Vic Best and worst train stations in Melbourne

[Silent Alarm]

There's a bunch of apartments being built or planned for that Arden St area, rezoning and trying to make it more residential

Seems they're chucking in a Woolies too. That'd be alright, there's only two IGAs around there so shopping gets expensive. But the whole section there is basically full of massive sheds and that weird quasi-high school/TAFE thing. Such an odd section. Plus for people on the more western side, there's the station under the Westgate. If you live in the more suburban part of North Melbourne it is hard though; even trams are a little bit away.

Speaking of which, does anyone know why Hotham Hill still exists as a correct name for North Melbourne, even though it hasn't been Hotham Hill for a hundred years? Ie those little shops down near there are called 'IGA Hotham Hill' or Hotham Hill Australia Post, despite the fact it is the same suburb and postcode.

Also there is absolutely no way the State Library could, would, or should go – it is not about the fact it's a library anymore. It is a genuine icon – a beautiful building, an old one, it symbolises a lot. It's a really cool sight to walk past on a sunny March or October day and see the office workers and students sitting on the grass and trying to get every beam of it before heading back. It's absolutely iconic Melbourne. Heaps of people use it to meet obviously as it's right across from the station and near the uni and people's work – used to love meeting my mates there when you'd knock off from a tute at 4pm on a Friday, you'd sit on the grass for 20 minutes then head to a bottle shop and then someone's house. It also reminds me of the first few weeks of courtship too... so nice.

Plus heaps of students use it to study, it's a nice place to look at so tourists go in for something free, plus all big cities need a central hub where hard to find, rare, or important artefacts are housed – you can't even borrow books there, it's not about reading or books anymore. It's a place for people of all walks to use the wifi. And there's also a few events hosted there, even a few DJs played there this or last year.

And what's going to happen? They sell it? Billion dollar land but the government would never live it down if they sold it.

 

[Xtreme]

It was probably for wearing a full kit

Wasn't wearing stuff like that back then

 

[bradrowe#32]

I think the Library may go - as a research centre it's pretty dated, and most information will be avilable electronically.

However, it's a great building and open space. I know there are a lot of exhibitions on there regularly. I went to a paper plane contest in the Reading Room a few years ago - that was great.

I certainly hope the site stays unchanged. I'm just not sure it will be a library long into the future

Digitisation is expensive and the SLV has over two million books, and a shitload more in newspapers, journals, electoral rolls etc. Trove is the only place in Australia that digitises that sort of thing. However, in the last budget Trove lost $20 million in funding and cut 30 staff. All they can do is maintain their online archives, but not add anything to it. It would be simply too costly and time consuming to digitise the whole SLV collection, as great as that would be. And as I said, it's a very special place and I'd be incredibly shocked and disappointed if it closed.

I won't derail this thread anymore.

 

[Cruyff14]

Yeah no way the library goes.

 

[Silent Alarm]

What is it with bigfooty lately, where someone says something and then five people continue to parrot the exact same comment? Isn't that what the like function is for?

 

[MaddAdam]

Those new Metro stations will be great, especially the one down toward St Kilda and especially the one at Melbourne University (which absolutely should be called University; love travelling and seeing a station called them in every underground network). Not sure how important the Arden one is if it'll indeed be near the footy oval... mostly trucks, hardware stores, and factories in that part.

It is going to be turned into a massive residential development.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-cbd-suburb-egate-20140425-zqz8c.html

It is hard to believe that such prime land - so close to CBD etc - has yet to be developed in this way.

It will be a great place to live when finished. Imagine sitting on your balcony on a warm spring arvo, beer in hand, watching the light glittering off the 100ft high statue of Jack Ziebell that bestrides the entranceway to the metro like a modern day Colossus of Rhodes.

 

[carnthedons]

It is going to be turned into a massive residential development.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-cbd-suburb-egate-20140425-zqz8c.html

It is hard to believe that such prime land - so close to CBD etc - has yet to be developed in this way.

It will be a great place to live when finished. Imagine sitting on your balcony on a warm spring arvo, beer in hand, watching the light glittering off the 100ft high statue of Jack Ziebell that bestrides the entranceway to the metro like a modern day Colossus of Rhodes.

Be 200ft wide if it's to scale of the fat plodder

 

[MaddAdam]

Station names are important. They are a part of the structure of a city. I was pissed off when they renamed Museum to Melbourne Central just to promote a shopping precinct. OK - I get the museum was moving, but then just call it Library.

Ditto Spencer Street - that meant something. Southern Cross - what the hell's that?

Yeah, although can you imagine the shitfight that will ensue in this pathetic political culture we have when they are named?

There is literally nothing they can be named that won't get some section of the perpetually outraged commentariat (left and right) into a shrieking fury.

At least one will have an Aboriginal name which will provoke a Bolt piece about tokenism and why couldn't we name one after a white man from Melbourne who invented something good? Within ten minutes of the article going online there'll be comments about how if the Aborigines had maybe invented railways they could have a station named after them, but no, that was the evil white Christian British who did that and I'm sorry if the latte sipper goat cheese belt types don't like it but blah blah blah.

