Melbourne Central Railway Station

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Melbourne Central railway station is an underground station on the metro network in Melbourne, Australia. It is one of five stations (and one of three underground) on the City Loop, which encircles the Melbourne CBD. The station is under La Trobe Street, between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets, on the northern edge of the CBD. The station is named after the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre which it is beneath. It feeds into Melbourne's main metro network station, Flinders Street and also Southern Cross Melbourne's main regional terminus. In 2013/14 it was the 3rd busiest station in Melbourne's metropolitan network, with 15.925 million passenger movements.HistoryThe station was built using cut and cover construction. In December 1973 to permit excavation of the station, La Trobe Street and its tram tracks were temporarily relocated to the south onto the site of what is now the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, and moved back on completion of the work in 1978. The pit was 168m long and 22.5m wide, 29m deep at the Swanston Street end and 22m deep at the Elizabeth Street end. Seven layers of struts were used to support the excavation, with 2,600 tonnes of steel temporary supports required.