Back in March 2015 a new bar and restaurant opened at Flinders Street Station, located on the site of the dismantled platform 11.
It is right on the banks of the Yarra River.
With two entrances – one at Elizabeth Street end, and the other outside Princes Bridge.
And a big fence separating the station from the bar.
Let us ignore the fact that a better use for the site would be to reopen the platform to cater for increasing patronage, and look at the actual bar and restaurant itself.
While building the bar, the west end of platform 10 was blocked off, with passengers having to squeeze through a single narrow walkway to exit the station.
Thankfully the area beside the exit ramp is now clear.
But the rest of the platform isn’t – the western end has been taken over as a storage area!
The piles of beer kegs keep on going and going.
Until the platform verandah runs out, and waiting passengers are left out in the bloody rain.
There are a million places in Melbourne where you can get a beer, and only so many places where you can catch a train. So why the hell are empty beer kegs stored in middle of a railway station?
This bar is the dumbest idea ever. There are many eating and drinking establishments nearby aand being on the south side makes it rather cold. Presumably someone stands to make a lot of money from this establishment. The travelling public obviously don’t matter in the bigger picture.
Apparently the bar is a joint venture between HQ Group (responsible for Coffee HQ) and Metro Trains:
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/food-news/arbory-bar-and-eatery-opens-on-abandoned-flinders-street-station-site-20150312-142eww.html
So you can guess who is making the money out of it…
Yeah, to be honest, platform 11 isn’t usable as an actual platform due to the Elisabeth St exit on the Yarra side, if you take a look, the stairs jut upwards and through the area where the tracks should be. Take a look, I am pretty sure you lost this platform a long time ago to patronage. Also, the thing is, this platform used to be overflow from the other main lines when there was a track crossing that ran all the way from one side to the other, but this has since been removed I believe as the tracks were relayed into a tighter configuration without the train storage. The platform as is, is only connected to the Sandringham line as it’s closed to the west end, and that to me is pointless.
Honestly, there are too many platforms at Flinders Street, they serve only as a parking lot for trains. What would be better is if we stopped running to a bloody timetable, and just ran as many trains as possible in peak hour. What occurs is trains are given an added 10 minutes parking time at Flinders Street for no purpose.
Also, they should have extended another viaduct between southern cross and Flinders street. This is a big bottleneck, and adds 10 minutes to every trains travel time.
In the ‘old days’ the western end platform 11 only connected to the St Kilda and Port Melbourne lines – this diagram shows the track layout in 1957:
http://www.signaldiagramsandphotos.com/mywebpages/vr/Metropolitan/8%2757.htm
Back then the southern roof of the Banana Alley Vaults was occupied by four carriage sidings – these were replaced in the 1970s by the pair of ‘new’ viaduct tracks.
From a quick look at Google Maps, it appears that it is possible to link to former platform 11 to the same tracks that serve platform 10.
As for the presence of the Elizabeth Street exit, it does occupy the former platform 11 trackbed, but the entire subway link to Southbank is in need of rework anyway, so I don’t see it as a constraint.
Here is a closer look at the former platform 11 edge in relation to the walkway:
https://railgallery.wongm.com/flinders-street-station/D889_8974.jpg.html
And the thumb twiddling at Flinders Street Station for driver changeovers – Metro Trains have tried changing it before, but didn’t get anywhere, for various reasons:
http://www.danielbowen.com/2012/05/29/metro-operations/
I took a look at the bar for the first time last week but I did not go to the area where the barrels are stored. That doesn’t seem right to take over public property, but then that battle has long been lost. We will visit Arbory for coffee and a snack one day.
I went there for some beers with mates the other week – nothing particularly special, and cold in winter since it is outside. The only upside for us was playing “spot the V/Line service” based on horn noises. 😛
I think the bar is a great idea, and I’m happy to see it there. But the storage of junk on the platform is certainly not acceptable.
I’ve been meaning to ask Metro Trains whether they’re actually allowed to do this. Certainly seems like an abuse of the license they’ve been given to operate the trains; this isn’t what public land is for.
In my opinion the serving of alcohol at a train station is not good. A train station should be designated for the purpose of transport. People are travelling from A to B and do not need distractions such as this or amphitheaters (as proposed in the Flinders street redevelopment), loud music etc. It is illegal to consume alcohol or carry an open container of alcohol on public transport. It could result in anti-social behaviour. Also should alcohol be served in sight of children.
PS. I believe in NSW they used to have licensed train stations. I may be incorrect but I vaguely remember railway stations serving alcohol when I was on holiday in the past. Maybe someone else knows more about this.
The VRI (Victorian Railways Institute) operates out of Lilydale station and has a licensed bar:
http://www.vri.org.au/index.php?page=lillydale-vri-home
But heritage trains are where the real fun is – spend the day onboard a restored train, and enjoy a beer or three along the way!
http://www.weekendnotes.com/heritage-train-ballarat-ballarat-beer-festival-dunolly-day-out/
Country refreshment rooms in all States served alcohol as part of their normal service to passengers or intending passengers – just as they sold tea, railway pies, and fruitcake. Indeed, they were exempt from the normal licensing hours as the train service did not always call during those hours (this lead to locals using the refreshment rooms as their local, and complaints from publicans).
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