North Williamstown Station – too high

A new low-level railway station at North Williamstown formed part of the Ferguson Street level crossing removal project, but on opening in December 2021 seating at the new station was anything but stupidly high.

Passengers left dangling their feet up in the air.

Who designs this crap – the seats at the new North Williamstown station are sky high

Every seat at the new station being stupidly high above the ground.

At least their was a lot of them!

Perhaps this bloke was the architect, wanting to extract revenge on a world that forced him to pull his legs up everywhere?

Luckily Australian Standards 1428.2-1992 “Design for access and mobility, Part 2: Enhanced and additional requirements – Buildings and facilities” details how high a seat should be off the ground.

The seats at North Williamstown look quite non-compliant, and luckily the Level Crossing Removal Authority agreed.

Hi Marcus – thanks for getting in touch. We passed this feedback on to the project team who've confirmed as part of our landscaping and finishing works on the new North Williamstown Station and surrounding precinct, the height of the station seats will be lowered.

— Level Crossing Removal Project (@levelcrossings) January 11, 2022

But two months after opening, fixing the seats was still on their todo list.

Hi, thanks for getting in touch. The lowering of the station seating will commence this week.

— Level Crossing Removal Project (@levelcrossings) February 1, 2022

The seats finally being replaced with normal height ones by March 2022.

Deer Park Station – the Bunnings special

In April 2023 a new elevated station at Deer Park opened as part of the Mt Derrimut Road level crossing removal project, but it wasn’t quite quite done – Myki ticketing equipment and accessible access skipped in the rush to get the station open.

Ordering seating for waiting passengers also got missed in the process, so the Level Crossing Removal Authority had to race down to Bunnings and pick up a pile of “Black Steel Park Benches” by Marquee to place along the platforms.

As a rest area along the DDA-compliant ramp.

Marquee brand ‘Steel Park Benches’ from Bunnings installed on the ramp to platform 1

And along the rabbit warren of paths through the construction site for platform access.

They also had a half-dozen left over seats by the time they were finished.

Which would explain why I can no longer find this specific ‘Steel Park Bench’ on the Bunnings Website.

Union Station- the leafy eastern doesn’t miss out!

In May 2023 the new low-level Union Station opened in Melbourne’s east, replacing Surrey Hills and Mont Albert station as part of the removal of the Union Road and Mont Albert Road level crossings, after an intensive three month shutdown of the railway.

But that still wasn’t enough time to order some proper bench seats for the new station environs.

Bench. Stairs. Sign pic.twitter.com/qgtFZxyAaO

— Hotel 7 // Lavender (@literar63) May 21, 2023

They made a quick trip down to Bunnings, and picked up some “Marquee 1.2m Black Steel And Cast Iron Mimosa Ornate Benches” for $135 each.

I suppose they look a bit fancier than the ones Deer Park was given.

Footnote – Australian Standards

You can’t actually read Australian Standards without paying through the nose for them, despite a whole swag of legislation requiring compliance with them – so have fun trying to get access to Australian Standards 1428.2-1992 “Design for access and mobility, Part 2: Enhanced and additional requirements – Buildings and facilities”. Instead, here’s a quick summary on what it says on street furniture.

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Finding it

Don’t go looking on the platforms, filled with exhaust smoke.

There are bench seats along the Spencer Street concourse, but they aren’t it.

Despite the view out to the street.

You’ve got to head to the Collins Street end of the station, on the ground floor, opposite the V/Line ticket gates to platforms 1 through 8.

And there is is – a waiting room, filled with cold metal bench seats.

But don’t get too comfortable

Once upon a time, the waiting room at Southern Cross Station wasn’t completely horrible – it had long padded bench seats, which for some reason faced the back wall.

Photo via Foursquare

But around 2019 station managed turned the seats to face sideways, removing any blind spots.

And erected a massive ‘There is NO LAYING DOWN in the waiting room’ sign.

Along with a long list of rules and conditions for anyone using the ‘passenger lounge’.

The sign reading:

The Southern Cross Station passenger lounges are for legitimate passengers and friends or family of passengers that may be waiting with them. Use of the lounges and waiting areas is conditional on the following rules and conditions:

• You may be required to produce proof of intent to travel if requested to do so by Security
• No lying down on the floor, or lying across the seats is permitted
• Sitting on the floor is not permitted
• Sleeping in the passenger lounge is not permitted
• Massage chairs are for paying customer use only
• Passengers within the passenger lounge must behave in the civilised manner at all times
• Electrical outlets are for station/maintenance use only and must not be used by passengers

The passenger lounge is monitored by CCTV and patrolled regularly by Security, Protective Service Officers (PSO’s) and the Victoria Police. Failure to comply with the above conditions, may result in you being asked to leave the passenger lounge and/or station and removed if you do not comply with a request to leave.

But all those rules weren’t hostile enough to passengers, so station management took the nuclear option – removing the padded seats, and replacing them with cold steel benches.

Complete with armrests to prevent anyone from laying down on them.

Success?

Footnote: the other waiting room

Southern Cross has a second waiting room at the coach terminal end of the station, hiding in the alleyway beneath the Bourke Street Bridge.

Beside the CountryLink and V/Line ticket offices, luggage hall, and travellers aid office.

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