And say they do name one like say the uni one after someone you'd think had contributed a genuinely GOOD THING for society like say Nobel laurete Peter Doherty (not that one) in a field like medicine that yes happens to be an old white man, then the Clementine Fords and Van Badhams will be up in arms about how of course it had to be yet another old white man and excuse me, but last time I looked it was female students getting the highest mark at Melbourne Uni blah blah blah.

They could go for something bland like Parkville to try and avoid said shitfight above, but then some self appointed culturally IMPORTANT knobosaurus will write a piece in The Age about how modern Melbourne lacks imagination and it is all so dreadful and house price fixated and of course when they were in first year uni at Melbourne there was a real edgy culture and people created i9mportant artyworks in "spaces" that are now cookie cutter apartments that could be in a strip mall in Houston blah blah blah.

Then what will happen is they'll run a competition to name it and folks will troll it HILARIOUSLY by getting together and voting by a margin of 100 to one to call it something like "Station McStationystaysh". The government will reject this and the Herald Sun will get up in arms about the people's voice being silenced by so-called expert know it alls.

I reckon that at least one of them should be called Stalingrad like on the Paris metro, as it is simply just awesome.

After that, as long as the Arden one remains Arden, I don't give rat's tossbag.

(Rat's Tossbag would be a good name. "Laides and gentlemen, the next train departing Rat's Tossbag is the 7.47 to Cranbourne in 11 minutes"

 

[MaddAdam]

Be 200ft wide if it's to scale of the fat plodder

Should re-name North Richmond station "Jobe Watson Station" with all the injecting that goes on round there.

 

[MaddAdam]

Seems they're chucking in a Woolies too. That'd be alright, there's only two IGAs around there so shopping gets expensive. .

Are you talking about the big development going on at the site near the North Melbourne flats?

 

[MaddAdam]

Why was that changed? I never heard any reason given?

I think it happened when they redeveloped the station.

It is hard to overstate exactly how much of a cold and unsettling dump Spnecer Street station was.

 

[MaddAdam]

They're actually doing a pretty big refurb on the library at the minute. Making parts of it more usable as an events space

Yeah, should be pretty awesome. It is such a great building too.

 

[MaddAdam]

Speaking of which, does anyone know why Hotham Hill still exists as a correct name for North Melbourne, even though it hasn't been Hotham Hill for a hundred years? Ie those little shops down near there are called 'IGA Hotham Hill' or Hotham Hill Australia Post, despite the fact it is the same suburb and postcode.

That little nook is Hotham Hill, so it is correctly named. That shopping strip still retains a great deal of its innate shitness, despite the massive increase in property prices.

Snake_Baker will probably remember the exact name, but you know the defunct pub (last incarnation as some shitful Thai joint) on the corner down near Boundary Road there?

It was run back in ye day by the legendary Ma Flynn, and when North were signing Malcolm Blight he suddenly demanded 10,000 above what had been agreed, and wanted it in cash that night or he would walk away.

The ever resourceful Ron Jospeh wondered where he could get his hands on 10k in ash at 10PM on a Wednesday night. Phone calls were made and an hour later Ma Flynn rolls in with 10k.

Places like St Kilda and Carlton get all the headlines for being rough and tough in the 1970s and 80s, but North Melbourne and by extension into Kensington and Flemington up to Ascot Vale were absolutely hard as nails. It is where you had a milieu of Irish Catholic families that worked on the docks or in the slaughterhouses and saleyards, all intermarried and related with a generational hatred of police dating back to the old country. The Morans were but one product of that.

It peaked with the Walsh Street shootings, because the cops went on an execution rampage, but for a good couple of decades, it was the jewel in the Victorian criminal crown.

Had the police station to match - the Flemington jacks. They are still noted for their prickishness, but in the 70s through til the early 2000s, the Flem cops were wideky known as the nastiest, most vicious pack of dogs ever. The stuff they did was horrific - throwing people who off bridges in to the river (leading to at least one death), as mentioned above executing people in cold blood (Cliffy Lockwood take a bow), sexually assaulting female members of crims families during raids (one girl had a police service revolver pushed into vagi\na during a raid ...) and a great deal more.

 

[Silent Alarm]

That little nook is Hotham Hill, so it is correctly named. That shopping strip still retains a great deal of its innate shitness, despite the massive increase in property prices.

Snake_Baker will probably remember the exact name, but you know the defunct pub (last incarnation as some shitful Thai joint) on the corner down near Boundary Road there?

It was run back in ye day by the legendary Ma Flynn, and when North were signing Malcolm Blight he suddenly demanded 10,000 above what had been agreed, and wanted it in cash that night or he would walk away.

The ever resourceful Ron Jospeh wondered where he could get his hands on 10k in ash at 10PM on a Wednesday night. Phone calls were made and an hour later Ma Flynn rolls in with 10k.

Places like St Kilda and Carlton get all the headlines for being rough and tough in the 1970s and 80s, but North Melbourne and by extension into Kensington and Flemington up to Ascot Vale were absolutely hard as nails. It is where you had a milieu of Irish Catholic families that worked on the docks or in the slaughterhouses and saleyards, all intermarried and related with a generational hatred of police dating back to the old country. The Morans were but one product of that.

