Where to spend your New Year's Eve.
Just as Melbourne opens up its parks to New Year's Eve midnight fireworks displays it will close nearby loop stations, Public Transport Victoria has said.
Flagstaff and Parliament railway stations will shut at 11.45pm just before the midnight fireworks display kicks off at Treasury and Flagstaff gardens.
After the display passengers taking advantage of the free public transport will need to be funnelled through to Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations.
New Year's Eve fireworks at Birrarung Marr. Photo: Craig Sillitoe
Alan Fedda, Public Transport Victoria director of customer service, said the move was designed to allow quicker access out of the city and avoid the crush between midnight and 1am when public transport was at its busiest.
''So customers will be able to be marshalled onto the trains quickly and efficiently,'' Mr Fedda said.
''We have done that now for a number of years. It is an effective way of ensuring customers can safely board trains and it can get them home quickly and effectively,'' he said.
But the Public Transport Users Association's president Tony Morton said the decision was part of a long-held resistance by bureaucrats to opening up Flagstaff station.
He said the station was not opened at weekends even though it has many residents living nearby.
He said the Flagstaff precinct was seen as a business hours-only area when the loop first opened but that was decades ago.
''It is anachronistic not to operate Flagstaff, especially at a peak time when you are inviting people into the city,'' he said.
Other disruptions include coaches instead of trains on the Ballarat, Sunbury, Bendigo and Seymour lines due to Regional Rail Link works.
For the first time, the Melbourne Star observation wheel will be a location to see the city's fireworks display as they rocket from 22 sites around the city. But a Star spokeswoman Sally Abbott said passengers would need to fluke the right time for their flight as there were no timed tickets.
Ms Abbott said 10,000 people had been in the Melbourne Star in its first week, although it had a 15-minute ''safety precaution'' closure on Saturday after an ''incident''. Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle described the incident as ''a bird strike''.
For the first time this year, Melbourne's fireworks display has been specifically designed to be best enjoyed at four live sites - Kings Domain, Flagstaff Gardens, Treasury Gardens and Docklands.
But the best seat in the house will probably belong to display director Andrew Howard, who will preside over the 10-minute extravaganza from his Eureka Tower control centre.
Mr Howard is preparing to explode 7.5 tonnes of fireworks over the city, making this year's show the biggest.
He has promised an ''extremely loud'' finale and the unveiling of a new shade of firework. ''It is a beautiful gold colour that we have manufactured … It almost looks like fairy dust,'' he said.
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