Sydney Central Station

The present Sydney Central railway station was opened in 1906. It is often referred to by railway historians as the "third station" however, having progressively replaced facilities dating from 1855. In any event it was done on the cheap and has managed to make its way into the twenty twenties by adding on bits and pieces as necessary until it was possibly the biggest and most difficult to navigate transport rabbit warren in the world. There are 25 (now 27) platforms at multiple levels accessed by different means in different directions etc etc

Attempts to refashion it into a more easily accessible facility for passengers generally and tourists in particular have largely failed over the years due to lack of funds, the minefield imperatives of heritage preservation and the lack of political will,  

There have been piecemeal attempts but nothing with the ambition required. That all ended with the introduction of the fully automated Sydney Metro system which will augment the present "heavy rail" underground and suburban network with a view to replacing it entirely over the decades to come. 

Over the last few years or so, massive changes have been underway with a new metro harbour tunnel, new deep underground stations in various locations across the city and rail services to far flung suburbs that have never enjoyed direct rail links before.

At last for Central there are now massive new concourses, linking everything in such a way that people can find their way, dozens of new elevator wells (illustrated above) and heaven only knows how many new travelators and escalators ... all over the place. There are also the metro platforms all complete and ready to open in the next few months

I have only scratched the surface in this blip but I have included a few extras:

Extra 1: The heritage concourse servicing interurban and regional train platforms
Extra 2: One of the many many new escalators
Extra 3: A peak down onto the brand new metro platforms not yet open for operation
Extra 4: One of the new linking concourses
Extra 5: One of the concourses illustrating the way that the old sandstone structures of the original buildings have been reflected in the new facilities.