From gleaming palace to urinal look-alike in just a few steps. That's the customer experience when switching trains from the sparkling new State Library in the Metro Tunnel to Melbourne Central in the City Loop.
Being a state icon whose facade every tourist photographs is no protection either - just check Flinders Street Station's dirt and dust despite the spending a few years ago. Nor is the dark, smelly and unaccountably managed Southern Cross much helped by its international, interstate and regional gateway role.
Currently Melbourne's transport leadership has a great culture of building new. But operating and maintaining have lower status. A billion dollar over-run for a construction project is shrugged off as an inevitability while every extra cent for improved maintenance and operations must be fought for.
The result is a haves and have not rail network. Not only in service levels (as I've discussed before with some lines having one-quarter the off-peak waits of others at certain times) but also in station presentation. There appears to be no prioritisations of the latter with regards to customer experience with high passenger throughput stations like Melbourne Central some of the dingiest.
It may be that the biggest contribution that the Metro Tunnel can make to the network is to inspire better from our existing assets. But only in the next few months - if these are not adequately maintained then they might slip into the Southern Cross syndrome of modern stations also falling into disrepair.
Don't believe anyone who says it isn't possible. Some apologists for mediocrity say that we cannot expect more as many assets are old. But that's a lie. Southern Cross station is not that old, being a 2000s product. Dandenong is barely a decade older. Yet both are in poorer state than stations of similar age elsewhere.
Costs of better upkeep are not necessarily high either; a deep clean every few months, graffiti removal and a few licks of paint (possibly applied during one of the many rail shutdowns) can all make a big difference. As can the simple act of changing light globes on platforms and in lifts.
A colour temperature near the middle of this range is most appropriate for areas where people need to wait such as train station concourses and platforms.
Because of demarcation due to excessive task balkanisation (an efficiency-killing aspect of outsourcing originally conceived to divide the workforce and thus union influence) we even seem averse to issuing otherwise idle station PSOs with long brooms to remove dust. Not everyone loses though; toilet manufacturers are one of outsourcing's biggest beneficiaries as each job classification at a site gets their own (with the public sometimes getting none).
Busiest 20 stations ratedAnnual metropolitan train station boardings for 2024/25 are documented
here. The Metro Tunnel will likely mean some new entrants while the order of some existing stations will change. The top 20, starting with the busiest, in 2024-25 are below:
Flinders Street **
Southern Cross **
Melbourne Central **
Parliament ****
Footscray ***
Richmond **
Flagstaff *****
Caulfield **
South Yarra ***
Box Hill **
Glenferrie ***
Dandenong **
Oakleigh *****
Huntingdale **
Sunshine *****
Ringwood *****
Clayton *****
Craigieburn ***
Springvale ***
North Melbourne ***
If you were looking at what stations to do up first that delivered a better experience to large numbers of people you would likely start with this list. Plus a couple of others considered to be major hubs like
Broadmeadows (with an international connection) and
Frankston (large catchment precinct).
The stars are an 'off the top of my head' rating based on multiple amenity and fitness for purpose criteria. These with three stars and below have a strong need for multiple improvements including (but not limited to):
* Accessibility
* Air quality (no fumes)
* Changes between trains possible entirely within paid area/more connections between platforms
* Deep clean
* Extra entrances to station to increase walking catchment
* Information (that works) and wayfinding (including multimodal maps)
* Lighting (more and softer though attention to colour temperature)
* Repainting and general maintenance
* Shelter and shade
* Seating
* Better toilets and drinking taps
Should some of my star ratings be different? Are there other high priority stations that need a revamp? Your thoughts are appreciated and can be left below.
