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.
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.
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 rated
Annual 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:
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
3 comments:
I don't think Sunshine is five stars.
It will be interesting to see where the Metro Tunnel stations land in terms of busyness - will Arden make it into the top 20?
Glenferrie. The underpass makes the Flinders Street subway look as clean as a hospital. Auburn looks a million times better despite being an identical station (lack of barriers and ticket office aside). Still waiting for a lift to be installed at all these "heritage" stations too.
Canterbury and Patterson. Both proto-skyrail stations look absolutely hideous and have poor accessibility. North Richmond and Flemington Bridge too.
Blackburn. The station lacks anything that could even remotely be called shelter, making it easily the worst "premium" station on the entire Ringwood group by far. The wind tunnel on platforms 1+2 that smells of urine (with it being conveniently next to the toilets) does not count as an enclosed waiting area when you're stuck there for 30 minutes at night waiting for a train while the also half-hourly SmartBus towards Ringwood is timed to depart two minutes before the Lilydale/Belgrave train. May as well sit on the floor of the recently-installed lift, at least it has air conditioning and keeps the rain out.
East Malvern, Tooronga, Mount Waverley and Ferntree Gully. East Malvern in particular should be bulldozed completely and rebuilt as an island platform, that second platform has no right to exist in its current condition. The Platform 2s at all of these stations are nothing short of a joke.
South Morang, specifically the open-air bus interchange and the open-air walkway to the shopping centre. It's even worse than Mitcham's layout; there is not a single tree in sight (compare the station precinct to Middle Gorge, showing that it really is possible to make 21st century station look half-decent), just a concrete wasteland. I can't even think of waiting there for a bus in 40ºC or when it's raining sideways, those tiny glass bus shelters do absolutely nothing to protect you from getting burnt or soaked. Compare the bus interchange to Chadstone's which has huge shade sails, or even Box Hill's infamous interchange which is at least under cover. Why is public transport in Victoria still being treated as the absolute last resort for people who don't drive absolutely everywhere?
Melbourne Central
Flagstaff
Parliament
Craigieburn
Post a Comment