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:

    For now the moon with friendless light carouses
    On hill and housetop, street and marketplace,
    Men will plunge, mile after mile of men,
    To crush this lucent madness of the face....
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.
    Toni Morrison (b. 1931)