Together, Canada & Australia Have Mastered Public Transport

[@andrew.]

Australian trains are built to withstand kangaroo attacks, but Canadian trains are built to withstand bear attacks. These are two very different design processes.

[@jayasuriyas2604]

Indian trains are built to withstand tiger attacks and Chinese ones are built to withstand dragon attacks.

[@emjackson2289]

@@jayasuriyas2604, Japan Railways East wish to apologise for the delay to your 1538 Shinkansen service between Tokyo and Osaka, this is due to adverse Godzilla activity in the Yokohama region.

[@papyrussemi2848]

false Canadian trains are built to withstand the winter

[@danielbougie4414]

@@jayasuriyas2604 you never witness the deadly attack of Canadian goose…..simply horrible.

[@ax--media]

​@@danielbougie4414You mean the Royal Canadian Air Force? 😂

[@illiiilli24601]

The last bit was a low blow, with both of our countries having spent countless dollars on feasibility studies and none on actually building the damn thing. Though Canada probably has it easier with a very logical line of cities

[@RMTransit]

I feel like both countries are similarly well suited, Aus has a more challenging route from Sydney to Melbourne but also way more rail experience to draw on

[@KRYMauL]

@@RMTransitI think everyone can learn from Germany and they just need to upgrade lines to 160 km/h.

[@gnhansen29]

There has been talk about building a high speed rail between Sydney and Newcastle which currently has an electric rail service. IMHO it would make more sense to build a High speed rail line between Sydney and Canberra which would have a better speed improvement and could encourage housing along its route.

[@ElusiveTy]

​@@gnhansen29Sydney Canberra absolutely needs to be the first one. Eventually, Sydney/Canberra/Newcastle/Wollongong. For Brisbane - Brisbane/Sunshine Coast/Gold Coast/(Potentially somewhere near Toowoomba but the geography would be near impossible given the cost vs population). I think smaller scale high speed rail is important before considering rail covering 714 KMs (Syd-Mel) and 733 KMs (Syd-Bris), as the crow flies.

[@illiiilli24601]

@@KRYMauL> something something do what Germany did that's pretty much the entire premise behind the Fastrack organisation and their proposal. Upgrade the lines in stages, and even if it's cancelled halfway through, you still get a marked speed improvement

[@fernbedek6302]

As someone who’s grown up without a car, trains and metros are nice, but buses are essential.

[@doujinflip]

Right, I thought the Seoul Metro was convenient until I discovered their even more direct bus network (and its free wifi that doesn't require local SIM service)

[@Kanadabalsam]

Yeah having lived in Buenos Aires, the subte and commuter rail services are great but the public transit system would simply fall apart if it weren’t for all the bus lines

[@RMTransit]

I think it really depends on where you live and whether the cycling and walking experience is good!

[@fernbedek6302]

@@RMTransitTrue, but those locations are generally expensive to live in. Especially in Canada. And I am poor. 😅

[@goatgamer001]

in some situations the buses are not essential

[@tdb7992]

Sometimes it really feels like Canada is just the cold weather version of us. There are so many Canadians in Australia too; and I hear there are a lot of Aussies in Canada. From memory, Vancouver has one of the largest Australian diasporas in the world.

[@lance-biggums]

We got that Anglo British connection, and also are both frontier nations

[@ValleyOfTheKens]

Tons of Aussies in Banff (Alberta) as well. Y'all love to snowboard I guess

[@MultiCappie]

Bunches of Aussies here in Edmonton too.

[@aheat3036]

It’s much easier to get into Canada compared to the U.S. and that’s why so many immigrants use Canada as a steppingstone into the U.S. The TN visa is what they use!

[@cooperlittlehales6268]

Went to Banff and half the stores were staffed by Aussies lol I was like "we came to canada to get away from Australia but they followed us here!"

[@BuildingBeautifully]

Great video. Australia’s transit is much better than Aussies think, certainly miles ahead of the US. I agree that our buses need much more work though, with the exception of Brisbane which I think needs to focus more on its rail. Surprised Sydney Metro didn’t get a mention, but the way it’s being built it’s basically suburban rail so that makes sense 😅. Intercity services in Sydney particularly are woefully slow and need a lot of work. Oh, how both nations could benefit so much from high-speed rail…

[@jackpubbo]

Your videos are so good!

[@TheRockkickass]

They aren’t better than the US. US has way more miles of line

[@mgp1203]

That doesn't mean better overall quality though.@@TheRockkickass

[@TheRockkickass]

@@mgp1203 idk to be fair. I don’t use PT. I’m not a broke loser

[@JesusManera]

​@@TheRockkickass I think that last comment sums up the different between USA and Australia. In Australia, you're not seen as a "broke" loser to use PT. Lawyers, doctors, CEOs and financial executives use PT daily. The fact that in so much of the US, only "poor" people use it, I think demonstrates the difference in quality. Also, US only has more miles of line overall because the entire country is populated, whereas over 90% of Australia has no population and therefore no need for PT. Australia only has 5 metro areas of over 1 million people. So to say that a country with 50 states and around 100 major metro areas has more total miles of rail than a country with 6 states and 5 major metro areas, is pretty irrelevant, especially when what we're talking about is public transport systems WITHIN metro areas, is it not? If you listed every metro area in both the USA and Australia by population, Australia's 2 largest cities (Melbourne & Sydney) only rank about 11th & 12th. But if you ranked that same list by the size of their PT network, Melbourne & Sydney would rank 2nd and 3rd (after NYC). Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth would all be in the top 10 largest PT networks too, despite not one of them making the top 25 for population. Put it this way as just one example. Dallas-Fort Worth has about 7.6m people compared to Melbourne & Sydney both only having about 5m. So, per capita, for DFW to have the same size public transport system as Melbourne for example, it would need: 24 suburban train lines with 345 stations, 36 tram routes with 2500 stops on 380km of track, and over 600 bus routes with over 15,000 stops. (This is based on Melbourne's network x 1.5, because DFW has 1.5x the population of Melbourne) Do you know what DFW actually has? Only 65 stations on 4 train lines, only 91 bus routes, and no tram network, despite being 1.5x as large as Melbourne. And that's not like I'm cherry picking one bad example. Even Greater Los Angeles which has one of the biggest PT networks in the USA, still has a smaller network than both Melbourne and Sydney, despite being more than double their population. And you're going to argue that US cities, on average, have better and more extensive PT networks than Australian cities?

[@PSNDonutDude]

Really excited to visit Australia one day. I know someone that works in Urban Planning there and it's really exciting to see their growing transit systems.

[@RMTransit]

Its a nice country, with a lot of spooky animals haha!

[@ElusiveTy]

And it would be a pleasure to have you. Stick to the cities if you fear the fauna.

[@boitmecklyn4995]

@@RMTransit Spooky to you, just pets to us!

[@danielgoosen591]

Living in Australia myself, Melbourne specifically, i can first-hand say that our bus networks, or at least in Melbourne, are quite extensive, however the frequencies at which those buses are run and the capacity that the buses can run at are quite appalling. I do also think that one key problem with Melbourne's bus network compared to the likes of Brisbane and the Gold Coast is that Melbourne's bus system is split up into different companies that are all offered contracts by PTV to run the bus routes seperately.

[@tobyb6248]

Most cities operate like that. Greater Brisbane has multiple bus companies depending on the council.

