The Boronia grade separation was the catalyst for the big Level Crossing Removal project. It was done as an independent project in the late 1990s, hence the horrible decor but it was a roaring success and brought an end to Melbourne's most dangerous railway crossing.
@@alistairwhite2906 Bosnia? I do remember reading that the six-way crossing of the Belgrave railway, Boronia and Dorset Roads had among the most accidents of any level crossing in Melbourne, including a collision with a bus in 1952.
@@QJ89As someone who is not from Melbourne: WTF? Who in their right mind would put a railway through a road intersection? I’m used to level crossings going out of their way to avoid such things in the middle of the country, let alone suburbs of a major city. I have the same thoughts about the the tram-train-road triple crossing for the Glen Waverley line at Glenferrie Road in Kooyong. Who in their right mind would ever design such a thing?
@basketcase6999 The railway to Fern Tree Gully opened in 1889, long before road traffic became a concern. Boronia station opened in 1920, so you may be on to something with poor planning. The best thing about the Rail Squares, like at Kooyong, was the novelty of train and tram crossing paths. Other than that, they are impractical because of how slowly you have to cross over them.
@@QJ89 You are indeed correct. In fact that intersection was responsible for our 1984 Nissan Bluebird station wagon being written off. Thankfully not a train accident but yeah, that intersection was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
I was about to mention that you can order maccas at Melbourne Central - but then they've gotten rid of that back counter during the remodeling, right? As a kid, I thought it was pure magic that you could still get fast food while inside a ticketed area.
Great video! Another station to add would be South Kensington. Locals call it the Bus Stop as it only has tiny shelters and very narrow platforms, making it among the least desirable in the network.
I was surprised Boronia made it on the list, it never even occurred to me that it was so dated looking. But I did grow up going to Boronia mall. If you think the station looks old...
.....the old station was even WORSE! My wife tells a tale of horror when she was a child walking to school, coming down to the level crossing to see the aftermath of a fatal incident. There were no automated crossings; not even secure manned gate. Two nuns had been crossing after one train had gone through. A second train was coming from the other direction right after the first had passed..... Their massacred corpses were still on the road.
@@petesig93 oh no! I remember the nuns (not these specific ones but in general). On my first day of high school I had to catch the train and couldn’t remember which side to be on. I asked a nun and she cheerfully escorted me to the right platform. I’d been so scared of getting it wrong and really cross with myself for not remembering which side my parents had shown me the week before.
After decades of living on the Lilydale/Belgrave lines, we'd always see a lonesome traveller waiting ever so patiently on the East Richmond station as our train sped past. And the ONE time our train stopped there, the station was empty and nobody got on or off. Still, I'm happy say. 😊--" Yes, onetime we stopped at East Richmond."
You left out the most important thing about Heyington: it has a wheelchair ramp to get from the platform into the waiting shed on platform 1, even though there is no access for wheelchairs to the station itself! Also: Box Hill never had a track on platform 1, the platform was installed as a future-proof for eventual track expansion. And Boronia, you didn't mention the loud echo in the tunnel - when trains depart on the down , the already loud horn on those crappy x-traps is much, much louder, some enlightened drivers sound the horn for longer than necessary, quite rightly, just for the effect.
Platform 1 definitely existed in the 90s. Have fond memories of running down that ramp to get the Lilydale line whilst holding a massive art folio (Box Hill TAFE was nearby). Platform 1 was stopping all stations and Platform 2 was express trains out to Lilydale/Belgrave. So there were moments you’d calculate which train would be best to get home - with occasional sprints to Platform 2 if the express was coming. I’m actually a little sad that Platform 1 has now gone.