It peaked with the Walsh Street shootings, because the cops went on an execution rampage, but for a good couple of decades, it was the jewel in the Victorian criminal crown.

Had the police station to match - the Flemington jacks. They are still noted for their prickishness, but in the 70s through til the early 2000s, the Flem cops were wideky known as the nastiest, most vicious pack of dogs ever. The stuff they did was horrific - throwing people who off bridges in to the river (leading to at least one death), as mentioned above executing people in cold blood (Cliffy Lockwood take a bow), sexually assaulting female members of crims families during raids (one girl had a police service revolver pushed into vagi\na during a raid ...) and a great deal more.

I really like those little shops. I wonder how the other ones actually still exist. Then there are the ones down near the tram line, there's a shitty pizza place and about three Asian delis all right next to each other. I can imagine if you were 16 in 2005 it's where you would've bought your six packs.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

I think it happened when they redeveloped the station.

It is hard to overstate exactly how much of a cold and unsettling dump Spnecer Street station was.

Yes, that's when it was done, doesn't explain why though. Never found it that bad tbh.

 

[BuddysBiggestFan]

Westall is one of the most modern stations in Melbourne.

South Kensington is an absolute dump. Opened in 1891. Probably hasn't been touched since.

 

[MaddAdam]

I really like those little shops. I wonder how the other ones actually still exist. Then there are the ones down near the tram line, there's a shitty pizza place and about three Asian delis all right next to each other. I can imagine if you were 16 in 2005 it's where you would've bought your six packs.

The supermarket there sells those big Sapporo cans for six bucks each, best deal in town. On that other strip of shops there, the doctor next to the chemist used to be notorious for prescribing anything and everything for a price. And that price wasn't always dollars, he would take women out the back and have sex with them. Legend has it he has a Jacuzzi installed in his bathroom. He was known locally as "Dr Death" and you'd always see junkies lurking around there. I used to go there to get valium and temazepam for post-partying purposes and he'd just write the script without issue. He was prescribing more hard core stuff to the types who would get taken out the back. The authorities got him in the end and he was deregistered, turned out the prick lived in Lancells Road in Toorak, literally making a mint off the suffering of others.

 

[MaddAdam]

Westall is one of the most modern stations in Melbourne.

South Kensington is an absolute dump. Opened in 1891. Probably hasn't been touched since.

Yeah, South Ken feels like the end of the world on a cold dark winter's night.

 

[Silent Alarm]

The supermarket there sells those big Sapporo cans for six bucks each, best deal in town. On that other strip of shops there, the doctor next to the chemist used to be notorious for prescribing anything and everything for a price. And that price wasn't always dollars, he would take women out the back and have sex with them. Legend has it he has a Jacuzzi installed in his bathroom. He was known locally as "Dr Death" and you'd always see junkies lurking around there. I used to go there to get valium and temazepam for post-partying purposes and he'd just write the script without issue. He was prescribing more hard core stuff to the types who would get taken out the back. The authorities got him in the end and he was deregistered, turned out the prick lived in Lancells Road in Toorak, literally making a mint off the suffering of others.

Is the latter the one on Melrose Street, and the former can place the one right on the tram line?

 

[Run n Spread]

Best = Flinders. Trains run to the minute.

Worst - Richmond. Forever a delay trains diverted.

Worst Line= Weribee. Delays, Cancellations, May as well not bother.

 

[MaddAdam]

Is the latter the one on Melrose Street, and the former can place the one right on the tram line?

Vice versa, doctor was on Haines street. Can place on Melrose street, Asian supermarket down the end towards the footy ground. They still do the Sapporo thing too. They must have bought a container load knock off.

 

[Doss]

Trains running to the minute?

That's a most novel and foreign concept.

 

[craigos]

The supermarket there sells those big Sapporo cans for six bucks each, best deal in town. On that other strip of shops there, the doctor next to the chemist used to be notorious for prescribing anything and everything for a price. And that price wasn't always dollars, he would take women out the back and have sex with them. Legend has it he has a Jacuzzi installed in his bathroom. He was known locally as "Dr Death" and you'd always see junkies lurking around there. I used to go there to get valium and temazepam for post-partying purposes and he'd just write the script without issue. He was prescribing more hard core stuff to the types who would get taken out the back. The authorities got him in the end and he was deregistered, turned out the prick lived in Lancells Road in Toorak, literally making a mint off the suffering of others.

Not enough characters like this left in the medical profession these days. Now you need a script for some Nurofen Plus that do absolutely sweet fa and you will probably have to jump through hoops to get it.

 

[MaddAdam]

Not enough characters like this left in the medical profession these days. Now you need a script for some Nurofen Plus that do absolutely sweet fa and you will probably have to jump through hoops to get it.

Yeah, good old days you could get benzos no probs from pretty much any doctor.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Then what will happen is they'll run a competition to name it and folks will troll it HILARIOUSLY by getting together and voting by a margin of 100 to one to call it something like "Station McStationystaysh". The government will reject this and the Herald Sun will get up in arms about the people's voice being silenced by so-called expert know it alls.

Trains stopping at Jack Watts will not be counted