Southern Cross Railway Station

What can I say? All aboard, well it’s no Grand Central or Union Station it’s cold windless but oh so unique! It’s staff reflect its image cold and lifeless if you can find them. Lack of ticket machines lack of unique eateries as all appear to be linked to one catering company! Ran out of funds in construction some regional platforms have no escalators and elevators designed to carry two people and luggage! Toilets worst than a third world out house filthy is too kind a word! Hold on use bars toilets across road! Remember to have good walking shoes as some regional trains depart at station that nearly qualifies for another postcode!

Southern Cross is fantastic!
This train station links Melbourne to the suburbs, to country towns, interstate and to the airport. Not to mention you can do your grocery shopping there, grab a quick snack and maybe do some clothes/​accessory shopping too.
This train station is fairly modern and has great amenities, lockers and caters very well for disabled too.

Formerly known as Spencer St Station. Nice hub in and out of town. This crazy roof spot is where most of the main country trains depart from.
A variety of stores-​book, candy, Woolworths and eateries around. Makes for good people watching when your train is delayed or cancelled.
Please ensure that you have adequate funds on your Myki. The Inspections here love their job to the letter of the law. Laws you’ve never heard of but might be financially penalised for

Great station! Running all the trains, skybus to airport, busses and regional trains!
Surrounded by numerous food courts and shops this station has it all!
Always new promotions going on and as it’s my walk to work I forever get some cool freebies as I walk through, today was two bottles of ice tea :-)!! Thanks Trekkers.

Great new station: useful services & shops; clean; light; I like the architecture.
A bit too big and spacious, making things too far apart sometimes, especially SkyBus, but that’s another story.

I love this station and all it has to offer.
Can get anything i want or need for any trip.
Nice to have a station you can just hang out at.

Err… what’s with these low reviews of Southern Cross? Honestly, I love the place and wouldn’t mind if it was on my regular train route. Unfortunately, I can only come here when I have some sort of excuse (Skybus).
Location:
Call me crazy, but I think that Southern Cross looks impressive. With the curvy roof to the modern looking platforms, sometimes I like to stare and pretend that I’m in some future space movie getting ready to be launched on a rocket to the moon.
… Is that just me? Okay…
Honestly though, it’s a clean place and it’s right in the CBD on the western side. I come here to take the Skybus, so maybe that’s why I like to pretend that it’s the portal to some long future-​esque journey.
Trains:
Because it’s in the CBD and the train’s city loop runs through Southern Cross, you could never really get stranded here with no trains to take you where you need to go. It does its job efficiently hey!
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I can’t really say anything bad about Southern Cross. To be honest, I like it a lot better than Flinders Street Railway Station (it’s a lot cleaner and a lot less crowded). But maybe as a newbie to Melbourne, I’m a lot more impressed by the architecture than the locals. Regardless, a clean and efficient station — what’s there to hate?

Southern Cross, or Spencer st station as it was formerly known, is good for a few things.
It is good to gaze at in awe whilst thinking «what was the purpose of this gigantic wavy roof that is so futuristic that all it does is remind me how outdated and dirty most of the platforms are»
It is also good for watching people from the country in their acubra hats and flannel shirts decend on our city, whilst juggling 3 suitcases and a mobile phone that looks like a brick and has an antenna reaching out into the skies.
No seriously though, I do like Southern Cross. Whilst those platforms can be pretty grotty, the rest of the station is clean, open and easy to get around, particularly with front street access to Spencer st as well as the walking bridge over to the docklands. There are plenty of staff around, so if you need a little help with your platform numbers, there is usually someone to give you a hand.
And in regards to those country passengers coming through the V line regional system (both the local Metro lines and the regional and interstate lines depart from here), I promise I’m just joking! (Not about the hats, though). I ride the Geelong train often enough to know that the regional passengers are the ones better off, with their comfy chairs, uncrowded carriages and friendly ticket inspectors.
They also have a departure lounge, which is perfect for those transfering lines or waiting for regional or interstate trains. The regional buses leave from here too, as does the Sky bus, a direct way to get to the airport.
In truth, this is a great spot to people watch. With a mix of country and city people arriving and departing from here, it can be a very entertaining place to wait for your train.

