In general after privatisation the State Government still owns the railway land and infrastructure, with the legal owner being VicTrack, a State Owned Enterprise:

http://www.victrack.com.au/en/we-are-victrack/about-victrack

The assets are then leased to the rail and tram operators, who control and maintain the infrastructure and land they lease.

Southern Cross and Melbourne Central stations are still government owned, the former with the Public Private Partnership encumbering it, the latter with multiple connections into private land.

Not at all Charlotte. Southern Cross station is run by a shadowy organisation called Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd, a private company, as part of a public-private partnership with the state government. It is not owned or run by Metro, or V/Line for that matter.

Anyway, the point is that Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd is prepared to subordinate the interests of passengers and the general public (who the station is there to serve) to the interests of private organisations.

That just goes to show – money buys you anything, including permission to block what were once public thoroughfares.

A few moths ago I was being interviewed by a two-man Channel 9 crew on the Spencer Street pavement near that very spot when a security guard told them to cease and desist. The crew declined to do so and the guard said he’d go and tell his boss. By the time we wrapped up ten minutes later, nothing had happened.