki reported it as Flinders Street. (Note the touch off at Parkville was a default fare for a previous tram journey.)
15 replies on “The free shortcut between stations”
I did think it was a lot of fuss over nothing. As you point out, the likelihood that someone is going to go through that way and not use a train is very low, and there’s a change of mind system on myki readers anyway.
I expect some future government will rename the two CBD stations to avoid passenger confusion.
Melbourne Central should go in favour of State Library as the new entrance is the easiest way to access all platforms.
Town Hall should in favour of flinders St to retain the historical connection.
And while are at it the colonial era Arden should be replaced with some indigenous name reflecting the rich pre-colonial history of the area.
The separate names for the CBD stations made sense during construction but, as you point out, they don’t work in the operating phase.
@Charlie, I realised the text wasn’t very clear, so I’ve added a bit. The Change Of Mind feature didn’t work when SL and MC were in the Myki system as two separate stations.
@Anonymous, thanks for mentioning Arden. Given what we’ve now discovered about George Arden, it would be good to look at a renaming. Preferably before the station and the precinct gets too well known.
https://nit.com.au/12-12-2024/15396/the-racist-history-behind-arden-st-comes-to-light
I feel that Town Hall really feels like a seperate station to Flinders Street with it 150 meter walkway between Town hall place and Degraves St, and it is better that they have different names.
If Town Hall was Flinders St platforms 15 and 16, you have tourist using the City Square entrance, taking three escalators to get to platform level to only realise they need to head back up to ground level to access platforms 1 to 13.
do you think Town Hall station should of been called flinders street & ad new platform numbers, as well as State Libarary called Melbourne Central or is it good having seprate station names?
I didn’t think the different station names in the city was a good idea, but now I do think it is a good idea as the station connections became clear. I also thought the government opposition party was looking for issues with the new train line, hence the bother about walking between Melbourne Central and Melbourne State Library. If you are down at the stations, surely you will have already paid a fare.
I am all for better wayfinding but please, no more announcements. Why do platform staff announce what the automated announcement system announces? Ditto inside trains.
Lol at naming the station after a bankrupt and and extremely racist drunk. How much did the consultation on the naming of the station cost, when the bleeding obvious fact that it could be contentious, and could easily be discovered using Google.
I wasn’t aware of the person’s history, but if I was going to name something after him, I would check.
I don’t reckon they’ve “reconfigured the fare gates to treat State Library Station as part of Melbourne Central Station”. I reckon they’ve just added logic in the fare calc routine that looks for a touch on-touch off combination like the one you’ve done, recognises it as a walk-through, labels it the way you see it on the transaction record, and treats it as a change of mind.
You could test this by doing a separate trip originating somewhere other than Melbourne Central and exiting through the same gate at State Library Station. I’m tipping it will show State Library Station on the touch-off record.
What would be interesting would be an entry at Melbourne Central, take a journey somewhere and then come back without touching-off/on anywhere in the interim (or just sit down and read a book inside the station perimeter) – just take more time than reasonably expected for a walk-through – and THEN exit via the gates at State Library Station. Does it still treat it as change of mind? How long has the system allowed for the walk-through?
With Arden (and I won’t defend George Arden here, as he was racist), it was the placeholder name because of the area, but it was to be known as North Melbourne. However, because of some issues with emergency services, it was changed back to Arden. But in light of the racism displayed by George Arden, I think a better name would’ve been used (like an indigenous name).
@Michael – changing the State Library ticket gates to think they are part of Melbourne Central would be a simple configuration option they do any time defective Myki hardware gets swapped out for a reconditioned unit, so to me seems far more likely than the software development effort needed to change the business rules in the fare calculation to act differently at a single location depending on where you originate.
@Hornberger, I think that’s a fair point. Any views on State Library?
@Sam, I wouldn’t rename State Library to Melbourne Central, but I might do it the other way! The name “Melbourne Central Station” has its own problems.
@Andrew, I don’t know how much of George Arden’s history was known before people went digging in 2024. Earlier bios of him seem quite dry.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/arden-george-1714
But… this should have been researched, and missing it was a big mistake.
(The naming committee included indigenous representation. Unfortunately, I don’t recall this issue coming up. I was on the naming committee, though we didn’t make the final decision. I should note that I do not speak for the committee.)
@Michael, I’ll be sure to test this! But I’m betting they went for the easy option, not the hard one.
@indigohex3, the other big problem with calling Arden “North Melbourne” is moving the name of an existing station. Extremely difficult when it’s embedded in 170 years of railway systems and documentation.
Personally I think there’s still an opportunity to change the name to something else, before the whole precinct becomes known by it from the station.
I haven’t been to State Library (or Melbourne Central) since they did the open day so I can’t really say, but it is probably closer to being a single station, rather than separate stations that happen to have a connection.
To me, the entrance on the corner of La Trobe and Swanstown feels like it is the main entrance to both State Library and Melbourne Central.
Using the Franklin St entrance to get to Melbourne Central has the similar problem as using the City Square entrance to get Flinders St, but not as bad as you don’t need to return all to street level after reaching platform level so there is less wasted effort. You could also have issues with the Elizabeth St entrances as people might not know that you should to take the passage through the shopping centre to get to Swanstown St entrances in order to access the State Library platforms rather than going through the ticket gates and heading down to platforms 1 to 4.
At this stage, I am indifferent to whether State Library and Melbourne Central should be treated as a single or separate station.
On Town Hall, I would further add that calling the Federation Square entrance ‘Flinders st’ would be even worse than doing that for the City Square entrance.
While there are merits in choosing an Indigenous name, I’d suggest it practically makes more sense to choose something consistent with the geographical location. If Arden station is inappropriate perhaps Laurens would be better, representing the street fronting the station and a figure with apparently a less problematic history.
@Michael, I’ve tested a trip from Parkville to Town Hall. It shows it ending at Flinders Street. Screen grab added.
If it’s just those particular gates that have been reconfigured wouldn’t that mean “change of mind” would no longer work when entering through those gates and leaving through others at the same station?
@jon, as far as I can see, they modified all the gates in those stations.