Does Melbourne have better public transport than Sydney? Ft. Building Beautifully

Sydney is a clear winner for me.

I value trains > trams. Sydney wins hands down, no debate. Trams are also just inflexible buses 75% of the time when they share the road with cars in Melbourne.

Frequency > total no. of stations. Melbourne frequency is horrendous. More no. of stations in Melbourne is irrelevant when the entire network's only interchanges are in the CBD. Most suburb-to-suburb trips are terribly long because of this. I know Suburban Rail Loop is coming but it's pretty damn dire right now. I'm also not out at 2am enough to worry about lack of early morning service.

I value having the flexibility to use a credit card / phone to tap on, Sydney wins hands down. Myki is horrendous.

I dislike the pricing in Melbourne, the prices are so criminal that there is no wonder virtually everyone I see is fare evading.

Honestly, the one thing Melbourne has done right is the Free Tram Zone to give tourists the illusion of great transport. Under the hood it's pretty woeful.

“Melbourne train carriages cannot carry as many people as Sydney train carriages” isn’t the positive that you think is

Great video Philip. Maybe the people whinge about Melbournes public transport system should watch this. Now time to watch the opposing argument.

I am In Sydney, Well i'm not from Sydney, I was from Norway, i was born in Bergen in Norway. But Trams in Sydney are not going further to other places like sydney which use to have the Biggest Tram System. Then Melbourne Beat Sydney in the 1960s. But in Manchester where i went to before i came to Sydney, The Metrolink originally Convert Old Railways. Having a Light Rail, or Tram Line of Converting Old Railways that Close before Construction is very Easy and Doesn't take Long.

I watched the other video, and i think Sydney has it over Melbourne. Coz of train frequency alone, reliability of a train every 15mins in off peak

I would have like a comparison of a Sydney service train vs Melbourne service train journey time to highlight how much longer the dwell times of a 2 level train add to a journey

based melbourne W

Sydney is city surrounded by water, so it's a little biased to leave out Sydney's extensive and and essential ferry service. Many people also use ferries for work commute too.
Re ticketing, Sydney has had paywave/contactless for credit and debit cards for years. Rest of the country still hasn't rolled that out.
Sydney also has quick easy frequent trains from the airport. No competition there.
Brisbane also has an airport train. When is Melbourne getting one? Ridiculous that it doesnt already.
Every bus stop i used whilst living in sydney for 12 years had a timetable. Regardless the transport app shows real time/tracked transport due at the stop.
Yes the tram network is better in Melbourne. That's a no brainer.

Sydney by far - more tourists in Sydney

Man what a neat channel! As a former Melbourne resident it's real cool seeing the history of the best city in Australia

Both have decent Transport Systems but where Melbourne loses is Buses. No matter how good your train or tram system is you need to be on point with the buses as theh cover connection to train stations and borough to Borough connections. If Melbourne can fix that + Rail connection + Loop + Electrification in some Areas they could be in a very good position in less than 20 Year's

I have been living in Germany, for almost 2 years, and used D-tikcet to visit almost each single city of Germany (over 40 different stadts) , some of them twice or trice or even more. I have lived in Leipzig, city of 570k people and visited Berlin 11 times with population of nearly 1.7 million, and used only and only Regional and Local trams and buses with the famous D-Ticket. I am planning for the second migration to Australia especially Melbourne Victoria, as many of my freinds suggest. the only think I am concerned is that ease of use of Public Transport be the same of somehow equivalent down under. I have heard that with no Car, it is impossible to live in Australia, however with the kind of videos like this, I am geting more of the Berlin vibe. Anybody with the actual experinece of living in europe and australia would help me a lot regardingthis dilemma. I know Duetsche Bahn is the joke of the forums in Germany with Verspatung and delays and cancellations and strikes, however it is verry easy to live only with Public transport here in Germany

Congratulations, you're the first person this millennium to speak positively about Myki

& its not Rugby!!! Rugby League & Rugby Union are 2 different games & organisations!!

Comparing Apples with oranges. The geographic difference for starters. The harbour and water crossings in Sydney the flatness of Melbourne suburbs, especially the west and north and the bay. These comparisons are pretty well useless, but if u want to muck abour with your delusions of which is better,.......

Great video. Have often wondered which city's PT would hold up best under expert scrutiny. PS "AFL" is not a sport, it's a competition. Should've said "Aussie rules vs Rugby". Cheers and sorry for being a pedant

To be fair Melbourne has the awful vline or regional train for suburbs that are still metro Melbourne like Donnybrook. Sydney keeps the outer suburbs as part of the same train line.

You lost me when you said Myki beats out the convenience of using your credit card o pay for trips. We were in Melbourne 2 weeks ago and couldn't believe we had to buy a Myki and put a $10 block of credit on it. Myki is rancid. Oh and the Metro wasn't mentioned. Neither was the fact that Sydney will have two airport rail connections before Melbourne has its first.

Sydney easy wins by a country mile Melbourne’s is a scam the transportation just doesn’t work and tax funded to boot

Sydney wins in all departments

Sydney fares are a bargain $1 a trip

Anyone who thinks that Melbourne is anywhere near Sydney as regards to Public Transport is delusional.

Just take PT to the airport. Sydney has a train to Kingsford Smith and will have one to Western Sydney in 2030.

We in the other hand. Apart from the Private Skybus it is a train to Broadmeadows or a tram to Airport West then a bus which have poor frequencies, especially at the weekends.

