Melbourne Central Station

The nearest railway station from the Melbourne Empire Apartments, our home for our week-long stay in Melbourne, was Melbourne Central railway station which was just a 5-min. (200 m.) walk away.

Check out “Hotel and Inn Review: Melbourne Empire Apartments”

This underground station is on the metro network , on the northern edge of the CBD, is located under La Trobe Street, between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. The station, named after the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre which it is beneath, feeds into Melbourne’s main metro network station, Flinders Street and also Southern Cross, Melbourne’s main regional terminus.

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this station:

• In 2017/18, it was the third busiest station in Melbourne’s metropolitan network, with 15.859 million passenger movements.
• The station was built using cut and cover
• It is one of five stations (and one of three underground) on the City Loop, which encircles the Melbourne CBD.
• The station was designed by architectural firm of Perrott Lyon Mathieson, with concept design by David Simpson, and detailed design by Graeme Butler. The design included the two pairs of platforms, a spacious concourse directly under LaTrobe Street, with entries facing the Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street corners. The Swanston Street corner included a set of raised circular platforms above the entry.
• At peak times, with a train arriving every 2.5 mins., the station has a passenger flow of 30,000 per hour.

The Melbourne Central Station, a premium station (meaning that it is staffed from first to last train and provides extra customer services), 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. Three elevators were initially provided, as well as 21 escalators.

The adjoining Melbourne Central Shopping Center was built around the existing escalators to street level, with only minor integration between the station concourse and shopping center.

Bryan and Kyle at the train platform

Here’s the historical timeline of the station:

• 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 Center. The pit was 168 m. (551 ft.) long and 22.5 m. (74 ft) wide, 29 m. (95 ft.) deep at the Swanston Street end and 22 m. (72 ft.) deep at the Elizabeth Street end. Seven layers of struts were used to support the excavation, with 2,600 tons of steel temporary supports required.
• In 1978, on completion of the work, , La Trobe Street and its tram tracks were moved back.
• On May 28, 1980, during the Royal Visit, Queen Elizabeth was shown around the not yet operational station on and unveiled a plaque naming it the Queen Elizabeth Plaza.
• On January 24, 1981, the station was finally opened and was named Museum Station after the adjacent National Museum of Victoria and Science Museum of Victoria in the State Library of Victoria complex on the opposite side of 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
• On October 31, 1982, trains from the Clifton Hill Group started to use platform 1
• On May 1, 1984, trains from the Northern Group started to use platform 3.
• On April 5, 1982, the Elizabeth Street entrance to the station opened.
• In 1991, the 55,100 sq. m. Melbourne Central Shopping Center was opened.
• On February 16, 1997, the station was renamed after the shopping center.
• On July 13, 1997, the Museum of Victoria closed on the State Library site in preparation for being relocated to Carlton, where it reopened as the Melbourne Museum in Carlton in 2000.
• In 2002/03, the station concourse was extensively redeveloped as part of the renovation of the shopping center, integrating it into the complex.
• In November 2003, the direct escalators from the concourse to Swanston Street were closed and were replaced by escalators rising into the atrium under the cone in the center of the shopping center, making the path through more convoluted. The concourse under LaTrobe Street was integrated into the shopping center with the installation of numerous shops.
• In 2025, the Pakenham, Cranbourne and Sunbury railway lines ceased to stop at Melbourne Central Station as the Metro Tunnel Project opened.

Plaque commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s visit

The concourse has two sections separated by the shopping center food court. The Elizabeth Street concourse has stairs and three escalators providing access to the street, a walkway to the Swanston Street concourse, a booking office, ticket barriers, toilets, and stairs and five escalators leading down to the platforms.

Inside the ticket barriers of the Swanston Street concourse are toilets, two lifts and five escalators going to the platforms while outside is a food court, an exit to La Trobe Street and Level LG of the shopping center (which passes under Little Lonsdale Street).

To the shopping center level above, there is also a lift and four escalators. Level G, the next level up, has access, via the shopping center, to Little Lonsdale and LaTrobe Streets. Access to Swanston Street is via three escalators rising another floor (or the lift to level 1 and a 70 m. walk), and a walk through the shopping center past the shot tower.

The Shot Tower

The historic, 50 m. (160 ft.) high Coop’s Shot Tower, a shot tower  completed on June 29, 1889, was saved from demolition in 1973.  Incorporated into Melbourne Central complex in 1991, it is located underneath an 84 m-high conical glass roof. The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The conical glass roof above the tower

The tower, built with furnace fire bricks, is 9 storeys high, has a 40 ft. deep foundation, 3 ft. thick walls, and has 327 steps and 12 landing places to the top. The tower produced six tons of shot weekly up until 1961 (when, because of new firearm regulations, the demand for the lead shot dwindled). The tower was operated by the Coops family, who also managed Clifton Hill Shot Tower. Inside of the tower, at the back of R.M. Williams and DJI (D1 Store) a tenant in the tower, is the Shot Tower Museum.

Melbourne Central Station: cor. La Trobe Street and Swanston Streets Melbourne CBD, Melbourne, Australia.  Tel: 03 9922 1122. Website: www.melbournecentral.au.