Flinders Street Station-colloquially shortened to simply Flinders Street or sometimes FSS-is a central commuter railway station at the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets in Melbourne. It serves the entire metropolitan rail network. Backing onto the city reach of the Yarra River in the heart of the city, the complex covers two whole city blocks and extends from Swanston Street to Queen Street.
Each weekday, over 110,000 commuters and 1,500 trains pass through the station. It is the most used metropolitan railway station in Melbourne, in 2009 there was an average of 85,100 passenger boardings per day. Flinders Street is serviced by Metro‘s suburban services, and V/Line regional services to Gippsland. It was the first railway station in an Australian city, the terminus for the first use of steam rail in Australia and the world’s busiest passenger station in the late 1920s.
The main station building, completed in 1909, is a cultural icon to Melbourne, with its prominent dome, arched entrance, tower and clocks it is one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. As such it is frequently used to symbolise the city and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Melburnian idiom “I’ll meet you under the clocks”, refers to the row of clocks above the main entrance, which indicate the time-tabled time of departure for trains on each line; another idiom “I’ll meet you on the steps”, refers to the wide staircase underneath these clocks. 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.
In November 2011, the Victorian Government launched a $1 million international design competition to rejuvenate and restore the station. In October 2012, after receiving 118 submissions, six finalists were selected. The public could vote for the people’s choice award until August 5 and the jury’s choice and people’s choice winner were announced on August 8, 2013. The competition winner was HASSELL + Herzog & de Meuron, while the people’s choice winner were University of Melbourne students Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina.
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