Cold, dirty, empty: Southern Cross Station in sad state less than 20 years after $700m upgrade

Shuttered shops, vending machines in place of restaurants and shoulder-to-shoulder shuffles in peak times. Is this the “world-class transport facility” Melburnians were promised 20 years ago?

Commuters are urging operators to improve the state of Southern Cross Station after a mass exodus by retailers and restaurants.

Southern Cross Station is one of Melbourne’s busiest stations — nearly six million passengers from regional areas alone passed through last financial year — and arguably the most important as the first impression of Melbourne for travellers arriving from the airport on the SkyBus and interstate via V/Line.

Southern Cross Station is one of Melbourne’s busiest, and arguably most important, train stations.

But commuters have been arriving into Melbourne to find a line-up of shuttered and graffitied stores, cafes, restaurants and retailers, many replaced by vending machines in the main arrival areas.

A massive 30 per cent of businesses on the ground floor — still being advertised online by Southern Cross Station — are temporarily or permanently closed.

A spate of retailers have closed and been replaced by vending machines at Southern Cross Station.

Amcal is among the many shuttered businesses at Southern Cross Station.

Commuters say more must be done to improve Southern Cross Station.

Traveller Anthony Lloyd was less than impressed on Friday morning when he discovered his regional train was nearly seven hours away.

As he sat on a steel bench, surrounded by seagulls and vending machines at 11am, in front of once-trading restaurants and retailers, he lamented “there’s nowhere to wait, there’s not many shops, not much to do”.

“The smell is not real good,” he said. “Too many seagulls.”

Empty shopfronts have been blocked by vending machines and serve-yourself-style retailers.

The complaints come less than 20 years after the $700m refurb of what was then called Spencer Street Station.

The state government promised to deliver a “destination landmark” and a “world class transport facility”, and in 2006, the renamed Southern Cross Station was opened.

The completion of Southern Cross failed to deliver on the initial project renders, scrapping a planned roof over the Bourke Street Bridge and decreasing the size of the wave roof — leaving passengers on V/Line platforms exposed to the elements.

The Department of Transport and Planning (DoTP) has released the first of a range of surveys to gather feedback from Southern Cross customers on their experiences navigating, spending time in and travelling to and from the station.

“A customer experience survey is currently underway at Southern Cross Station, and the feedback provided will help inform potential ways to improve the passenger experience,” a DoTP spokesperson said.

Spencer Street Station was considered a Melbourne eyesore.

The initial design phase included a roof over the Bourke St bridge.

Budget blowouts meant plans for the roof had to be scrapped.

First-time visitor to the station Sian Simmons said she had “expected more” after “so much talk” about Southern Cross Station.

“It’s really cold, it’s dirty, there’s birds flying around – I feel like I’m going to get pooped on by a bird,” Ms Simmons said.

“It’s convenient, but is it nice? Not really.”

She, along with many other commuters, mentioned the smell of the idling diesel V/Line trains – causing nitrogen dioxide levels in some areas of the station to far exceed recommendations by health authorities, according to an investigation by the ABC.

The DoTP confirmed it was working with stakeholders to reduce emissions at Southern Cross Station by rolling out modern VLocity trains, more efficient buses, and reducing idling times at platforms and in the bus interchange.

Idling V/Line trains produce a foul smell inside the station.

There have been calls to reopen the pedestrian subway for better airflow, which once linked commuters straight to Little Collins St and saved them from crossing the road on ground level, but to no avail.

The area is now used for back of house operations and facilities management, like for storage of equipment, as well as for transporting passengers with mobility issues on Travellers Aid buggies, as confirmed by the DoTP.

The old Spencer St Station pedestrian subway is now used for back of house operations.

The complaints form the latest in a long list raised by the Public Transport User Association (PTUA), which says the station is “not the efficient welcoming transport hub it should be”.

Spokesperson Daniel Bowen said the lack of bins on platforms and resulting litter, poor lighting, and “continual reliability problems” with lifts and escalators needed to be addressed.

He said passengers were also regularly inconvenienced by the positioning of information screens, some of which were located behind support columns, making them difficult to read.

“The screens don’t show the same information as those around the rest of the Metro network, such as line colours,” Mr Bowen said.

Mess, darkness and lack of information to linking service were among the many issues highlighted by the PTUA.

He alleged authorities had “little interest” in improving the issues, and that the contract with private operator Civic Nexus to maintain the station, handed over in 2006, had failed to keep up with the times.

“A number of aspects of the public transport network are privately run, but unlike the tram and train contracts, the Southern Cross Station contract hasn’t evolved over that time to take into account changing requirements from passengers, or emerging issues,” Mr Bowen said.

“Overall it seems like there is lots of room for improvement around Southern Cross Station but little interest from authorities in actually achieving a better outcome for passengers.

“It’s good that the government is running a survey taking feedback from passengers — we’re hopeful they will review the contract and press the private owners to upgrade the station. They should also plan to start electrification of the V/Line network, which will help with the fumes.”

Commuters are calling for bettered services at Southern Cross Station.

While many commuters expressed disappointment at the state of the transport hub, others thought it did live up to the “world-class transport facility” promised to Victorians 20 years ago.

“I come here once a year (from South Australia) to go overseas and it’s easy travelling, cheap, and it looks good,” Granny Elliott said.

“I think it’s terrific. It’s great that you can get fast food, and there’s Woolies and BWS, so it’s all here,” Deb Koppel said.

Originally published as Cold, dirty, empty: Southern Cross Station in sad state less than 20 years after $700m upgrade