[@tekartsu2051]

Brisbane's bus network is the only one (Excluding Canberra) that is operated by its council. That being said, it is quite appalling in regards that the council also controls the transport planning and routes for the buses within Brisbane - Brisbane Metro is a council-planned project. This also makes bus-train connections quite poor, with poor old Translink not only having to mediate with BCC, but also Queensland Rail, whose also a separate organisation to Translink, however state owned and operated.

[@JesusManera]

Agree, our bus network is definitely the weakest link in the system. That said, there are some good routes. Especially the 900 series of 'Smart Bus' routes. I live pretty inner-city so buses are an afterthought, I always catch trams. But just last week I took a day off work and wanted to go from St Kilda (where I live) to Collingwood. The quickest way was the 246 bus, so for the first time in years I actually caught a bus. Was pleasantly surprised to find that it had 10 minute frequency! And took me almost door to door in 20 minutes. That really just reinforces that 'have' and 'have-not' divide with PT in the inner & outer suburbs though, that two areas (St Kilda and Collingwood) that are already so well serviced by trains & trams also have such a frequent bus between them, yet outer suburbs where people can't walk to a train station so often have buses that only run every 30-60 minutes and don't run at night.

[@betteramulet50]

@@JesusManera yes, yes, yes!

[@prabhsaini1]

@@JesusManera I live in the outer south east suburban area and busses here run generally between a forty or one hour frequency. Missing the train is quite detrimental, nowadays I avoid the bus entirely.

[@ollie2074]

you still forgot to mention ferries. Yes this mode requires your city to have either a harbour or a river, which a lot of Canadian and Australian cities have

[@mangoman178]

Aussie living in Canada for the last 3 years, couldn't agree more mate! I think both countries need to vastly improve inter city rail connections!

[@zoranvuko]

I wish Australia's train/metro network was improving more rapidly than it is right now. Also, the bus networks are slow and unreliable as they get stuck in traffic and at traffic lights, with Brisbane being probably the only exception.

[@BercowSandwich]

Pretty much all the major cities are seeing rapid expansions except for Adelaide. There's Melbourne with the Metro Tunnel and SRL, Sydney Metro, Brisbane's CRR and dedicated busways plus Gold Coast Light Rail and Perth has been going absolutely wild with Metronet. There's always room for improvement like with busses in general or projects being thrown into doubt like Melbourne Airport Rail, but I think we're doing insanely well as it stands. We're seeing the biggest expansion in public transport infrastructure since the 1920s, or technically ever (given how much of it is underground).

[@zoranvuko]

​@@BercowSandwichBut even Metronet in Perth isn't perfect. Pretty much every line (except for the Thornlie-Cockburn Rail Link) feeds into the CBD, I would love to see a Cockburn-Fremantle Link, Thornlie-High Wycombe Link, and a Malaga-Edgewater Link.

[@RMTransit]

I concur that buses in Aus need a lot of work, but the rail is improving pretty dramatically!

[@Tekkie2_RBLX]

@@BercowSandwich I would say that Adelaide’s main focus right now isn’t necessarily about expanding their network. Their main focus would be electrifying their train lines.

[@jacktattersall9457]

@@Tekkie2_RBLX Adelaide is really lagging. Every other capital with more than 1 million residents has a fully electrified rail network: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, even Auckland and Wellington cross the Tasman

[@alfredpek2812]

As a Sydneysider 🇦🇺 living in Toronto 🇨🇦 and don't have a car. I really appreciate this analysis. It means a lot to be able to truly compare and contrast both systems. While I deplore TTC sometimes compared to TransportNSW. You have to give credit where its due. I'd argue in Australia, Parramatta is the best TOD in the country better than Chatswood due to its importance and scale within the last 10 years. I wish the transport coverage in Toronto is as vast as Sydney's but you cannot beat the efficiency and how nimble the systems are here compared to back home. I just hope both countries progress in the right direction with High Speed Rail and other means 🙏

[@ElusiveTy]

I have to respectfully disagree on Parramatta vs Chatswood, particularly as you've brought up importance over the past decade. Chatswood's situation is unmatched in all of Sydney, especially with their metro connections. Parramatta may take over with the expansion of the metro to the west, but so far, it doesn't really seem so, at least in my opinion. Enjoy your time in Canada. Stay safe, fellow countryman 🇭🇲

[@alfredpek2812]

​@@ElusiveTy Sorry, in what way? Lets actually dissect this. Parramatta's Light Rail, Metro west expansion, the bigger bus hub and other civic infrastructure expansion is actually happening more in the faster rate than Chatswood. Chatswood is simply ahead in terms of infrastructure development for the time being. However it is quickly finishing up. Furthermore, much more TOD development and urban spaces are being massively expanded in Parramatta CBD vs Chatswood. It already has way more high rises than Chatswood and its rightfully a city centre right now. The only thing that's actually gonna defeat the definition of TOD is that Parramatta is no longer a suburb technically speaking. What are your thoughts?

[@monketok141]

Another thing to note: The metro/regular train integration at Chatswood is waaay better, just a cross platform transfer. Metro at parra will be a whole new station requiring passengers to exit and walk a little bit if they want to swap to the other line. I do like the planned Parra light rail Stage 2 route

[@alfredpek2812]

Chatswood has basically reached its capacity when it comes to TOD development, short of turning the area into a multi skyscraper bridge lane. Parramatta's metro transfer might be annoying, but pedestrianising half of the city with excellent cycle infrastructure and upcoming tram lines (which are also going to be expand to Olympic Park) and its proximity to other greater Sydney's new economic centre will put it miles ahead of Chatswood. Not to mention, it does have a Ferry stop!

[@AndrewMarszalek]

@@alfredpek2812 As some one who pretty much lives equidistant between Parramatta and Chatswood. I think both are great TODs, Chatswood for what it already is and Parramatta for what it becomes. I’m just hopeful that the Light Rail to Carlingford eventually stretches to Epping and Mac Park at some point in the future as one very old plan had it doing. Even to Epping would be brilliant to tie it into the Metro and Trains there. Epping itself is becoming a bit of a mini-TOD with all the new high rise there.

[@kaihang4685]

5:33 I can see why you like Chatswood Station - I pass through it every time on my way to uni! It fits nicely with the topic of this video. It has an integrated bus hub at the bottom, and amenities all around it, and a very nice pedestrianised street (Victoria ave) right outside. It also has express cross platform interchange! (Only same direction though) After Sydney metro started they took hints from Hong Kong and installed platform barriers. They’re taller and beefier than the ones in Hong Kong tho, to withstand the occasional kangaroo assault.

[@RMTransit]

Its a very good station! Its basically got every feature I suggest a good station should have!

[@Jacopski]

Those barriers are pretty much metro exclusive, when the city section opens early next year its going to be a game changer

[@1TW1-m5i]

My main dislike of Chatswood is the station itself is very bare bones and ugly. The view around is fine, but step of the train, and you're basically staring at bare concrete and metal while you wait for the next.

[@bigdude101ohyeah]

Perth does a decent job with buses. They're pretty much used as a last-mile feeder from bus interchanges. Most other cities either have former tram lines, or private bus routes, both of which were often designed to compete with rail, rather than complement it. With that being said, one of the Perth councils (City of Stirling) has drunk the CRRC kool-aid and is doing a trial of that "trackless tram." Canberra can't even pay weekend rates to their drivers, let alone get a timetable synchronised together, and they have trouble leaving a route alone for more than one year.

