Roma Street railway station is a commuter and long-distance passenger train station located in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It is the

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated either on or close to a rail junction, where lines to two or more destinations diverge. Many junction stations have multiple platform faces to enable trains for multiple destinatio ...

for the

North Coast North Coast or Northcoast may refer to : Antigua and Barbuda * Major Division of North Coast, an urban area and major division in the parish of Saint John * North Coast, Barbuda, an administrative district of Barbuda Australia * New South Wa ...

Main Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

, Gold Coast and NSW North Coast lines. The station is one of four inner city stations that form a core corridor through the centre of Brisbane. Although not easily visible to the public, the original 1873 Roma Street railway station building still exists within the modern complex and is listed on the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As ...

History

1800s to 1940s

The construction of a railway station on Roma Street was part of a plan to extend the Main Line to

. An iron station building designed by Sir Charles Fox & Sons was to be imported from the United Kingdom for this purpose, but economic problems in Queensland led to the order being cancelled. In 1873, the Superintendent of Public Buildings Francis Stanley designed a smaller station for the site, with construction beginning in the same year under

John Petrie John Petrie (15 January 1822 – 8 December 1892) was a Scottish-born Australian politician, architect, stonemason and building contractor in Brisbane who became the city's first Mayor. Private life John Petrie was born 15 January 1822Too ...

. The station was officially opened on 14 June 1875 as Brisbane at the same time that the Main Line opened to

Indooroopilly Indooroopilly ( , colloquially Indro ) is a riverside suburb south-west of the Brisbane CBD, Queensland, Australia. In the , Indooroopilly had a population of 13,622 people. Geography Indooroopilly is bounded to the south and south-east by ...

. A goods and carriage shed were added shortly after. In 1882, Roma Street became a

with the North Coast line opening to Sandgate. With the opening of

Central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

as Brisbane's principal station on 18 August 1889, the station was renamed Roma Street. As traffic grew, so did the Roma Street precinct with a locomotive shed added. In 1911, the precinct was rearranged with the locomotive and carriage sheds relocated to Mayne near

Bowen Hills Bowen Hills is an inner north-eastern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bowen Hills had a population of 4,898 people. Geography Bowen Hills is by road from the Brisbane centr ...

. On 30 November 1940, Roma Street again became the principal station for long-distance services with new platforms built to the south of the existing platforms.

1970s to early 2000s

Following the opening of the

Merivale Bridge The Merivale Bridge is a double track railway bridge crossing the Brisbane River. It crosses the Milton Reach of the river, located in between the Go Between Bridge and the William Jolly Bridge. Exclusively a railway crossing, it is located b ...

on 18 November 1978, Roma Street was also served by Beenleigh line services. On 21 June 1986, it became a

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

station with the extension of the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

NSW North Coast line from

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 14,292 people. Geography South Brisbane is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the nor ...

. In October 1986, the

Brisbane Transit Centre The Brisbane Transit Centre, at 151–171 Roma Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was a long-distance bus station. It was closed and demolished in 2020 along with its three office towers. It was commonly regarded as the ugliest building ...

opened to the south of the station. As part of the quadruplication of the North Coast line to

, the station was rebuilt. On 1 November 1995, a new Platform 10 was opened on the station's north side as the platform for long-distance services; these services had previously used Platforms 2 and 3. Platforms 7, 8 and 9 opened on 11 June 1996 while refurbished Platforms 4, 5 and 6 reopened in January 1997. In 2001,

Roma Street Parkland Roma Street Parkland covers 11 hectares in the centre of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Roma Street Parkland is adjacent to the former Brisbane Transit Centre and the Roma Street railway station from which it takes its n ...

opened to the north of the station on the site of the former Roma Street goods yards.About Roma Street Parkland and Spring Hill
, Visit Brisbane, Retrieved 19 November 2019 Visitors not travelling on Queensland Rail services can obtain a free pass to transit through the station concourse from Roma Street to the parklands. Platform 1 became part of the

Roma Street busway station Roma Street busway station is located in Brisbane, Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state ...

on 19 May 2008, with the construction of the Inner Northern Busway.

Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro Projects

Roma Street Station will be affected by both the

Cross River Rail Cross River Rail (CRR) is an Rapid transit, underground heavy rail project currently under construction in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The project will see the development of a new rail line underneath the Brisbane River, together with th ...

and

Brisbane Metro Brisbane Metro is a high-frequency bus rapid transit system that services the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It consists of two routes that will eventually run through the Brisbane central business district, Brisbane CBD every thr ...

projects. The Brisbane Transit Centre complex was planned to be demolished in 2020. Businesses in the existing buildings were closed down between late 2018 and early 2019, with reports of controversy surrounding claims for compensation by small business tenants. According to the Cross River Rail Construction plan, new underground platforms will be constructed to service Cross River Rail services. The next stations for the Cross River Rail services will be Albert Street (southbound) and

Exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

(northbound). The proposed Brisbane Metro Line 1 services will terminate at Roma Street Station, with the previous station being

King George Square King George Square is a town square, public square located between Adelaide Street, Brisbane, Adelaide Street and Ann Street, Brisbane, Ann Street (and between two sections of Albert Street, Brisbane, Albert Street) in Brisbane, Queensland, A ...

. Brisbane Metro Line 2 services will continue through Roma Street following the existing Northern Busway route, with the next stations being Normanby (northbound) and King George Square (southbound). Due to the anticipated demolition of the Brisbane Transit Centre, a temporary long-distance bus terminal was constructed on the opposite side of Roma Street Station (near Platform 10) and opened in September 2019. The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Else broke through into the new Roma Street station cavern on the 6 August 2021. The second one, TBM Merle, arrived on 23 August 2021.

Services

Roma Street station is served by all suburban and interurban

City network City networks can either refer to a membership organization city leaders join to connect their city to other municipalities, or to a geographical concept used to describe inter-connectivity of cities on different levels (trade, railways, culture e ...

lines. It is also the terminus station for long-distance Traveltrain services and NSW TrainLink's service to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. A

motorail A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer ...

loading dock was previously located on Platform 10 but it was removed in 2015.

Services by platform

Transport links

To the north of the station is the Brisbane Coach Terminal that opened in 2019 as replacement for the

. It is used by long distance Bus Queensland,

Crisps Coaches Crisps Coaches is an Australian bus company operating services in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Services Crisps Coaches is a bus and coach operator, based in Warwick, Queensland, Warwick. As well as local school services it ...

Greyhound Australia Greyhound Australia is an Australian coach operator that operates services in all mainland states and territories. It is owned by Entrada Travel Group. The company was established in 1928 and is not affiliated with similarly named companies ...

Murrays Murrays Coaches is an Australian express and coach charter company. History Murrays was founded by Bill Murray in the early 1950s as a school bus operator in Canberra. The operation was taken over by Ron Murray in 1970 by which time it was o ...

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

and Premier Motor Service services. To the south of the station is

on the Northern Busway that is served by

Transport for Brisbane Transport for Brisbane, previously called Brisbane Transport'','' is an organisational division of the Brisbane City Council, responsible through its related Council Committee for providing policy and advice to Brisbane City Council, and for de ...

.Roma Street busway station
Translink

References

External links

Roma Street station
Queensland Rail
Roma Street station
Queensland's Railways on the Internet {{Transport for New South Wales railway stations, North Coast Region=y, state=collapsed Francis Drummond Greville Stanley buildings Railway stations in Brisbane Railway stations in Australia opened in 1875 North Coast railway line, Queensland Listed railway stations in Australia Main Line railway, Queensland Roma Street, Brisbane