page_title: Flinders Street railway station
section_title: Refurbishment
hierarchical_section_title: Flinders Street railway station / History / Refurbishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, as seen from the Yarra River at night.
context_page_description: Flinders Street railway station is an historic building located on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1854, today it serves the entire metropolitan rail network, as well as some country services to eastern victoria. Backing onto the Yarra River in the heart of the city, the complex includes platforms and structures that stretch over more than two whole city blocks, from east of Swanston Street nearly to Market Street.
  Flinders Street is served by Metro's suburban services, and V/Line regional services to Gippsland. It is the busiest station on Melbourne's metropolitan network, with over 77,153 daily entries recorded in the 2017/18 fiscal year. It was the terminus of the first railway in Australia, was reputedly the world's busiest passenger station in the 1920s. The 708-metre platform 1+14+'milk dock' is Australia's longest, and the fourth longest railway platform in the world. Flinders Street Station is responsible for two of Melbourne's busiest pedestrian crossings, both across Flinders Street, including one of Melbourne's few pedestrian scrambles.
context_section_description: The Swanston Street concourse has undergone the most change of any part of the station, and is now three times the depth of the original structure, and only the canopy and roofed area on Swanston Street remains of the original. After the first round of works in 1985 a City of Melbourne councillor, Trevor Huggard, described the renovation as "vandalism of historically important sections of the station", and in 1997 the National Trust of Australia described the additions to the concourse as unsympathetic and detrimental to the station, having "the character of a modern shopping centre".
  The television displays used to display next train information were added to each platform in July 1980.
  In 1982, a $7 million refurbishment was announced by the Minister of Transport Minister for Transport, Stephen Crabb, divided into four phases, designed by the railways architect Kris Kudlicki. Completed by 1984, the first escalators at the station provided on platform 2 / 3 replaced the ramps, and new public toilets were provided, replacing those over the platforms. The main station concourse was tiled and extended westward over the tracks, with skylights added above the ramps, 16 new shops opened on the concourse. A restaurant was built on the southern side facing the river, which opened in October 1985, but closed soon after, becoming instead the "Clocks on Flinders" poker machine venue in 1994. The main steps were embedded with electrical circuits to keep them dry in June 1985.
  In 1993, the Elizabeth Street pedestrian subway opened at the Southbank end. Conservation work was also carried out to the main building, with the external facade painted in the original colours, exterior feature lighting installed, and the stained glass feature windows above each entry restored. Further changes were made through the late 1990s with the opening of access from the main Swanston Street concourse to platform 1, platform resurfacing with tactile tiles, and the replacement of the remainder of the original platform access ramps (except platform 10) with escalators and elevators.
  The tracks to the east of the station were rebuilt in 1997/98 to clear the way for the Federation Square project. Jolimont Yard was eliminated, with $40 million spent to reduce 53 operating lines between Flinders Street and Richmond Station to just 12. The number of points was also reduced, from 164 to 48. These changes also saw a reallocation of platform usage at the station, country trains being shifted from platform 1 to platform 10, and Clifton Hill group trains being shifted from the deleted Princes Bridge Station to platform 1.
  The final round of changes were completed by 2007. It included refurbishment of the building roof and concourse foundations, an upgrade of platform 10 with escalators and a lift replacing the ramp, the relocation of all ticket booking offices to the main entrance under the main dome and new LCD Passenger Information Displays installed on the platforms, subways and concourse. In March 2009 an escalator replaced the lift to platform 12 and 13, with platform 13 also extended westwards into daylight along the alignment of the former platform 11.
  
  In 2008, the retail pavilions on the concourse were rebuilt, increasing their area. An investigation of the potential of the abandoned spaces in the station, overseen by a taskforce comprising representatives from Connex, the Committee for Melbourne, Melbourne City Council, Heritage Victoria, was completed the same year, but the conclusions have not been made public. In January 2010, one of the first announcements by the new Minister for Public Transport was that the government was investigating the refurbishment of the abandoned spaces for "cultural uses".
  In mid-February 2015, Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan announced that $100 million would be spent for urgent refurbishment works to upgrade station platforms, entrances, toilets, information displays and the restoration of exterior of the main building. By July 2017, the station had been almost completely repainted i
caption: The station at night
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