@@kirsteng4625 If you went through the gate near Maccas* you went to (what is now) Platform 4. At nearly all Stations if there's separated platforms, Platform 1 is nearly always City bound trains. The ramp down to that Platform 1, with the missing track, on very South side of Box Hill Station, was near where Target was. It had a separate ramp access, to the ones for the other platform. if you got an outbound, it's extremely unlikely to have stopped at that furthest south side platform shown in the video. I too, have got a few trains, & definitely City Bound from that platform going home (via CBD), after meeting friends who worked in Box Hill, for lunch. I had never caught an outbound train past Box Hill, until this century. It is Platform 4, if in use (& think it's just during peak hours) that's the Blackburn terminating, stopping all stations, train. That service used to be Box Hill terminating, & terminated at the platform (4) closest to Maccas. *That ticket gates entrance near Maccas has changed, but if you walked from Tafe through the Station St underpass into the shopping centre, then (almost) immediately turned right & through the gates, you went to Platform 4. As said, there's No way an outbound train would've gone into Platform 1, even if was still in use back then. The ramp down to 4, & the ramp down to 1 (separate ramps), in the video, were very similar but the one to 1, in video had 2 turns in it, where one on Maccas side has one turn in it. There's photos online of the open-cut trench they dug, with tracks laid, before the shopping centre was built, & I think there's photos or film on youtube of the Box Hill platforms in the 80s. I think there's photo of the track being removed too (which I think is on State Library website). When I find them again, I'll let you know where to find them. Come to think of it I think I may even have something on my PC or bookmarked, but for train & tram stuff I need bookmarks for my bookmarks lol. If my thinking/memory is wrong, a rail buff (more than I am) will soon comment , but I don't see how that Platform 1, on far south side of the Station, would've taken any outbound trains. Except maybe temporarily in the 80, while the other tracks were being realigned/laid.
I grew up in Ferntree Gully near the border with Boronia, and my local bus route had a terminus at Boronia Station, making it my local train station. There's a strange sense of pride I have in the fact that my station is the ugliest in all Melbourne, and a part of me is very sad that we'll lose that depressing, brutalist aesthetic when the station gets rebuilt.
Fun fact when boronia was being built, the boronia and dorset road tunnel was flooded when they dug into a underground creek it took many months for that problem to be pumped out.
And here I thought stations like North Williamstown and Edithvale were most at risk for flooding because they were rebuilt in trenches so close to the sea. When a mountainside station site floods first, precautions in irrigation and drainage have to be made.
Got another station to station run challenge for you. If you're on the Hurstbridge train heading out of the city and want to change at Clifton hill for Mernda but forget to get off, You can then go to Westgarth station and get off there. Instead of waiting for a train back Clifton hill, you have 10 minutes during non peak hours to make it to Merri Station on the Mernda line to make the same train you would have boarded at Clifton Hill if you got off when you were supposed to. It's totally doable as long as you're reasonably fit. Good luck! Oh yeah, another great video by the way.
I moved to Melbourne around the time Boronia was finished. It was my local for the first few months I was here and it was pretty spiffy at the time. The funny part was it was clearly a Met design that had to have Hillside then Connex stickers put over everything from day 1.
Just like Box Hill station, Tower City station in Cleveland, Ohio isn't underground either despite feeling like it! Most of downtown Cleveland sits atop a bluff whereas the base of Tower City was built at river level against the side of the bluff, so its main entrance is up on top of the bluff. Tower City is so overbuilt, and this is because the Van Sweringen brothers built the terminal tower as a plan to use it as the hub for all of Cleveland. They are the ones that built the Blue and Green Lines to Shaker Heights as they owned Shaker Heights and used it as a development scheme. They wanted to build more streetcar/light rail suburbs like Shaker Heights and connect them to the tower on top of intercity trains. On the Long Island Rail Road, one of the most interesting stations is Pinelawn! The station opened in the 1890s. In 1902, William H. Locke Jr. had the vision to create a beautiful memorial park on Long Island for those in the city, who were offered the ease of the LIRR to bring their loved ones for funeral arrangements. In its first years of service, Pinelawn Memorial Park provided overnight accommodations for families who were burying their loved ones within the vast, peaceful, green land. Long Island National Cemetery was eventually created there in the 1930s after the US gov purchased land from Pinelawn Cemetery to house more WWI veterans as Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn didn't have enough space.