The former Spencer Street Station must have participated in an extreme make-​over show as it looks nothing like its former self. I believe this to be a good thing. As the first impression for many visitors to Melbourne it needs to have world class facilities and interesting design.
Its main function as a transport hub is secure as the Skybus from Melbourne Airport arrives here, as do interstate and country V-​Line trains.
The metropolitan train station disperses Melbourne’s population to everywhere from the coastal town of Frankston to the bush setting of Hurstbridge. The bus depot is a cavern of bays where interstate and country bound buses depart like clockwork.
Toilets are cleaned regularly, they have a travelers aid kiosk as well as lost property and luggage storage. All little heralded but much need traveler services.
There is a wide range of shops, cafes and restaurants so anything you need in transit is available here. Parking is what you would expect, standard expensive rates.
As someone a little too familiar with various train stations around the world (nothing like spending the night on a concrete floor to save a few euro as a backpacker) Southern Cross station is a quality transport hub and does everything you would expect it to.

We’ve all got our crosses to bear. For me, the station formerly known as has two. There’s the new name, and the connotations of racism and «mateism» that the term now associates with.
But that’s forgivable, I suppose. What’s less forgivable that they don’t have a full, visible timetable after the paywall. You get your ticket, pass the gates, and you either need to know your platform or you’ll have to leave and come back. How could the architects of the multi-​illion dollar refit not realise the problem with this?

I can still remember when Southern Cross Station was Spencer Street Station come to think of it I actually usually still refer to it as Spencer. The station has undergone a massive transformation from it’s original structure, however I’m not so sure this transformation has improved the station in any way. Being one of Melbourne’s major stations it really is incredibly ugly to look at, the cold steel Grey structure depicts some kind of futuristic space type formation with it’s waved roof and geometric pillars running from here to there it still feels like they are ironing out the last of the problems with the station system.
Southern Cross Station is the central city point for both the metrain system as well as vline (country trains). There are a few shops upstairs as Southern Cross as well as a food court downstairs in case you need refreshments due to the annoyingly frequent delays.

Formerly and better known as Melbourne’s iconic Spencer street station; Southern Cross has undergone extensive renovations and today is barely recognisable from the days before Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
Today, Southern Cross is the only interstate terminal, making it Melbourne’s busiest transport hub in terms of being the only transport hub in the city for regional Victoria and interstate train and bus travelers. So if you’re going country or heading north, east or west by train or bus, this is your first stop.
There’s also a magnificent shopping complex located on the mezzanine floor, and since changing from DFO recently this has become a really great place to shop. The hoards of scavengers have left the building, leaving in their place a much smaller group of leisurely travelers strolling the abundance of retail outlets. When I’ve got my kids with me, Southern Cross has become one of my favourite shopping centres in the city, not too large for little feet to scamper around, no longer too busy and some great cafes and coffee lounges with panoramic views over Etihad stadium.
For Metro users Southern Cross is very average, hence the three stars. Signs are often wrong and misleading, trains arrive at the wrong platforms regularly, sometimes making for a frustratingly long wait, connecting services simply just do not connect and departing trains are infrequent and often delayed or cancelled.

Southern Cross Station has a departure lounge. I like travelling, and I’ve now got a Pavlovian association between a departure lounge and that excited feeling of going on an adventure. So to know that I can go to a city train station and experience that is quite wonderful.
To further the «travel» experience, there are the obligatory tourist and travel supplies shops (jumper, magazine, toothbrush, socks etc), the food court, the bar, the architecturally designed ceiling, the ticket queue… I could go on, but then I might as well just put up pictures of Melbourne Airport and the station and ask you to play a game of spot the difference.
What really impresses me about the station is its scale. It’s huge. Yes, I know this where you can catch a train or a bus to numerous interstate locations as well as to country and metropolitan Victoria. But it’s really huge. Could double as a Tyrannosaurus farm kind of huge.