IMHO (as a local) Melbourne public transport is pretty bad, but it's a tough gig - it's a very sprawled out city. The real problem is money hasn't been spent on the infrastructure in the last few decades, so the train lines are at capacity, the trains are slow, and the level crossings are so bad there are places where trains are limited to 5kph! Meanwhile, billions has been spent on freeways, tunnels etc.

I do agree that it's pretty pointless to simply "call" for people to change behaviour, when that behaviour is not attractive to them, or the infrastructure is not there. It was like a few months (years?) ago when they abolished Zone 3 to encourage more people to take the train. Result? Instant overcrowding. Great.

Steve