Box Hill Station is most certainly underground. It's below street level. You can see above ground when looking out at either end, yet that doesn't mean it's at ground level.
South Kensington is a must do for a part 2. Maybe even Darling Platform 2, as it is isolated between the train line and the Monash Freeway with just a ramp to access it.
Really enjoyable content mate, well done again!! I was all set to comment on Heyington if you didn't include it. It's amazing that it's the only station with only staircase accessibility in Melbourne! The extra unique thing about the school access there is that it's ONLY accessible to students and staff, there's no exit from the station on that side for the general public and it's actually locked on weekends. That would have to be pretty unique in Melbourne. Keep up the good work 😀
There is also no public access at Flemington Racecourse Station. Google maps led me there one day and I had to have a staff member of the racecourse lead me through to the exit!
Perth's Strangest Train Stations: Kelmscott station - There is a bus interchange in the middle of the station's island platform. Buses must cross a level crossing to enter the station and exit the station. Beckenham and Kenwick stations - These stations are quite similar. Each platform is on either side of a level crossing. Warwick and Whitfords stations - These stations are also quite similar to each other. These stations are in the middle of the Mitchell Freeway but have a giant elevated bus interchange above the platforms in the middle of the freeway.
And as a driver Beckenham and Kenwick can be daunting sometimes not knowing if some f***wit is going to cross behind stationary train in front of yours.
The display at East Richmond is not actually a CRT display, as was common in the loop and Flinders Street in the 90's and 2000's, but whats called an LED Matrix or Dot Matrix display.
Willison station is like "I've mastered the ability of standing so incredibly still...that I become invisible to the eye". Yup, lack of signage will do that to a station's ridership! The fact it was built for golfers reminds me of the story of the Chicago suburb of Golf, Illinois. Yes, the actual place is called just Golf. The story goes that Albert Earling was the president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad company in the early 1900s, a status that afforded him his own railcars! Earling was a member at Glen View Club and would hitch his private car to the back of northbound trains, unhitching at a special siding station the railroad company had created for these trips. He told colleagues he was "going to golf", and before long, people called it the "golf stop" and thus its name simply became Golf. Before the domination of cars, many golf clubs were built near train stations, because riding trains to a golf club was how the rich flexed their wealth back in the day. Long Island is home to the oldest incorporated golf club in the US, Shinnecock Hills built along the Montauk Branch. The club has been around since 1891! There used to be two stations that served it called Shinnecock Hills and Southampton College. Whenever the golf club is hosting the US Open tournament, a temporary platform is built at the former location of Southampton College station, and this has happened in 1986, 2004, and 2018.
A couple of other odd stations are Aircraft which serves a mostly unused RAAF base. Fawkner which is pretty much located inside the Fawkner cemetery. Glen Huntly which also has trams running across the track however this is set to be removed. Sandown which serves the Sandown racecourse, but then that brings up the Showgrounds and Flemington Racecourse stations.
Omg yes. I had to visit the RAAF out there for work back in 2001 and use the Aircraft station. Felt like an isolated little ghost spot at the time as you were often waiting alone. Thanks for the reminder :-)
Sandown, these days, is just a regular station. Back in the day, it was only open on race days, like Flemington, and had several sidings to accommodate this purpose. It was closed in the mid 50s, and in the mid 60s it was rebuilt and reopened for regular passenger services.
I live near Cleveland, Ohio and I gotta say the weirdest metro stops we have are the ones that also happen to be stops for trams. The stations being Tower City, Tri C Campus, and East 55th Street. Cleveland is also one of only a handful of metros in the U.S. that uses overhead power instead of third rail.
The weirdest train station in Melbourne is Tecoma, the one immediately before Belgrave when you're travelling away from the city. It has one platform, and the whole thing looks like it was randomly dropped in the middle of a forest, or maybe a forest grew around it.
@@paulstubbs7678I think Box Hill had the last CRTs... according to a Reddit post I found it seems like the station had them until about 5 years ago, much later than any other station I know of!
