Transport in Melbourne

Transport in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, consists of several interlinking modes. Melbourne is a hub for intercity, intracity and regional travel. Road-based transport accounts for most trips across many parts of the city, facilitated by Australia's largest freeway network. Public transport, including the world's largest tram network, trains and buses, also forms a key part of the transport system. Other dominant modes include walking, cycling and commercial-passenger vehicle services such as taxis.

Melbourne is a busy regional transport hub for the statewide passenger rail network, coaches and interstate rail services to New South Wales and South Australia. Freight transport also makes up a significant proportion of trips made on the network from the Port of Melbourne, Melbourne Airport and industrial areas across the city.

According to the 2016 Australian census, Melbourne has the second-highest rate of public transport usage among Australian capital cities for travel to work at 19 percent, second to Sydney's 27 percent. In 2017-2018, 565 million passenger trips were made on Melbourne's metropolitan public transport network.

Melbourne has the most road space per capita of any Australian city, with its freeway network being comparable to Los Angeles and Atlanta in terms of its size and scale. Much of Australia's automotive industry was located in Melbourne until all manufacturing ceased at the end of 2017. The state government, as part of the release of the Melbourne 2030 planning strategy in 2002, set a target for modal share of cars to decrease to 80 percent by 2020. However, increases in car usage since this target was set has not shown the decline that was initially predicted.

Melbourne's public transport system includes train, tram, bus and ferry services. Its tram network is the largest in the world. Almost 300 bus routes and 16 rail lines serve Greater Melbourne.

Since World War II Melbourne has become a dispersed, car-oriented city, leading to a decline in public transport use. The original transport patterns of urban development are still reflected Melbourne's prewar areas. The operation of Melbourne's public transport system was privatised by the government in 1999. Under this arrangement, rail and tram operations are contracted to private companies while the infrastructure remained under government control. Several operators have been awarded contracts since its commencement, including Connex Melbourne, M>Train and Keolis Downer. Despite initial plans that government subsidies would decrease to zero by 2015, payments to private companies have instead increased significantly.

Since the mid-2000s patronage has grown steadily on Melbourne's public transport system, particularly the metropolitan train and tram networks, leading to significant investment in the system and a number of major infrastructure projects. According to the 2018 Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel & Activity, Melbourne's public transport accounted for 8.5% of all trips within Greater Melbourne and Geelong, with 19% of journeys to work within Melbourne occurring on public transport across the three main modes.

Melbourne has a 16 line urban heavy rail network operated by Metro Trains Melbourne and serviced by a fleet of 326 EMU trains. With the exception of the Stony Point line, the entire urban rail network is electrified. The metropolitan network is considered to be a hybrid commuter and rapid transit system, serving both the inner city and outer commuter suburbs with high frequencies in peak periods but lower frequencies at other times. Flinders Street railway station is the city's main metropolitan station while Southern Cross railway station is the main interchange station for regional and interstate railway services.