Public Transport in Melbourne

[Hot Pocket]

For those who have been to some of the bigger cities in our part of the world, do you feel like Australia is way behind them when it comes to public transport?

When I see the systems in Tokyo, HK or Singapore I'm kind of embarrassed at how bad our train network is in particular (And Melbourne probably has the best train network in Australia).

Its weird because we're technically the wealthiest nation in the world - and yet our cities are these horrible sprawling mess with bad traffic. It's not like we're dealing with Bangkok or Manila levels of population either - our cities are quite small in population compared to most of our neighbours.

And now our state government is committing 18billion to build another road that experts predict will have no effect on traffic anyway? Seems strange to me when our train network is so behind the times. I stopped driving a few years ago simply because I wanted to save a bit more money and I prefer to take the train as it gives me time to read or study and I get less angry (I'm fairly prone to road rage). And the benefits are pretty clear to me:

Safer
Cleaner
Less expensive
Less rage

Wouldn't a smarter country want a world class level of public transport? Imagine the amount of money the average person would save on petrol, rego, cars etc. if we had a top notch public transport system. People living in HK genuinely don't need cars because of how good their system is. Our government would save heaps of money on road maintenance and expansion as well. Using a 'ring' system we could link the outer suburbs too to make it easier for students and people who work in the burbs.

Its not like we have much of an Australian car industry to support anymore anyway - so who is really getting paid from all this spending on toll roads? They're using our tax dollars to build it, and then some company will charge us heaps to use it (for the few people who actually use it), after we pay for petrol, rego, insurance and a car.

It just seems like its one of those things the really world class cities always have - a top notch train network. If Australia is hell bent on borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars, why can't we use it on stuff that will actually improve our country?

 

[Dont be a lemon]

Little lobby power behind public transport (companies who directly build the rails and vehicles)

Massive lobby power behind private transport (8378373 companies who build or service cars, everyone who owns a car)

 

[radiojake]

Australian's have become accustomed to driving everywhere and are generally lazy because of it -

I remember Mexico City's subway system, it was, in a word, amazing...
Sure, with 25 million people in one city, you're going to need an epic transport system and I'm sure there are issues but from my limited experience with it I just couldn't help but think why we aren't able to replicate it here...


I look forward to petrol becoming $3 or $4 a litre and forcing people to actually look for and campaign for genuine alternatives

 

[raskolnikov]

Yep. Having lived in Taipei and Moscow, Australia's public transport is a disgrace. In Moscow basically one subway train departed and another one came in.

 

[Helicopter Punt]

Little lobby power behind public transport (companies who directly build the rails and vehicles)

Massive lobby power behind private transport (8378373 companies who build or service cars, everyone who owns a car)

This.
If you remove the assumption that they make decisions for the peoples benefit instead of corporate bottom line a lot of their 'dumb' decisions suddenly make sense.

 

[HirdyLannister]

Every world wide major city shits on Sydney and Melbourne.

I remember when I was in L.A. In the subway a guy missed the train and started complaining he had to wait for the next one, a train stops at a station every 3 - 5mins lol

 

[Illinois Nazi]

There's just no forward planning. Not enough carriages to have more/bigger trains. I came home yesterday on a jam packed three carriage train which a heap of people couldn't even get on, because who would have thought there would be a lot of people wanting a train out of the city at 4.45pm?

 

[Ahern2Boof]

I'm from the country, so the whole train/tram system is very foreign to me. But last month I had to make two seperate trips to Melbourne in the space of two days, with another a week later. All three times, my travels on the city's public transport was seamless and very impressive. Albeit, I don't think i'll understand the tram system in Melbourne.

 

[Lion for Life]

Yep. Having recently returned from Europe, I found it sticks out like dogs balls with how extremely inferior our train networks are. London & Paris are especially light years ahead of anything we have here, it's embarrassing.

 

[Hot Pocket]

The thing that really shits me is we can spend heaps on sending politicians overseas to see how a good train system works.

Then they come back to Victoria, and spend an outrageous amount of money on what? ****ing myki.

You've got to really question their intelligence when they do see the rail system in HK and go "Yep this is brilliant. No not the trains that come every two minutes. Not the safe and reliable network. Not the cheap prices. The cool little cards everyone has to click on and off. That is ****ing awesome. Let's spend heaps on that part. Oh and we will also get a bunch of quasi-cops with guns to patrol the trains too because freedom"

 

[NarklesHelmet]

I moved to Stockholm from Melbourne 5 years ago planing to get a car within 6 months of arriving here. 5 years later I am still here, still no car and just amazed at how much your life improves with a great public transport system like they have here. People always ask me when I come home "how can you live in a cold place like Sweden" but, honestly, the benefits to your everyday life of excellent public transport are so much higher than good weather. People in Australia not demanding better and safer public transport don't know what they are missing out on. It just makes everything in society work better and saves you a packet.

 

[Hot Pocket]

I moved to Stockholm from Melbourne 5 years ago planing to get a car within 6 months of arriving here. 5 years later I am still here, still no car and just amazed at how much your life improves with a great public transport system like they have here. People always ask me when I come home "how can you live in a cold place like Sweden" but, honestly, the benefits to your everyday life of excellent public transport are so much higher than good weather. People in Australia not demanding better and safer public transport don't know what they are missing out on. It just makes everything in society work better and saves you a packet.

Precisely! And I reckon it makes people feel a lot more connected to their city/community at the same time. When you can easily get around among the rest of your society, you meet people, you see things. You are really experiencing your city a lot more.

Driving to work for an hour in a cage on wheels, then back out to an isolated quarter acre in the burbs... I mean, you're not really feeling that same level of connectedness.

There's also an element of city/state pride in having a good public transport system. Knowing that you don't have to plan too much to get home or get around, that the service will be reliable and safe and cheap and that it was paid for by your taxes. It can be a real positive to the collective mental health of a place imo.

 

[HirdyLannister]

I moved to Stockholm from Melbourne 5 years ago planing to get a car within 6 months of arriving here. 5 years later I am still here, still no car and just amazed at how much your life improves with a great public transport system like they have here. People always ask me when I come home "how can you live in a cold place like Sweden" but, honestly, the benefits to your everyday life of excellent public transport are so much higher than good weather. People in Australia not demanding better and safer public transport don't know what they are missing out on. It just makes everything in society work better and saves you a packet.

Precisely! And I reckon it makes people feel a lot more connected to their city/community at the same time. When you can easily get around among the rest of your society, you meet people, you see things. You are really experiencing your city a lot more.

Driving to work for an hour in a cage on wheels, then back out to an isolated quarter acre in the burbs... I mean, you're not really feeling that same level of connectedness.

There's also an element of city/state pride in having a good public transport system. Knowing that you don't have to plan too much to get home or get around, that the service will be reliable and safe and cheap and that it was paid for by your taxes. It can be a real positive to the collective mental health of a place imo.

Lock thread, you two guys not only hit the nail on the head it went right through the 2by4.