How Melbourne’s train network stacks up against the best in the world

Melbourne opened its first major rail project in decades this weekend to great excitement and fanfare, but by global comparison, there’s still work to be done.

The $15 billion Metro Tunnel has expanded Melbourne’s underground train network with five new stations and twin nine-kilometre tunnels under the CBD.

It is expected to bring more than 50,000 people into the city each day and connects the Sunbury line in the north-west to the Cranbourne/Pakenham line in the south-east, creating a 100-kilometre cross-city connection.

Melbourne’s rail network now comprises 269 trains which run across 16 lines and connect 227 stations via 1000 kilometres of track.

Our network is more like a suburban railway system with some underground city stops, than a metro system in the style of London, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, New York or Hong Kong.

The technology used in the network is cutting edge, but it lacks the frequency and operating hours of its competitors.

So how does Melbourne’s expanded train system compare with other global cities?

London

The UK capital boasted the world’s first underground railway when its network opened in 1863 with steam trains initially running along the tracks.

The London Underground, known affectionately as “The Tube”, connects every major part of the city.

London has been expanding and improving its network ever since it opened. It now has 11 lines covering 402 kilometres and serving 272 stations, carrying up to 5 million passengers a day.

At peak times, there are more than 543 trains in service, with the fastest line running 40 trains an hour. In 2022, London added the high-frequency Elizabeth Line stretching between suburbs to the east and west of the city.

The lead architect for Melbourne’s Metro, Ivan Harbour, is based in London and took inspiration from The Tube’s design but describes parts of the London Underground as “sort of a nightmare” because of its age.

Passengers waiting less than two minutes for the next Tube service may disagree.

Tokyo

The railway system in Tokyo carries more than 8 million passengers a day and intersects with Japan’s broader rail network, including its high-speed bullet trains.

The Japanese capital has two main metro rail systems: the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway.

The combined system has 290 stations on 13 lines, and trains are incredibly punctual, with drivers fined for arriving late.

However, the metro trains can be a bit of a squeeze. Each carriage is designed for about 150 passengers but often carries double this in peak hour. Train operators employ staff to push people into carriages at peak times.

Eric Keys, a retired transport planner who was the initial project director on the Metro Tunnel, said Tokyo’s rail system suffered from significant overcrowding because the city had grown enormously since it was built.

“It becomes very difficult to expand those systems once they’re built,” he said. “While Tokyo is overused to an extreme level, our system will be relatively underused because it’s so new. It’ll have plenty of spare capacity so that we don’t have those problems for hopefully many decades.”

Singapore

Singapore has one of the world’s newest underground systems, the Mass Rapid Transit network having opened in 1987.

The MRT has more than 160 stations which span the island across six MRT lines. The 240-kilometre system carries more than 200,000 daily passengers.

Singapore has plans to expand the rail network to about 360 kilometres by early next decade.

Nathan Pittman, education fellow in transport planning at the University of Melbourne, said Singapore’s MRT was “incredibly frequent”, clean and punctual in comparison with Melbourne’s network.

“You don’t have the problem of having to mix with suburban traffic and you’re not going to have freight trains sharing the same track,” he said. “So it’s a lot easier to provide that level of service.”

Paris

The Parisian Metro system, with its iconic art nouveau entrances, spans the city across 16 lines.

Its first line opened in 1900 during Paris’ World Fair and the Olympic Games and, over the years, it has expanded to service 308 stations.

The word “metro”, used around the world including on Melbourne’s system, comes from the Paris Metropolitan.

The French capital’s Metro carries over 4 million passengers a day, and small dogs are allowed on board.

Running on a combination of steel wheels and rubber tyres, trains are mostly conductor-driven, although three lines have been updated to be automatic.

Paris is in the middle of the biggest transformation of its public transport system yet. Construction of the €35 billion ($62 billion) Grand Paris Express is scheduled for completion by 2030.

The project includes four new Metro lines, 200 kilometres of new tracks and 68 new stations.

Unlike existing lines, the new ones are configured in rings that avoid passing through the middle of the city, a similar design to Melbourne’s proposed Suburban Rail Loop.

New York

In the “city that never sleeps”, the subway runs all day and night, every day.

New York’s subway snakes its way underneath the city and has grown to 36 lines since it opened in 1904.

The subway has 472 stations, making it the world’s largest by the number of stations. It carries about 1.1 billion people a year – which is still only at 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic patronage levels.

However, the subway’s size, age and funding problems have made it a challenging system to improve, with parts falling into near-disrepair around the time of the global financial crisis.

Its newest addition is the Second Avenue Subway, which opened in 2017 after a decade of construction.

The second phase of that line, into Harlem, is being developed at an expected cost of $US5.23 billion ($7.9 billion) and is due for completion by about 2032.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway serves over 179 stations.

It’s cheap, accessible and efficiently designed with interchanges to ensure a smooth flow of passengers. Hong Kong residents are avid public transport users, reporting some of the highest utilisation rates in the world with 5 million passengers a day.

Trains run 19 hours a day, seven days a week. During peak periods, trains with capacity for 2500 passengers run at two-minute intervals.

The MTR has a 99.9 per cent punctuality rate.

Formerly owned by the Hong Kong government, it is now a publicly traded company after its initial public offering in 2000.

The MTR is highly profitable, bringing in $HK15.8 billion ($3.1 billion) in the past financial year. Yet it also has among the cheapest fares in the world – the shortest trip costing just 96¢.

The major driver of the corporation’s huge revenue is its property development arm. MTR holds a portfolio of about 50 properties, which were provided to the company by the government for free for the development of new train stations.

Above the stations sit some of the city’s largest skyscrapers, owned by the company.

MTR owns public transport networks around the world, including Melbourne’s, where it has a 60 per cent stake in Metro Trains.

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