[@RMTransit]

Ironically the smaller videos generally do seem to do better on buses, at least on a per capita basis

[@haweater1555]

There's a video here profiling the trackless or "single track" trams, especially in France. Several have since been ripped out.

[@illiiilli24601]

@@RMTransit > Ironically the smaller videos seem to do better on buses I think you made a typo, and meant to write the smaller cities

[@illiiilli24601]

I read on the blog Melbourne on Transit that "Perth achieved 9 times more bus changes per capita than Melbourne in the past 2 years.", leading to that blog urging the Victorian DTP to drop everything and copy Perth.

[@ACDZ123]

Perth is hard to beat when it comes to buses. It's a bussy city ..ok il leave now 🤦

[@davidreichert9392]

One thing I like about Sydney trains is that it also features routes that don't go through the city centre making trips across the metro area more convenient if the city centre isn't your start or destination. Here in Toronto, making use of the CN line north of the city would be a great addition to the GO network, and maybe give some relief to the abomination that is the 401.

[@RMTransit]

The orbital routes are really valuable!

[@jack2453]

@@RMTransit Pretty lacking in Sydney. There is really only one crosstown route and it has really poor service.

[@tobyb6248]

@@jack2453 Not just about routes, but connections. So many of the lines intersect outside of the inner city, meaning your don't have to go into the city to transfer to other lines.

[@AndrewMarszalek]

@@jack2453 maybe only one dedicated line, but with so many lines joining the western line at Blacktown, Granville, Lidcombe and Strathfield. It is possible to do many (not all) cross city trips without going all the way into the city centre. Like you pretty much have to do in Melbourne & Bris. Extensions of Western Sydney Airport metro to Tallawong and Leppington would make this even better.

[@listohan]

There is no mention of the superior comfort of Sydney's double-deckers. The previous government was obsessed with metros because they are like overseas trains and not because they are better suited to Sydney's large metro area. As this area continues to grow, the "solution" is always considered to be a metro-like train despite the distances between stations and there being few opportunities to change to other lines. No mention of the ferries either. A uniquely desirable way to travel especially outside in our generally reliable weather.

[@tobyb6248]

tbh, I wish more lines were single deck trains

[@joshporter5422]

Single deckers pose greater acceleration and braking performance allowing for much closer intervals to be achieved I.e increasing line frequency. Not to mention they significantly reduce dwell times at stops thanks to their superior door layout and interior configuration. That’s not to say DD’s don’t work, it’s just that singles are more adept at fielding a wider range of suburban service patterns. Sydney’s T4 and T8 lines would benefit greatly from single decker rolling stock for example.

[@listohan]

@@joshporter5422at greater acceleration to the larger number of standing passengers and passengers seated at right angles to the direction of movement. Sydney metros are expanding to lines of the length and infrequency of stops that would be operated by longer distance trains in the rest of the world.

[@007i1]

@@joshporter5422 Sydney's suburbs are not that close, so stations are not that close, Greater acceleration is not a good selling point for Sydney's transit because they accelerate and brake less than just sitting at track speed. Instead greater seating capacity for Hour+ suburban trips is preferred. Multiple major lines reach 115km/h with 2-5 minutes between stations at that speed. You mentioned the T8 which i would highly disagree would benefit from single decker trains. Campbelltown to town hall, a very common trip is over an hour. on a single decker seats would be filled by Campbelltown, leaving everyone in between standing

[@joshporter5422]

@007i1 - Single deckers have the capacity and performance capability of eliminating the need for semi-express services. All whilst operating on an all-station service pattern and achieving the same or almost the same, end to end journey time as said semi-express services. Simplifying operations whilst improving service levels (BIG frequency boost which helps with the “standing” issue over distances). I acknowledge whilst single deckers with a more “metro oriented” interior might not work for all lines (except for most parts of T4 and T8), something like a Melbourne HCMT or Elizabeth line train is what Sydney should look for long term to operate on the majority if not all of lines that feed into the city. DD’s simply won’t be able to cater for future demand. (Lone exception being intercity services.)

[@johnhamilton6003]

One good thing about Australian buses is that some cities (most notably Canberra) has bike racks on buses to maximise ability to integrate active transport with public transit. Canberra also has bike racks on their light rail services

[@johnlang4198]

The European bus makers partner with local bus companies to produce their buses in Australia. Most notable was Volgren, a partnership between Volvo and the Grenda group in Dandenong. Another prominent builder is Eastcoast bus and truck, a partnership between Scania and the Ventura group, another large Melbourne bus company.

[@krisrizakis9989]

Montreal has made a lot of improvements from when I grew up there. I am jealous this stuff wasn't around back then. I've slowly come to realize after moving to a more "car focused" place in South Carolina that I miss the flexibility and practicality of Montreal's public transit. I frequently look for ways things can be improved here in SOuth Carolina and my suggestions fall frequently on deaf ears becaue car is king in this part of the world.

[@RMTransit]

And Montrealers would still likely say the same there, but the gap is huge!

[@julianallen515]

As a Vancvuerite I have to take issue with your title. Canada is far from having mastered public transport. One big issue is that the buses share lanes with private vehicles and move at the speed of that traffic and subject to peak hour delays. Without separated bus only lanes making transit faster and more reliable schedules the majority of the public will not come out of their cars.

[@illiiilli24601]

I think his title is trying to say that everything Canada does poorly, Australia does well, and vice versa. Perth is building many bus queue jumps and/or painted bus lanes for its frequent routes to help with that problem you mentioned.

[@Combatpzman]

Suburban buses are not that great in Greater Vancouver, it’s not just the lack of bus lanes. If you don’t want to go to downtown Vancouver it’s useless. So you have to have a vehicle anyway. Once you have to have it, paying for transit doesn’t make sense.

[@arshamrudd5652]

Vancouver train system in also terrible compared to Australian cities

[@NoName-ds5uq]

That last sentence. High speed rail would be such a game changer to both countries! Canada has a very narrow corridor of most of its population straight across the country, and Australia has its 2 most busy air routes between 3 cities. The Melbourne-Sydney air route is in the top 5 busiest in the world. Sydney-Brisbane must be somewhere near that too. High speed rail would take a load off the airports.

[@JayJayGamerOfficial]

Yeah, just a few years ago sydney and melbourne was the second busiest and sydney to brisbane was a bit lower on the top 10 at around 7th i believe. Melbourne to brisbane isnt too far behind as well and with these air routes bringing on so much money, the lobbyists have tried preventing high speed rail from being considered in this corridor

[@The_Jazziest_Coffee]

@@JayJayGamerOfficial i bloody hate the lobbyists it's absurd how we haven't developed a high speed rail link btwn the three major eastern cities, and at the very least melbourne and sydney

[@JayJayGamerOfficial]

@@The_Jazziest_Coffee yeah, not to mention all the benefits it would have to all the smaller town in between that would have stops. Australia's biggest problem is that there is no decentralisation in any of the states with majority of the population being in 1 single city and this will help that

[@The_Jazziest_Coffee]

@@JayJayGamerOfficial yep it benefitted japan so much (in terms of connectivity and benefits to smaller towns), and although australia is without question much larger in pure distance, the geography is slightly (only slightly) more manageable, with little risk of natural disaster aside from bushfires and the occasional flood

[@NotAPanzer6]

I'm happy that chatswood station got mentioned. It finally deserves the credit it deserves 5:41

[@gingerwithasideofsalt4314]

Would absolutely LOVE to see a video on the Melbourne V/Line System at some stage! It’s by no means perfect, but 10 dollars to travel anywhere within the state is exceptionally good value, and they run a surprisingly vast network of buses and trains hundreds of km’s out into regional areas. Interesting fleet too! Vast amounts of modern busses, and a really cool mix of newer DMUs and older legacy stock, honestly wish more people knew about the network and it’s reach!

