Flinders Street Station

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, Victoria, Australia. 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.

Read more about Flinders Street Station:  Clocks, Signal Boxes, Platforms and Services, Bus Services

Famous quotes containing the words street and/or station:

    The skyscraper establishes the block, the block creates the street, the street offers itself to man.
    Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    With boys you always know where you stand. Right in the path of a hurricane. It’s all there. The fruit flies hovering over their waste can, the hamster trying to escape to cleaner air, the bedrooms decorated in Early Bus Station Restroom.
    Erma Bombeck (20th century)