Commuter outrage as Sydney’s transport system ranks among world’s best

An international survey has named Sydney as the best public transport system in Australia – and one of the best in the world – sparking outrage from Harbor City commuters.

Sydney’s public transport system was ranked 14th out of 60 cities in the University of California, Berkeley study.

Angry commuters, however, asked questions about the rankings and posted their frustrations in a Reddit thread.

“Melbourne is so, so much better and easier… it’s so wrong,” one user posted.

It comes after the travel plans of tens of thousands of commuters were thrown into chaos when a “communications problem” shut down Sydney’s entire train network for nearly two hours on March 8.

Commuters were also hit by delays on a key route, from the city to Strathfield, on Saturday – the date of the NSW state election.

However, the Urban Mobility Readiness Index praised Sydney as one of the world’s most innovative transport systems.

Sydney has a strong multimodal transport network, seamlessly connecting bus, train and ferry.

It comes after Sydney’s trains fell into chaos early this month after a ‘communication problem’ messed up the travel plans of thousands of commuters

But the Urban Mobility Readiness Index praised the Sydney Metro (pictured on the day trains came to a halt this month) as one of the world’s most innovative transit systems

It includes a fully automated metro system, which opened in 2019.

‘However, the public transport system still has a low density of stations, which makes them difficult to access and there are few passengers.’

Sydney was the only Australian city to make the top 60 in the list compiled by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies, rankings based on traffic volume, network density and infrastructure quality.

The ranking caused confusion across the country with some wondering why Melbourne wasn’t even on the list.

“Yeah how Sydney is there and Melbourne isn’t is beyond me,” someone posted on the Reddit thread.

Sydney is 14th? I thought we’d be out of luck. It’s so wrong – Melbourne is so, so much better and easier,” another wrote.

“This list is a bad joke,” said a third, while others disagreed.

“I can confidently say that Sydney’s public transport system is much better than Melbourne’s if you include the entire Greater Metro Area,” said a commentator who has lived in both cities for years.

All trains stopped at around 3pm on March 8 – with the screens at Central Station in the middle of Sydney’s CBD going completely blank

The blunder left tens of thousands of commuters in the city stranded in its wake

“Yeah, how Sydney is there and Melbourne isn’t is beyond me,” said one social media commenter (pictured, a tram stop in Melbourne)

‘Melbourne’s public transport is only better if you’re within the affiliated tram zones, i.e. if you’re within 10km of the CBD. Other than that, the use of public transport is terrible,” said a commuter.

Meanwhile, the city that topped the list was Hong Kong SAR, followed by Zurich, Stockholm, Singapore and then Helsinki.

Oslo, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin and London made up the rest of the top 10, respectively, while the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah were at the bottom of the list.

Hong Kong was crowned the winner due to its affordability, high station density and rail infrastructure.