[@calcutt4]

V/Line's fleet used to be even more interesting in the 1980s and 90s, it had the then-new N class locos but the backbone of the fleet was a varied collection of diesel electrics inherited from VR, some dating as far back as the early 1950s, as well as the DERMs, built in the 1920s, the last of which was withdrawn in 1991. They were replaced by Sprinters and VLocities and either scrapped or sold to private operators. Currently the oldest vehicles used by V/Line are the Y class of the 1960s, as well as a couple of P and A class, rebuilt in the 1980s from T and B class locos

[@gdfish3532]

I know a lot of transit advocates don't like melbourne's free tram zone, but I can't help but feel that every city in the world should have one. it's just so convenient. removing fares also removes the last point of friction with the user, so it really just feels like having fast travel in real life, and that shows through in the cbd's mode share, where private cars are so outnumbered that driving seems insane. I just wish melbourne's strenghts in transit and pedestrianization extended to other victorian cities like ballarat, bendigo and geelong. as things stand, they really just feel like north american cities but smaller as they all tore out their tram networks just like NA.

[@RMTransit]

There are positive and negative aspects to such free transit zones, Calgary has a free city centre rail zone too!

[@turtlelazers476]

The only problem with melbournes free tram zone is that it gets useless for everyone except for the people who already live in cbd due to the fare cap that already exists on public transit, however either way, no one was gonna tap their myki in the first place for just a tram

[@ThomasNing]

Sydney's tram costs AU$3.20 to go 2 stops........ Feels like a really expensive fast travel.

[@enochliu8316]

The reason people don't like it is because of the Daily cap which already exists. You spend 10$, and you have the entire victorian myki network.

[@debuthunter5389]

@@RMTransit - Nothing worse than living one stop outside of the free fare zone haha.

[@Skip6235]

My ideal city: the urban transit of Vancouver (with a few more extra skytrian lines), the suburban transit of Melbourne (with a few radial lines for more inter-suburban trips), and the bike and car infrastructure and canals of Rotterdam. Then add in the intercity rail of Japan for good measure.

[@KevinSmithGeo]

Also the freight rail and overall timetable integration of Switzerland.

[@chrismckellar9350]

Actually, the Australian state of Victoria is the only state to have integrated, state wide regional, urban passenger rail, bus, trams and ferry network, where you can travel anyway in the state paying the maximum of A$10.00 per day. Once the A$1.7 billion upgrade of Miki 'tap & travel' payment/ticketing system to be a state wide 'open loop' state wide system is completed, allowing for easier travel within Victoria.

[@ElusiveTy]

​@@chrismckellar9350It helps that they're the second smallest state and have a comparatively high density as a result. Victoria's 227,000km² is certainly a lot easier to deal with than WA's 2.5 million km² or Queensland's 1.8 million km².

[@illiiilli24601]

@@ElusiveTy though in WA's case, everyone is just in the south west corner from Perth to Albany

[@tobyb6248]

I would be picking Sydney's regional network over Melbourne's anyway.

[@JimmiAlli]

Melbourne hasn’t mastered this at all - we do not have a train link to the airport.

[@oliversissonphone6143]

Omg the irrational obsession with a rail link to an airport over 20km away. Sydney's airport is half that, but the train is expensive and still runs at a loss.

[@JimmiAlli]

@@oliversissonphone6143 please do some research before you reply to comments.

[@oliversissonphone6143]

@@JimmiAlli ask any expert on the issue and they'll tell you the same thing. If you think you have facts that I'm not aware of, share them.

[@JimmiAlli]

@@oliversissonphone6143 I do not believe that all experts agree that this is not feasible. If this were the case there would be far fewer rail links to airports. Why was the project started? Why is Sydney building a rail link to their new airport if the first one is such a lemon? Melbourne airport is not the furthest airport from its city? The common knowledge is that this is a project that is needed. Only those with interests in Skybus (yes read between the lines) are against this proposal.

[@oliversissonphone6143]

@@JimmiAlli By "common knowledge" you mean the uninformed public. Well they're also voters. Go find someone in your network that you trust who works in the space and see what they say.

[@nanaokyere7141]

Those double decker trains in Aus used in this video should be the new rolling stock if GO were to use multiple EU's sets. Those would be so nice. I also love how they look pulling into an underground station because i know those trains are massive

[@shraka]

I'd like some for Melbourne too.

[@edselbester]

I feel like Australia actually does have better public transportation than Canada and definitely the US. Just look at how extensive Australia’s suburban rail systems are. Canada has Go, Exo and other smaller systems. Australia has extensive suburban rail in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide. My city in the US has no suburban rail, light rail, or metro altogether. Australia 🇦🇺 could improve but we can’t all be Japan or China regarding public transportation quality.

[@scottdd2]

As an Adelaidian, I can tell you that our O-bahn is much loved and the most popular public transport piece. Love your videos, thanks.

[@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina]

Pity about the garbage rail network

[@Flumps-jz7pk]

Could you potentially explain the transport around Adelaide? I live in it, it's a very small but nice city, and with the population for greater Adelaide being only 1.4 million, it has a much larger system then some U.S. Cities with 5 million, the system isn't huge, but it has 6 lines, 3 of which are electric, as well as a small tram network being rebuilt under AdeLINK, as well as the O-Bahn which you mentioned

[@JesusManera]

I did a bit of an analysis a while ago comparing both US & Australian metro areas over 1m people. There are 60 in total (55 in the US and 5 in Australia), and Adelaide only ranked 47th for population but 10th for the size of its PT network (and that was the smallest of the 5 Australian PT networks). Similarly, Perth ranked 35th for population and 8th for its PT network. While Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane were all in the top 5 for PT, despite none of them being in the top 10 for population. The only 2 US metro areas which had comparable or bigger PT systems were the NY-NJ metro area with 19m people and Chicagoland with over 9m people. Then you have somewhere like Dallas-Fort Worth, with 7.6m people, and only 4 train lines! Another interesting finding was that all 5 of Australia's metro areas over 1m people had at least 200 bus routes; only 2 of the USA's 55 metro areas over 1m people had over 200 (in fact only 14 of their 55 metro areas even had over 100 routes). There's no doubt that Australian cities, especially per capita, punch WAY above their weight for PT compared to the US. It's not even close. Pretty funny that some US-defenders will try to say "but the US has more miles of track". So what? In a country with 340m people scattered across a country that has 55 metro areas of over 1m people, I would HOPE there is more miles of track than a country with only 5 major cities that is 95% empty!

[@ZytraX_]

@@JesusManera do you have the analysis still to share? it sounds like a fun read

[@jdillon8360]

The O-Bahn system is awesome. But Adelaide also has some things that need improving. All the rail lines should have been electrified by now. Also, the location of the interstate terminal is a joke. Any passenger arriving from interstate ends up in a transit dead zone, with no connection to the local train system (despite tracks running right next to the terminal), no buses, not even a nice walking path to the CBD.