Box Hill feels to me not so much like a train station but like a transport hub. With the amount of buses there and how easily they integrate it makes me think I'm in another country as it's not something that happens much here.
The contemporary term for the likes of Box Hill is "Transport orientated development". Like it or loathe it, there will be many more shopping centres, carparks and even apartments built on top of stations in the not-too-distant future. Sydney's North Shore station is another example. There's a hotel built straddling the platforms, like a saddle. Curious? Walk into reception in what was the Harbour View North Shore hotel and note you have to walk up one flight of stairs to get to the lift lobby, or continue beyond the lifts and head down a flight to get to the breakfast room. Yes, you have just walked over the two platforms! [The annoying bit is if you are a guest in said hotel the connection from reception to the station is an overly long walk up a steep hill.]
@@snowyalice yea i saw it recently last time i was at box hill! honestly kinda random but really cool! if they ever re-extend the line to healesville and beyond i can imagine it being a decent v/line station too
Boronia is a lot like some Brisbane stations that were revamped in the late 90s and early 00s. Sort of reminds me of Yeerongpilly station, and even some elements of South Brisbane and Roma Street. I wonder if the same designers/inspiration was used in all these upgrades. Interesting video!
What about the hole in the wall Macca's inside Melbourne Central Station, its at the top of the escalators and inside the station. I've also been stuck at Macaulay Station, as I caught the wrong train once in a hurry and was stuck there for a while to get back into the city. Nice informative video.
I was hoping Tottenham would of popped up ! It’s feel very eery and dystopian with lots of freight trains and multiple tracks and a Tini passenger platform in the middle of it all.
i honestly didn't expect box hill to be on this list let alone top it (then again, i've only fully gone down the lilydale/belgrave line). i think it's the most interesting station on these lines, but i didn't think it would be considered so in the ENTIRE ptv train network!!
One station deserves a mention is the Showground it is a station only seems to operate for about 2 weeks during the Royal Melbourne Show. (Melbourne Royal Show). I also find strange is the old Surrey Hill Station (used to name after the suburb of where the station is located) now renamed as the Union after the level crossing removal.
Great and interesting video - just wanted to contribute a few things - there's also (at least to my latest knowledge) a way to order Macca's inside the Melbourne Central barriers, but don't mean to cut into Box Hill's uniqueness. After experiencing overseas train networks (namely Singapore), I believe that the way that Box Hill's station was set up would've been a great template for the rest of our train network.
really interesting history behind willison's existence which i didnt know! i pass through that station all the time so its lovely to see the alamein line get some recognition
There is a song you may enjoy called, "The Alamein Train" by a 1980's Melbourne group called The Pete Best Beatles. It's about a young fella going to visit his girlfriend Cheryl, "The rest of the world can go to hell, cause I'm changing trains at Camberwell..."
@@MinhTran-qt2pinope. Vlines still use the normal platforms. On rare occasions trains will use platform ones tracks to bypass. There's no traditional access to platform one and would only be used in an emergency. Essendon is a station Ive used my whole life and Ive never seen anyone at platform one
You did Macaulay but not Flemington Bridge, which is the next station on (towards Upfield). Complete opposite to Macaulay. FBs platforms are up on pylons. It also has a bridge from it leading to the Royal Melbourne Zoo.
That station in the thumbnail is macaulay I used to live a 2 minute walk from that station, my parents took it every day from work I never really thought anything weirdly of it lol
Box Hill has a uncanny resemblance to a station here in the UK, Birmingham New Street - although, it's nearly triple the size, and does indeed have a platform 1. Interesting video 👍
I think that if it weren't for St Kevin's Heyington station would be the same as wilisons it's that difficult to get to, and far from any Main Road! It is a beautiful station though and I really love the waiting area!
Boronia's "big blue board" is reminiscent of Parliament's big blue boards, both the font and colour. While the architecture is similar to Dandenong station, which was also rebuilt in the 90s.
