It took a decade for Southern Cross Station to install bins. This might be why
Melbourne's second-busiest and arguably most-maligned train station – Southern Cross – has reinstalled rubbish bins on its platforms, more than 10 years after they returned to other inner-city stations.
It's a small win for commuters that also raises the question: what took so long?
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said he suspected it was because Southern Cross is the only privatised train station in Victoria.
'Southern Cross was always the exception – they removed the bins completely, and it's not until now that they've bothered to put anything back,' he said.
Terrorism and other security threats have made bins a tricky problem for transport operators, given their potential to conceal bombs and other dangerous devices.
London transit authorities removed metal bins – which can turn into shrapnel and make a blast even deadlier – from the city's railway stations after the Irish Republican Army planted a bomb inside one in a fatal 1991 attack.
Victoria replaced its metal bins with transparent plastic ones at inner-city stations in the lead-up to the 2006 Commonwealth Games. But even those plastic tubs were deemed too risky and were ripped out amid heightened terrorism threats in September 2014.
Metro Trains installed new bins six months later based on a design now used on the London Underground, consisting of clear plastic bags hanging from metal hoops.
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