[@mdorey]

Ok, I loved getting into the city and back on the O-bahn for the several years I lived in Adelaide. It alone has basically enabled sub-45 min public transit journeys into the city for the entire northeast and (especially if you're getting on at one of the interchanges) even beats driving times during peak periods. Anything short of a conversion to full metro-style rail would be a downgrade in my eyes. But, I will say that it is basically a crutch being used to compensate for the low density sprawl characteristics, and I think this is Australia's main problem, we're not really leaning on transit-oriented development enough. Chatswood is a fortunate exception but something that isn't really being replicated elsewhere as far as I'm aware. We've had rail lines in these cities for years yet the majority still sit adjacent to either large park-n-rides or single family homes. When I lived in Toronto for a few years in and around covid, I appreciated how in places like midtown, lots of high rises and mixed-use facilities were right on top of the metro stations, you really could get to the majority of places worth going to just through those main links. So yeah, I do like the idea of this fusion.

[@adrienaline4894]

Worth noting with Australia that only the big city public transport is good. Victoria is pretty decent for their rural network, and exemplary for their cost, but the same can't be said for other rural areas in Australia, even in reasonably large secondary cities.

[@youngalfred]

I know this is a public transport channel (Brisbane buses are great - you can see the elevated busway next to the hospital on the right at 0:48 ) but I wanted to put in a quick defense of the highway you showed at 0:46. It's really just a giant roundabout to connect the major city centre bypasses that Brisbane has - from our main road (and tunnel) from the north it allows you to get into a tunnel that goes completely under the city to the southside, as well as onto the 'inner city bypass' which does what it says. Previously, you had to go through the city centre to get across the river, or go much further in to get to the west bound freeway. Could it look better? Absolutely. But it does help keep cars out of the city.

[@jimrodgers6441]

Now all that’s left to do is tear down the Riverside Expressway

[@RMTransit]

It might serve a practical purpose but it truly is massive!

[@shraka]

Having lived in Brisbane, the ICB is a terrible idea, as is the riverside expressway. They're both way WAY too close to the city center. They're not just ugly but noisy and take up a lot of prime city real estate.

[@boubayaga_]

Former Melbournian living in Berlin and yes I can completely agree that Australia's networks have been improving in recent years, the low density problem caused by sprawling suburbs will always be a severe hindernde to the metro/suburban network and is also why regional services there will never be able to hold muster with a European regional network. We also have very different tastes when it comes to station aesthetics but I won't pick that apart lmao

[@stephengentle2815]

I think one thing you said is not quite right - the bit where you say “Australia is better at buying busses from overseas” is over footage of Brisbane busses that are actually mostly locally built here by Volgren (the next shot is of a Brisbane Metro vehicle and they are off the shelf though). I beleive the Volgren busses are built on an imported frame and engine platform, which is then modified (often lengthened) and then the body built onto it here.

[@RMTransit]

Yes, not all Aussie buses are fully from overseas, but generally more than Canadian buses!

[@apayuzu632]

The designs of Australian buses are definitely way more modern than Canada and USA

[@MulletSensei]

I’m an Aussie who took public transport to school and uni every day for 8 years but never had a great affinity for it. I moved to Japan for a while and since returning to Aus, I am loathe to use our public transport. It wasn’t just the coverage of Japan’s local trains, but the way their lines connected to one another was so convenient. Granted, Perth’s layout makes that tricky, but you are so limited with where you can access if you rely on trains. Stats show that PT use in Perth is actually going down each year and it’s because in most cases it’s more convenient to drive, which kind of goes against the point of public transport in the first place.

[@rice979]

As someone from Sydney, there are some stroad revitalisation plans being brought up which might mean more light rail for us, the city is also very ambitious as to what it wants it metro to look like, it just doesn't have the money for it right now

[@JesusManera]

That would be great! A lot of inner-Sydney's shopping strips are unfortunately on stroads, which is a problem Melbourne doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much, but the obvious explanation is just that most of Melbourne's "high streets" still have trams whereas Sydney's were converted to stroads when the tram network was dismantled. So the expansion of light rail would be a fantastic way to reclaim them and make them more people-centric again!

[@rice979]

@@JesusManera Most of Sydney's stroads used to carry trams, Parramatta road, Pacific Highway, Military Road/Pittwater Road, Victoria Road. Thankfully the inner west council was given some money to revitalise Victoria Road, and plans have been brought up to bring trams back to Parramatta Road so we might be starting to see some positive change

[@JesusManera]

@@rice979 That would be great, I hope it happens! Sydney's inner west is a fantastic area and trams would only add to their vibrancy.

[@rice979]

@@JesusManera only problem is how expensive it will be, the sad thing is the people here wanted the trams to stay, but the city removed them anyway

[@mapletreegames9053]

5:33 I remember the first time I went through Chatswood I was amazed, now I go through it nearly every day but I can definitely see the appeal

[@Neojhun]

At 0:20 RM has used that overhead drone shot of Murrumbeena station in multiple videos. The shops and street look soo familiar to me but i've never seen that grade separation new station before. Turns out it was Murrumbeena Station, 2 stations before Oakleigh where I use to work A Decade ago. I have rode trains pass that station hundreds of times. Soo cool too see a little unknown place in your documentaries.

[@Zentle]

If youre talking about Melboune, Sydney and Brisbane, we have some amazing public transit. Outside of that, it can either be good or nearly non-existent, like my city.😅

[@markeaston7353]

Excellent analysis from a guy that clearly really knows his stuff.

[@DanTheCaptain]

Solaris is coming to North America!? Wow that’s news! I love the Van Hools that VIVA has, it’ll be awesome to see Solaris trolley’s running the streets of Vancouver!

[@RMTransit]

Indeed! www.solarisbus.com/en/press/tests-of-the-solaris-trollino-trolleybus-in-canada-2033

[@wokzhongson]

I'd love to see a dedicated video on some of Australia's less mentioned bus networks, be it Perth or Victoria, just so I have something to talk about with friends.

[@lyndonlives638]

Hehe, nice to hear Chatswood get a shout-out! I grew up right around there and have witnessed its development over the past 30 years or so.

[@orionstransit]

(Made this a new comment) Some ideas for Toronto from Australia: Things I love about the Sydney system are 1: High station density 2: Amazing routes (shoutout to the T5!) 3: Great Branding 4: Great rolling stock (we can all admit that Sydney's trains are some of the best in the world!), 5: really good frequency, (though can be better) and 6: the City Loop. Toronto can do all these things, and should! GO should add many many many MANY more stations. I would recommend adding passing tracks every other station, which could allow for up to 28 - 30tph, but 32tph is possible if it's pushed to its limits. With advanced CBTC you can still have high speeds of up to 128km/h, which is higher than many Sydney routes, which can mean the fastest services can average almost 98km/h! This means a quad track could support 60+ trains per hour, which is massive capacity! One thing Toronto could do better, however, than Sydney is longer trains. I'd recommend 12-car trains, though 16-car trains would be about as long as the current GO trains (including the locomotive), and could be possible! I love the T5! Suburban only routes that run over a wye junction are so cool, and put the suburban in suburban rail. I'd love to see a route or two like this in Toronto, maybe from Hamilton to Barrie via Pearson or Pickering to Stouffville. Speaking of routes, GO should rebrand to a Sydney style system (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5....) Not an original idea, but the Midtown line should be converted to a city circle route, with a dedicated route (T7: City Circle) or something such as that. This would give Toronto its very own city circle route, which I think is worth bragging about! Also, the highway 407 corridor from Markham to Pearson would really change GO! Obviously the Sydney trains are super super amazing. Like I said, GO should buy similar trains, but with mixed trainsets with both double deck and single deck cars. I'd suggest three trainset types: One 4-car variation with a S - S - D - D configuration, a 5-car variation with a D - S - S - D - D configuration, and a 6-car variation with a D-S-D-D-S-D configuration. (D = double deck car and S = single deck car) Overall, Toronto could learn a lot from Sydney! I hope GO takes notes on Sydney's system and applies them!

