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    • don_dunstan posted
    Posted in Melbourne suburban » Spencer street St action is back

    This is a good point. The old SSS, whilst quite rundown, was a more convenient station to use. I do not recall what Museum was like but I'm sure it was also much more convenient.

    The Victorian Government seems to enjoy spending money on worsening things rather than improving them.

    Braddo

    The old Spencer Street was dated and dank in that underpass but the new one was complete overkill.  The roof looks really good from above but inside the building it can be surprisingly dark during the day, especially in winter.  It often gets smoky and smelly in there especially when there are a lot of idoling train-sets at once or if there is no breeze to keep the fumes moving.  I also strongly agree with you about the flow of pedestrians too, I don't think it was a substantial improvement over the old set up.   You now have the added problem of having to move through too many levels at the Collins Street end if you are changing between suburban/V-Line services, a problem made worse with these silly extra shops obstructing your path.

    Southern Cross Station ran way over budget when being constructed too.  I knew a plumber who was working on the project and he said that there were lots of problems with properly collecting and dispersing the rainwater so it wouldn't stress the roof; we all saw what happened when it hailed (the extra weight broke through the skylight) a couple of years ago so obviously there were design issues with the revolutionary wavy roof.  There was some clause in the PPP that stipulated 'commercial in confidence' if there were cost over-runs so we were never allowed to know the true costs or where the burden of responsibility was for that.

    I agree with you, we seem to get big money spent on these projects but the improvement is often marginal.

    Edit history

    Edited 02 Jun 2013 18:25, 8 years ago, edited by don_dunstan

    This is a good point. The old SSS, whilst quite rundown, was a more convenient station to use. I do not recall what Museum was like but I'm sure it was also much more convenient.

    The Victorian Government seems to enjoy spending money on worsening things rather than improving them.

    Braddo

    The old Spencer Street was dated and dank in that underpass but the new one was complete overkill.  The roof looks really good from above but inside the building it can be surprisingly dark during the day, especially in winter.  It often gets smoky and smelly in there especially when there are a lot of idoling train-sets at once or if there is no breeze to keep the fumes moving.  I also strongly agree with you about the flow of pedestrians too, I don't think it was a substantial improvement over the old set up.   You now have the added problem of having to move through too many levels at the Collins Street end if you are changing between suburban/V-Line services, a problem made worse with these silly extra shops obstructing your path.

    Southern Cross Station ran way over budget when being constructed too.  I knew a plumber who was working on the project and he said that there were lots of problems with properly collecting and dispersing the rainwater so it wouldn't stress the roof; we all saw what happened when it hailed (the extra weight broke through the skylight) a couple of years ago so obviously there were design issues with the revolutionary wavy roof.  There was some clause in the PPP that stipulated 'commercial in confidence' if there were cost over-runs so we were never allowed to know the true costs or where the burden of responsibility was for that.