Melbourne has better public transport to sporting/entertainment precincts. The MCG can be accessed via 6 direct lines and two stations as well as several tram stops. Sydney olympic park (currently) only has one line from the south and one station. Moore Park on the far east of Sydney only has light rail access.

Sharath's video looked into public transport for major shopping malls.
But which city provides the better public transport access to major hospitals and universities? Which hospitals or university campuses have the best and worse public transport access in each city?

Hospitals are major employers often distant from CBDs that need to be staffed 24 hours a day and accommodate large numbers of patients and visitors.

Universities have huge student numbers and require a decent sized workforce. They also accommodate visitors, guest lecturers and research participants.

Some hospitals and universities have reasonable public transport access. Others are difficult and parking is a challenge.
Interested in thoughts on this and ways this could be improved

Melbourne metro needs more el

Melbourne metro needs more elevators at their stations

I love Sydney. New train stations are fresh and new looking forward to travelling on the new train lines. That opened up recently.

Why does Melbourne have a “National Gallery”, “of Victoria” ? That makes no sense. Victoria is a latecomer, a Colony in 1851 I think, Melbourne came later. The Nation, Australia, came with Federation in 1901. There is little “National” about Melbourne and Victoria.

The one thing I liked when I visited Sydney vs Melbourne with ticketing is that I could just tap my credit or debit card. As a visitor it was so much easier than having to buy a card and not knowing how much money you should put on it.

Being Canberran and hearing Melbourne praised so much for the grid is absolutely sending me, grids are boring!!!

If you think Sydney's bad, Canberra would likely give you an aneurysm.

No.

Sydney CBDs road network and layout is very typical of a British colonial settlement think Singapore, Rangoon Calcutta etc(I’m using the old names to intentionally bring back feelings of urban planning during the colonial days)… you have your various streets dedicated to different trades like Macquarie street for all government administrations, Martin place for banks as well as little pockets of the city to keep people separated…(the migrant boat builders in Balmain etc)…unfortunately if your not willing to tear it down it doesn’t lend itself to expansion and development quite the same was as a American style grid system like Melbourne..which was built with the idea of growth expansion rather than a need to police the mass with a few

Sydney is about to be better transport as we have a
metro that is amazing. To go on it concerned.

While I do agree that Melbourne's tram network is much better than Sydney's light rail, covering more ground with more lines, Sydney definitely does have some major advantages. The fleet is all low-floor, as well as the stops. It just feels better to board a low floor tram from a dedicated low floor stop, rather than Melbourne, where you need to dodge traffic. Melbourne's tram network has a wide variety of different models, which isn't really a good thing. Some are low floor, don't have announcements or have limited air conditioning. This may be a hot take, but Melbourne has some of the world's worst tram seats. Take a look at the C1 class, with its blue plastic seats! Finally, the opal readers at the stops are better than the myki readers on the tram. It's a pain to tap your myki in a crowded tram, and it's so much simpler to do it without the chaos.

Might be a little bit harsh, but, being from Melbourne, you can't just let these criticisms go.

"...utterly incomprehensible street network designed by an octopus" - Most apt description of Sydney's street network that I think I have ever heard! I appreciated that greatly! Thank you for the chuckle!!

thanks for doing a proper comparison, I didn't realise Sydney's public transport was so bad when comparing it to Melbourne's. And those tram actual statistics can't be beat, Sydney does have 9 ferries though. Noticed how anyone here says they like Melbourne public transport is attacked by trolling Sydneysiders LOL.

As from Sydney originally lived in melb 17 years Sydney the winner.

I found it incomprehensible that bus services in Melbourne only run through the suburbs to take people to the nearest transport hub. There are none that take people down the main roads. This seems to be a missed opportunity.

Melbourne's bus network sucks compared to Sydney.

The lack of services on weekends or even weekdays is so bad. And don't get me started on frequency!

As a Melburnian, I was shocked to learn I could take a bus from Central to Newtown at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. That would be a Christmas miracle in Melbourne.

Also, Sydney buses have express services too. You can be guaranteed to find a frequent and relatively fast bus on major roads like Parramatta Road, Victoria Road, and Anzac Parade.

Go Melbourne and gold coast as two great city is Sydney ok

Go Melbourne and gold coast as both great city is Sydney NSW 😂😂😂😂

Melbourne for me

Are you kidding? Sydney's ticketing and fare system is much fairer and simpler to use - the complicated fare calculator happens in the background

I have lived in Melbourne before. The suburb to suburb commute is a nightmare. I used to live in Heidelberg and went to uni in Burwood. The public transport options were- 1. catch the train from Heidelberg to the city, wait and catch another one to burwood (1.5 hours one way). Option 2 was to change three buses(2 hours one way). Once I bought a car, the travel time went down to 20 mins.
I now live in Sydney and I love how easy to get around.

despite all of that Sydney always fabulous Sydney sorry dull Melbourne why are you always so grey

Sydney doesn’t need a night network, the average Sydney Sider Sleeps at 8:00pm

Excellent views from both presenters; thank you for sharing. I haved lived in both cities, and both have given great overviews and opinions - well done on providng these inputs. Accessibility is another topic that can be covered for those with mobility challenges, ease of alternate transport when there is rail and track work and maintenance, and how does the trip planner on Google compare to NSW/Vic trip planner. Also the cost of arriving at/departing from Airport Stations (Domestic and International) could be a topic of conversation too (for Sydney, its exorbitant!). Both are excellent compared on other cities in Australia! Other cities could learn a lot from both Melbourne and Sydney! Thank you Both for a great video!