[@stuartl7761]

0:56 I ship it

[@jetfan925]

This is like Bluey and Jean-Luc meet each other in the future.

[@cityjetproductions]

The median age of the Melbourne tram fleet is around 34 years vs. less than 10 in Toronto.

[@jacktattersall9457]

Well part of that is because TTC replaced on their streetcars in one massive order. A decade ago the median age would have been more that 34 years.

[@RMTransit]

The weather in Toronto does a real number on on street equipment, lots of salt!

[@haweater1555]

@@RMTransit The weather in Sydney is similar to Los Angeles - you can leave water outside for your pet and count on it never freezing.

[@wollo6]

@@haweater1555 sydney is nothing like los angeles its far colder and wetter

[@BlackGateofMordor]

Over the next few years that number's gonna get a lot smaller, the G-class is gonna replace both Z and A classes. Aside from the tiny number of W-class that are mostly used as a tourist attraction, the oldest trams would date to the mid-80s. If the proposed G2-class order goes through later, that'd leave the oldest trams dating to the 21st century.

[@emjackson2289]

If Australia and Canadian public transport had a baby then the public transport system would surely be ideal for Melbtreal?

[@davidreichert9392]

As well as Torontney and Perthcouver :D

[@RMTransit]

I'd agree! Melbtreal would be in the upper tier of transit cities globally!

[@bernadmanny]

Looks forlornly at Adelaide, the O-Bahn works though.

[@RMTransit]

The O Bahn is something haha

[@alimfuzzy]

Sydney has good public transport depending where you live. There are large areas where public transport is a joke. Also, the government is always talking about not finishing the metro.

[@rep1600]

sometimes I forget to appreciate just how simple it is to get to Melbourne and around it. I live in the suburbs, close to a train station, so it's not difficult at all to get on the train (given you have a myki pass etc) and get to places in the city. trams and metro trains make city traversal quite simple too

[@k.vn.k]

Australia and Canada cities are considered recently built with modern infrastructure and they were also carefully planned compare to most European, Asian and even USA cities. In this regard they have advantages of getting it right (or almost right) from the get go. For example in Sydney, suburbs were developed around stations, not the other way round. Residential and commercial tend to be in proximity of train stations. Light Rail, Ferry and bus depots were built next to station as well for interchange. Bicycles storage were built on the station for people who bike-train to work.

[@Christopher8827]

Not entirely correct though. In Sydney, the Eastern suburbs were built around the removed tramlines and same with the Inner West. In the Inner West, the suburbs branched out from the stations and Parramatta Rd. Parramatta Rd is still a desolate traffic sewer that divides suburbs up. eg. there's no train station at Leichardt and Annandale and there are public transport black spots at Balmain. I would have thought if it was really built around train stations - the train stops would have been much closer.

[@AlCatSplat]

Unfortunately, no city in Canada has "gotten it right" so far.

[@JayJayGamerOfficial]

Unfortunately these days suburbs are not built around stations or other things as seen by the sprawling western sydney outskirts. Older suburbs, typically to the south, inner south west and west towards parramatta showcases this quite well as many of the communities are built around stations and some old defunct tram routes which are slowly coming back in the terms of the light rail. The situation in the west however is just an ocean of roads and houses with barely any thought for even busses, let alone trains apart from a few areas such as the south west rail link and north western part of the metro

[@JesusManera]

As a Melburnian I largely agree too, but with the caveat of maybe only up to about 50 years ago. Most of our growth also occurred along rail corridors, often with stations very close to each other, so where I grew up which I would consider "middle suburbia" it would be rare for any house to be more than a 15 minute walk from a train station. It was like about every 800m to 1km, you build a station, build a commercial precinct around it, then fill in the streets in between with houses. Repeating that pattern every 1km or so works so well because everybody is within a 15 minute walk of shops & trains. Unfortunately though, and I think this applies to all Australian cities, newer suburban developments have followed the North American model being a maze of cul-de-sacs, usually separated from the commercial areas by large roads, and with the train stations being designed more around car parks & box stores. And we should know better because we've had decades of seeing the failed US model to learn from before making the mistake of copying it! But, at least they still have train stations unlike many US suburbs.

[@jdillon8360]

That only applies to the old suburbs. All the new suburbs are car-dependent with no transit at all.

[@paulmccourt6185]

Australian buses are usually built on European chassis's such as Scania, Mercedes Benz and Volvo by Australian manufacturers such as Custom Dennings and Volgren, love your stuff keep up the awesome work

[@pauldevey8628]

Love this video. Informative yet light and entertaining. Did you mention Canadas metros, especially Toronto and Montreals? They are exceptional.

[@ethandanielburg6356]

Yes, he did, at 1:18

[@RMTransit]

Thank you, a very fun "what if" one for a change :)

[@patrick.hallyburton]

melbourne was wonderful to get around on, trams were easy to navigate and came so frequently i rarely had to look at a schedule

[@cityplanner3063]

Australia’s high density residential apartments have been decimated. So many people don’t want to buy them bc they are low quality and there have been instances such as mascot towers where they are unsafe to live in

[@stephengentle2815]

*Sydney’s* high density residential towers that is. Australia is a lot more than just Sydney! Not to say that there aren’t any problems with construction standards in other states, but it’s *nothing* like as bad as what’s happening in Sydney.

[@RMTransit]

Lower construction quality for new housing seems to be a pretty broad problem all over the place!

[@illiiilli24601]

@@stephengentle2815 I've read that many Europeans found Melbourne colder than their home countries, not because of how low the temperature was outside, but because of how poorly insulated the houses were

[@stephengentle2815]

@@RMTransit These brand new buildings (a number of them) in Sydney are literally structurally unsound - temporary props being installed and repairs to cracked concrete columns are having to be done at huge cost to those who bought and already moved in to their apartments. We have issues in other Australian states but generally I haven't seen anything like it - there's really something seriously wrong in the industry in Sydney.

[@PurpleShift42]

​@@illiiilli24601Australian houses tend to be poorly insulated to avoid trapping heat inside the house in summer (which is why European people dying of heatstroke at temperatures in the low 30s (°C) seems ridiculously low to Australians) - however this does mean that they do get cold in winter (this mostly affects renters and other people in older housing stock)

[@brettyallop6018]

Loved the video! As a Sydneysider. I probably unappreciate how good our public transport system is. As a tourist in Paris in 2015, I found their system incredibly good! I am though surprised that Singapore or Tokyo did not get a mention in this video as both excel way beyond Sydney, largely I feel from the benefit of density and TOD, as Sharath may say¡

[@JustAnotherAccount8]

Living in Melbourne I'd like to put my thoughts on it all. Trains: They're undergoing a lot of service right now with rail crossings being removed so delays are common. The trains are great for a city of our size, but they aren't future proof; They're quite slow and the capacity is very often completely full around peak hours. The network needs a lot of work to facilitate a growing city. Buses: These vary ALOT, some bus routes see buses arrive every 5-10 minutes which is awesome, but others can be anywhere from 30-90 minutes apart. Buses are a lot easier to scale up though. Trams: Flawless, wish more suburban areas had them.