I remember back in the 80s the only trains that stopped at East Richmond weekdays was the Glen Waverley trains. The Alamein trains used to go through on track 3 bypassing East Richmond then before Burnley station switch to track 4 and come in on platform 4 at Burnley.
Ha very good. Totally agree with you. Especially Willison. Should totally run that but run the other way for an added challenge. Good luck with your channel
I got stuck at East Richmond for over an hour once. My friend lived on the Glen Waverley Line & I was on the Belgrave. We were in the city & her train arrived first, so we both got on thinking I could just swap at Richmond. We were talking & didn't realise we were there before it was too late to get off. So I got off at East Richmond as it's the last station before the lines separated, forgetting all about how most trains miss it. I was too tired, now in a bad/cant't-be-fucked mood & too damn stubborn for whatever reason to take a tram to a useable station so I just sat there for over an hour until a train on the Lilydale/Belgrave line finally stoped.
First time going to box hill was an awe inspiring experience. The train going underneath and 12 bus bays in the top floor that were all crowded. Gives off more of a shanghai or some other east asian metropolitan vibe.
"Box Hill is the only station where you can order maccas while waiting for your train". What about Melbourne Central? There's a Maccas accessible within the paid Myki area.
The most famous announcement should be the ones at Flinders St where trains stop all stations to Richmond - there aren't any and the same thing happens at Yarraman with trains that end at Dandenong -there is no station between Yarraman and Dandenong. there are probably others I don't know about. I do remember being frustrated at East Richmond as i had to pick my car up from a place near it. I worked out it was easier to go to Burnley and walk back,
also if you were gonna make a part 2, i would personally include kananook station on the frankston line, it’s next to a freeway and it’s the only station i know that has clear walls and only one platform + you have to go up a LONG ramp or stairs just to even get to the platform + it has connections to multiple true crime events
similar to Hayington station, Rupertswood (now decommissioned) is 1km nth of sunbury and used to serve salesian college and only stopped when there was school traffic (it was the last service in victoria to do so). before the school was around the station was most commonly used for picnics at rupertswood mansion. now all that is left is a platform.
Sounds similar to General Motors. The only time that trains ever stopped there before it closed was to serve workers at the now defunct General Motors Holden plant in Dandenong.
I used to end up at Willison station on friday afternoons on the way home from work around 1988/9. As the Bus from Cheltenham was usually full I'd get off around Hartwell and walk to Willison get get the train to Burnley. Hated crowded buses.
General Motors between Hallam and Dandenong would be a good one to cover too. Trains stopped there only in peak hour to cater to the GM factory, but has long been abandoned. To be honest, I don't even know if the platforms are still there, but last I recall, they were, and all overgrown. Edit: very next video on the play list covered this! Haha. I'll shut up.
South Kensington was the dingiest station with no seats or shelter. West Footscray was no mans land at night. Sunshine used to be anything but, always some sort of drama(nothing compared to old Footscray station). It’s a pretty cool suburb now.
Glenferrie Station is another interesting one as Swinburne University love to advertise it as "Swinburn Station" given it runs down the middle of the campus.
Macaulay information not entirely true; on West side of tracks is a shared use (bicycle/pedestrian) path which goes underneath Macaulay road, and that's how you get to the other side of said road.
They're redeveloping the area next to Macaulay. Now would be the perfect time to move it out from under the freeway and elevate it. That level crossing is horrible.
heyington station’s step issue reminded me of greensborough station pre-construction. where the main steps going down the station are today used to be a incline ramp, the likes of which were insanely harsh and steep. it especially posed a challenge for folks with mobility aids. to top it all off, right at the bottom of the ramp used to be sliding glass doors which lead into the information kiosk which was a recipe for disaster. there’s a couple stories floating around by wheelchair users and how their daily commute was borderline dangerous and ridiculous. since it’s been remodeled an elevator’s been put it, hearing loops for deaf/HOH to hear announcements and is overall much more accessible. im not sure how much heyington is used in comparison but it must be an accessible nightmare and i wonder if they’ll do anything about it in the future!
