It is hard to believe, but a decade long saga at Southern Cross Station has finally been resolved – rubbish bins have finally returned to the station platforms!
But why weren’t there bins in the first place?
A frequent question over at /r/Melbourne trains is Why are there no bins at Southern Cross Station? – like this one from a few months ago.
I’m sure this has been asked before but I’ve never seen it been asked personally. They’ve got cleaners there and there’s rubbish just left everywhere on the floor. I’m sure people would still leave stuff on the floor even if there were bins but it just makes no sense?? Why are there no bins???
And this one from 2019.
Any reason they don’t have bins on the platforms of Southern Cross? I had to touch off and get out to find one. Missed my fu#%^kin train
The go to answer would be “Southern Cross Station station is privately managed and they are too cheap to empty them” – but the answer is more complicated – as station management has cleaners driving all over the station each day picking up rubbish.
The story begins
Twenty years ago Southern Cross Station was still all shiny and new.
With a nice open concourse facing the corner of Spencer and Collins Street.
And rubbish bins on the platforms.
Even platforms 15 and 16, completed in 2012 for the Regional Rail Link project had rubbish bins – even before they received any track!
Now terrorism fears
In September 2014 the Australian terrorism alert level was raised from “medium” to “high”, and the Victorian government lost their minds, removing rubbish bins from CBD stations.
And covering them in ‘If you see something, say something’ scaremongering instead.
Southern Cross Station was not immune to this, having rubbish bins removed from the platforms.
Leaving behind rusty marks where the bins used to be.
Along with piles of rubbish left behind by the slobs too lazy to take their rubbish with them.
Come March 2015, rubbish bins finally returned – but only at stations managed by Metro Trains Melbourne.
Drowning in rubbish
Eventually in January 2018 Southern Cross Station management replaced conventional rubbish bins outside the fast food outlets with fancy compacting ones, in order to deal with the waves of rubbish filling them.
Cleaners still using electric buggies to drag wheelie bins full of rubbish out to the loading dock.
But this didn’t make much of a difference to the people taking their food away to eat on the platforms while waiting for their train, leaving their rubbish on the seats.
Which then fell down onto the platform.
And then down onto the tracks.
And eventually movement at the station
In November 2024 a wheelie bin stolen from Marvel Stadium mysteriously appeared at Southern Cross platform 12, disappeared, and then reappeared – and remained in place for months.
Then in March 2025 an update from Southern Cross Station management.
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding the lack of bins at Southern Cross Station.
We completely understand your frustration and acknowledge the inconvenience this has caused for you and other passengers. Cleanliness and customer experience are important to us, and we agree that having appropriate waste disposal options is essential-especially at such a key transport hub.
We’re pleased to let you know that new bins will be installed on the platforms in May.
We appreciate your patience while this is being addressed and thank you again for raising your concerns.
Thank you again, Southern Cross Station
Too good to be true?
Amazingly not – because in May 2025 work finally started on installing bins at Southern Cross Station.
Metal brackets with a pair of plastic ‘scrotum bag’ bins haging down.
Right above the grubby marks that still remain a decade after the previous rubbish bins were removed.
Footnote: don’t get too excited
Another decade long fault with Southern Cross Station is the failed lights above platforms 13 and 14, leaving passengers in the dark when trying to board trains.
Those lights failed back in 2014, were replaced by diesel powered light towers for months on end, then by an ‘interim lighting solution’ in November 2016, only to themselves fail from January 2017 onwards.
This is what the station used to look like when the lights did work.
I wonder how many more years we’ll need to wait until those lights get fixed?
Brilliant work Marcus. I’m from Adelaide but love getting on the VRaill network. Interesting to learn of these stories that only the regular commuters may have an awareness of. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the kind words David! ☺
I wonder if anyone actually likes Southern Cross Station. One of my brothers who is a rare user of the station and is not normally so fussy about his surroundings loathes the ‘ugliest’, ‘hard to use’ and ‘fume filled’ station.
I dislike going to a platform knowing that if I have drink container or coffee cup, in the case of a suburban train, that it will stay with me until I leave the train. I think to myself as I stare around at my grim surroundings, it is no wonder people leave rubbish on the platforms.
It’s a terrible station. Vic Gov need to buy it back and have MTM manage it.
Someone should just get rid of that gigantic ugly roof. I mean it only looks good if your looking down on it. It’s a horrible place to be. It had an open feeling to it, but lacks any functionality. Like, they should turn the place into something more useful. It’s the reverse of Melbourne Central, which has a nice shopping precinct built into it.
And those rubbish bins, can we just replace the two yellow and red bins with one? Because the two bags have a near identical content and I bet they probably end up on the same truck. Let’s just stop pretending we are saving the environment and save some cash. We only need 1 bin, and if your worried about it, maybe it has two holes which are yellow and red for those people who wish to live in delusion.
Speaking of things which end up in the same truck, the CDC West operated reverse vending machines put plastic, cans and glass all into the same truck.
Waiting for a delayed Bendigo train a few weeks ago, sitting on a platform with idling Velocity sets on each side, breathing was difficult at times from the fumes, and I and others could not hear station announcements, fortunately a crew member walked the platfom shouting information about the correct trains.
And on the subject of the lights, as they seem to have failed about the time a building was erected above the platform, surely the builders of that building are liable for restoring the lighting. If not, then someone wrote a faulty contract.
I also heard the same story that the work on the offices above platform 13 through 16 caused the issues with the lighting – though I’d assume 10 years later the liability would’ve finally been sorted.
Nice to see credit given to your blog in The Age’s story!
Patrick Hatch dropped me a line a few days ago wanting to interview me, but unfortunately I didn’t have the time.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/it-took-a-decade-for-southern-cross-station-to-install-bins-this-might-be-why-20250604-p5m4un.html
I always remembered there being bins at this station