[@mattr8750]

Australian here, and my favorite journey ever was on a Thalys. Paris to Amsterdam. Esp as a tourist, you start and end in the touristy town center, no security, just walk up and board, cross 3 countries on a smooth, peaceful, straightforward, fast and very scenic journey. HOWEVER: The three and a half hour, 500 KM trip passes within 100km of all the major population centers of the 11 million Belgians, 17 million Dutch, and 11 million greater Parisians. A total of 40 million people.. more than the entire population of Australia or Canada, countries who's surface area are nearly that of ALL of Europe... The most logical route in Aus would be between Melbourne and Sydney via Canberra. This is one of the busiest flight corridors in the world. But its over 800KM, and passing through terrain so inhospitable to development that there isn't even a remotely direct road between Melbourne and Canberra - the capital of the country. And despite being the capital, Canberra only has a populations of 300k. Sydney to Canberra is only 3hrs by car, which is fine for a car journey, esp when its relatively low volume, and Sydney to Melbourne reaches the point where it probably is quicker by plane than by train. And even if you did get past all this, the populations of Sydney and Melbourne and Canberra are only around 11 million total, with not much else along the route.. You could have aspirations towards a 'build it and they will come' mentality, where DESPERATELY needed satellite and regional cities could pop up along the line, to help alleviate the intense concentration of population in a few mega cities, but thats still a hard sell.

[@Mark01962]

Hey, why the dislike for Adelaide's O Bahn. Being around since the 70s and being updated and modernised, I think it's proved itself.

[@jdillon8360]

the o bahn is brilliant. I will always defend it. Plus the one in brisbane too.

[@ashleighevie]

As someone else has said, buses are crucially important for actually getting around without a car. Tram lines and trains can't get you from anywhere to anywhere, when they can they're great but it's effectively impossible to get from any point a to any point b with a train. A bus however, can do that, given a decent frequency.

[@shraka]

That's only because we built our city badly and stopped expanding the tram lines.

[@zachreederau2531]

You should take a look at the brisbane suburban rail and bus rapid transit system. Feels like we are pretty much the middle between what you were describing. Buses are locally assembled in Brisbane as well…

[@tomtho1]

Brisbane does love a good bus and we're quite good at them. I put it down to our explosion of urban sprawl through windy and hilly landscapes that just make busses much more cost efficient. Would love an east west rail line from the gap/Kenmore to Victoria point

[@gnhansen29]

Could Citytrains be suitable for Australia's Gold Coast? Also what could be good for Canberra and Hobart? About 14 years ago Adelaide was proposing to have traintrams running to Port Adelaide, Semaphore and Westlakes.

[@PeFePT]

Citytrains....I don't even know that term....trams is the term used in Europe Australia and Asia. Canberra and the Gold Coast already have trams. Adelaide abandoned tram trains years ago....the state does not have the money for large transport projects...only limited electrification of the suburban train lines. And Royce ignored the Adelaide O-Bahn... great example of BRT.

[@kelrik363]

The more you talk about the strengths the more I'm just like "That's literally the Transperth network of Western Australia". Our train stations here have bus stops and even entire bus port hubs connected to the train stations allowing a spread of train to bus and bus to train easily. And with the new upgrades to the network, stations that previously didn't have bus hubs attached or cause traffic issues are now being raised and given under passes, public assess areas, bus hubs and more space for more trains. So yeah, once Metro net is done and finished, come over to Western Australia :)

[@tobyb6248]

It's a shame new train stations in Perth are built in the middle of motorways. Really makes it hard for train stations to become a catalyst for place making.

[@machogaming7661]

I know! Perth is already way ahead of other cities! It's just a shame how some areas are really hard to fit bus lanes and trains/light rail into.

[@ThomasMilham]

+1 for the Adelaide O-bahn, it's my daily ride into the Adelaide CBD and much quicker than taking the road network by bus or car.

[@hyperberry739]

I personally think the train could be better, since most places in the suburbs were not build in a more walkable style. It would be extremely expensive or probably impossible to fix this. Buses are fine, but their times are very variable.

[@ultimobile]

excellent - interesting and informative comparison - especially considering low demand routes - thanks ! Paris ? I remember rubber wheels and smelly (garlic eater?) pickpockets. As a retired resident of Sydney, I sold my old car and now either walk or use public transport - and find rail - trains or trams - far more pleasant than shuddering, jerking, sudden braking, lurching, noisy engined buses.

[@georgeeagle872]

Lol. Australia mastered public transport? Ask any Melburnians, they would be bewildered at this.

[@Alan_Hans__]

As an Aussie who doesn't travel on public transport a lot I can say that if Australia (specifically Victoria) has mastered public transport then I have to say that the master leaves an enormous amount in the tank.

[@mitzee8621]

In all the videos I have watched online, it is kind of surreal that the first time I see footage of a place I frequent, it's in a video about public transport.

[@fortythreenorth2518]

Every shot of Australia i see it is a warm sunny day. Just an envious Canuck here tired of the gloom of southern Ontario falls / winters.

[@moustachepanda]

Depends where in Canada you are. In the province of Saskatchewan, the public transit is slow or basically non-existant. There are no fancy trains, just busses that are rarely on time and that take over an hour to get anywhere that's not downtown.

[@bhadbhris]

the night bus mention got me thinking about DRT’s night bus system. If you’re in Oshawa, you can get around at night better than any city of its size.

[@markb3146]

hey dude, The Gold Coast south of Brisbane has trams

[@Soupreme2]

If you live outside the cities in Australia it takes 5 hours to make what's otherwise a 15 minute car trip

[@SimPilotMika]

Australians occasionally complain about public transport sometimes, such as delays or industrial strikes. But we have a very good system compared to America

[@5fifty]

The problem we have here in Aus is that public transport is operated by the State/Local Government, meaning that Intercity connections involve getting trains approved for multiple states, drivers licences in multiple states and lines operated by two companies.

[@shraka]

That's not that hard to solve if they really wanted to. Drivers licenses are state run but the coordinate so I can drive in NSW on my Vic license. The states have cooperated heavily on projects before - if the Fed government stepped in to offer funding they could have a single joint state owned company run it. Preferably not a private company. It'd just be a touch more complicated.

[@danieleyre8913]

RM transport needs to actually try and live in Sydney and see how he gets by trying to use public transport…

[@andrewstrongman305]

Ironically, one of the greatest issues with public transport is limited or expensive parking facilities for users.

[@orionstransit]

Wouldn't it be cool to see a Waratah in GO transit livery? No seriously, GO transit should buy Waratahs! I'd like to see mixed Waratah trainsets with some sets with single deck cars for local trains and express trains using the traditional (and wonderful) double deck cars, with some sets even using both single and double deck cars. Definitely would be better than those...meh... bombardier bilevels. What are your thoughts?

[@RMTransit]

Would support, though I do think the bilevel is a neat looking train. The issue is that GO uses low platforms!