I have heard on the grape vine, but nothing confirmed, that there are plans to turn the former platform 1 at Box Hill into a footpath underpass for those wanting to avoid crossing Station Street and the busy traffic around Box Hill SC. Not sure how they will do it (if they do it), but may be attached to the development of the new station in Box Hill.
I liked Boronia Station when it was rebuilt. Even until I lived there in 2007, I thought it was alright. 16 years on now though and it is definitely "bleh" lol
They also had to temporarily close Macaulay station and the line in that area whilst CityLink was under construction in the late 1990s and early 2000s for a few weeks at a time whenever they were doing a major part of the construction process like lifting the bridge sections into place but it was operating normally at all other times during the construction period.
Ah Boronia, my old local. The curse of being one of the OG level crossings, and one with the highest(?) death toll, that it doesn't get the modern treatment. There was an election commitment made in 2022 to revamp the station, though at a hefty pricetag that still probably isn't worth it imo. But definitely something to cover up the concrete would be nice.
Another entertaining thing about Heyington -- or at least the view from the train as it heads towards Kooyong -- is the St Kevin's school playing fields in very wet weather. The playing fields are even lower in elevation than the station, and in any sort of heavy rain, they get flooded, producing large sheets of water -- not necessarily that deep, but enough to completely hide the grounds, and.the size of several football/cricket fields in extent. When I was a regular passenger on the GW line (1970s and 80s) this was christened Lake St Kevin's.
It used to be the case (and perhaps still is) that a large proportion of East Richmond's traffic is people going _to_ the station from the Richmond direction because they work in the area. I'm also somewhat surprised at the number of comments about the lack of service at East Richmond. It has a train (in each direction) at least every 15 minutes for most of the day, which is more than a lot of stations get.
could you make a video about best and worst stations in melbourne, also a defunct station video would be cool, i only know about the old general electric stop that used to be on the cranbourne/pakenham line
General Motors you mean, on the Pakenham line (not the Cranbourne line). Also, that's the _only_ station out of use and still largely intact. The next most intact station would be Paisley, with only remains of the platform to see. All other closed stations have little to no evidence left of them, unless you consider stations outside the suburban electrified network. Edit: As another commenter mentioned, there's also the original Sydenham station. Edit 2: Carlton North station too. It seems that there are more than I thought, although that last one's not on an existing line.
Oh god. I used to take the train from macaulay station as it was close to my school. Would see at least one druggy everyday who were pretty violent!! Decided to add an extra hour going home by taking a tram into the city instead lmao.
I take the train from Darling to the city from time to time. Maybe the time of day, but it always stops at East Richmond. 😁 That's how I know Richmond is next. Because I get off and onto a loop train. 😂
@@cgi2173 All Glen Waverley-line trains stop at East Richmond, apart from a small handful of express trains, and trains _to_ Glen Waverley in the morning peak period.
very nice video, but one small mistake, tram 70 goes to the east. Not north. Also, if there is one more video about interesting train stations in Melbourne, the 3 in the Altona loop (seaholme, Altona and westona ) might be good candidates. They are all very quirky in their own ways. 😂
i'm pretty sure I saw my car in the background of one of the still photos. Also, can I ask about your accent? It sounds partly American. Is that on purpose?
There is a station in QLD (Ormeau) that has a direct connection to a private school and it makes sense to have a direct path given the locations of the station, the school and the surrounding roads. And we have a station that's inside a shopping center as well (in the form of Toowong Station and Toowong Village)
6. The nonstop tracks are in the middle compared to the Sydney tracks between Burwood and Redfern 5. Why bother anymore🤔 4. I went through here my first time in Melbourne. Fascinating 2. No worrying about being late then 1. Looks just like Hurstville or Kogarah
Macaulay and Kensington station are actually so close to each other that if you needed to change services, you could probably sometimes get off at Macaulay and walk to Kensington (or vice versa) and then board the next train in less time than it would take to disembark at North Melbourne and wait for the other service.