[@jack2453]

@@RMTransit The current rolling stock in Sydney is great and (Sorry Reece) Toronto bilevels are really ugly (maybe a paint job would improve them) - second only to Sydney Tangaras. On a more serious point, is the new GO s-bahn going to switch to high platforms, which is one of tge real strengths of Australian systems?

[@InverseWeenis]

​@jack2453 tangaras are gorgeous, how dare you! On the topic of waratahs though, I feel like somewhere like Canada would probably benefit more from the Mariyung sets given they're the new intercity model, and I imagine Canada is going to be pretty harsh on trains outside city limits.

[@orionstransit]

ive changed my mind, imo GO should get EMU-performance locomotives

[@danielfreeman5910]

I think you need to look into some of Melbournes bus on demand out in the outer east, where a bus can pick you up at your home and take you to the shopping center or railway station. It’s called Flexi ride.

[@class8007]

meanwhile in Tasmania, there's a 50% chance your bus won't even show up, and the central rail route through the suburbs is being ripped up for no apparent reason, and it's taken 2.5 years after the start of a successful ferry trial to even start considering further route options

[@bananenmusli2769]

In reality all trains in Australia are Wuppertal-style suspension railways, because everything is upside down

[@gytan2221]

Lmao someone makes fun about Australia’s geography again. In our Aussie eyes, you guys in the northern hemisphere are the ones that have Wuppertal style suspension railways

[@gavon7689]

Adelaide's obahn is easily the best service we have by patronage and by speed vs a car. It beats the rail lines for both.

[@1TW1-m5i]

Tbh, my biggest gripe about Australian public transport is they tend to priorities Rail for commuter, city centric, or new development rather than providing access to the whole region. It's fine, usually slower than driving, but fine for getting into central locations, but twice to 3 times longer than driving for getting anywhere else. There's missing links throught the syndey system, where continuing the rail line a little further would have been smarter. Busses are used as a filler for these gaps, but it's a very imperfect solution - it's less convenient and slower. The other issue is planing fails to make new stations actual destinations - planing just for local use, attractions, event and community spaces, rather than just shops to serve the local area. This means people looking to go out to places would have rail options, rather than going with the car. Sydney does have some quite pretty train lines though, where the corridors have been treated like bush reserves, and the old stations preserved in character. A lot of the more recent stuff is a bit hit or miss though. I think Sydney's trains are some of the best looking ones out.

[@jessm1327]

I think a massive factor in Australian transit design (i don't know much about Canadian population spread so it might be a factor there too) is that very few people actually live in city centres - at least, both Melbourne and Sydney's populations primarily live in the suburbs, and urban sprawl is a massive thing in both - it's not unusual for people who work in the Melbourne CBD to live as far out as Geelong (75km away). So I think in both those cities priority should be given to bus routes that operate more frequently in outer suburbs to funnel people to train stations and more frequent outer suburban train services (though I will admit, the Penrith - Gordon train that leaves every 15 minutes during peak SLAPS, would be nice to see more lower Blue Mountains services tho). Here in Sydney I think the problem is that the places that desperately need good public transport and bus services, particularly the outer west and southwest, don't have it (this is the same in Melbourne but I think urban sprawl from outer west Sydney is going to get worse faster considering the limited amount of space in the east, and the fact that the Blue Mountains have seen a massive influx of people moving there and the public transport infrastructure hasn't kept up), and even in the inner suburbs there's limited access to train stations - where I live in the inner suburbs my closest train station doesn't have a reliable bus connection, and the bus that does go there is slower than walking (despite only being 2km away!), and also very limited car parking space and no bike storage. I had a better public transport experience growing up in the far outer east of Melbourne than I do in inner west Sydney!

[@DanielDinhCreative]

Aussies love to whinge about their PT network, but it's leagues ahead compared to most of the world. When you consider how many trains, buses and trams are operating at any one time (often being funneled into single-track tunnels) and how expansive the network is (over 100km span in some cities), it's amazing that there aren't *more* delays and issues.

[@jdillon8360]

Some Australian PT is good, but some of it is rubbish. Most of Europe and Asia has far superior PT to Australia. Even in many Latin American cities the PT is better. I live in Santiago, Chile, and the metro system here is excellent, far superior to any system anywhere in Australia. The buses are good too, literally thousands of them are already electric.

[@mdhazeldine]

Good comparison. I've often though of Australia as like a "hot Canada" 😂

[@a.j.santiago303]

As an American, I'm jealous of both countries regarding transit.

[@hemmoau]

I've always thought of Canada as cold Australia: large landmass, high wealth, short history, silly accents and strong education, with a low population of originially indigenous, then mostly white and now multicultural people.

[@sans_hw187]

The “European” History of Canada started much earlier than Australia though, with places like Quebec City (1608) being established even before NYC (1624) or Boston (1630) and much earlier than Sydney (1788)

[@hemmoau]

@@sans_hw187 definitely true, it's also a lot easier to ship (perhaps freight is more appropriate) things to Canada and many other differences, though I think you'd admit they're interestingly similar nations

[@KD_cycling]

*cries in Adelaide public transport* The o'bahn is however truly brilliant. By far the quickest way from the inner Northern suburbs to the CBD (including by car at peak times)

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Great overview and I can align with most of it except for Chatswood 😂. It's a concrete jungle resulting from vertical over development - sure at daytime it's 'vibrant' because there are so many people there but later a night it's not so nice a place to be.

[@oscarlupton]

This is a really good comparison, never quite realised the similarities. That said, I live in Melbourne and travel to Sydney on the overnight train often (which has no phone service or power outlets). Melbourne’s tram platforms are kind of a disaster- they’re little islands surrounded by motorways. The suburban lines are decent, but last service is almost always before midnight, with no bus alternative. Sydney is basically a masterclass though, as far as the English-speaking world extends to.

[@Kryojenix]

2:22 Well, those particular ones don't look very modern 😂 6:32 HOME! 🥰

[@Alftura]

I live near Chatswood. I use that Station all the time. Metro, Buses and Trains. Shopping, restaurants/eating, entertainment, pubs/bars, cinemas and there is even a arts centre/preformaing arts near by. its so easy and well designed. its also always packed! so busy. people really use it. so eaey to get to. i rock up to Lindfield station, wait 5 or 10 minutes for a train then from there, i do whatever or go where ever. more than often its always like bad infrastructure & bad planing by govenments but in this case, everything is well thought out and convient to use. :)

[@phillipv2500]

Everything falls apart when a snowstorm comes and the buses, streetcars and subways get stuck. Montréal's metro is completely underground, so they are winter-proof. Vancouver has mostly rain in winter, so I suppose they don’t have as many winter issues. I haven't been to Oz yet, but hope to see how they cope with hot summers, and the Aussie climate.

[@xaviers6983]

Montreal is is not winterproof because the buses are essential for feeding into the Metro

[@kaipearson2465]

just got back from tokyo and that metro system is unbelievable

[@calcutt4]

I think Melbourne is one of the only places you can see a sleek new HCMT and an antique wooden-bodied EMU from the 1920s on the same day

[@panamrailfan]

If you built a new city from scratch recommended to have a metro system for the middle suburbs, trams for inner suburbs, busses for cross city/supplementing all modes, heavy rail for outer suburbs and larger disconnected towns, and regional rail for smaller disconnected towns farther away from the city/intercity rail services