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Comment by zizee | Hacker News Reader

> Real cities have metros underground, full stop.

I am not sure if this implies you think Melbourne is lacking a underground metro? Or perhaps you're just making a general statement.

FWIW Melbourne has both trams and a underground metro system that does a fairly respectable job serving the CBD, and good network coverage to inner suburbs.

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Melbourne has a suburban heavy commuter rail network with an underground CBD loop. That's not the same thing as an underground metro like the NYC subway, Paris metro, Tehran metro, Japan, London Underground etc. All of these cities have urban metros in addition to suburban commuter rail (except Tehran I guess?). Melbourne's just not there yet and is still fairly suburban. Sydney's building a new metro system which will operate like the above mentioned systems.

I don't see the difference. Take Melbourne versus London. Both use electrified trains. Both have drivers. Both travel at similar speeds. Neither have to stop for automobile traffic (except for slowing down at the few level crossings in Melbourne).

Whether the line is fully underground or not doesn't seem to affect much (other than ventilation).

The technical difference is that metros have dedicated tracks and sufficiently frequent services that you can just turn up and go. In Melbourne (and Sydney), tracks are shared in complicated ways by many lines and other traffic (regional, long distance, even cargo) so any issue somewhere cascades in complicated ways, and frequencies are metro-like only in the densest corridors.

I think the metro distinction is often frequency of trains and usage of the tracks. Ie London runs trains every 2 mins basically from 6am - 8pm on virtually every line vs a heavy suburban rail which will run every 15 - 30 mins, share track with freight or intercity rail and so on.

I know it doesn't look too different to a passenger but operationally I think they are very different.

I didn’t mean to imply a general principle, but Melbourne and Sydney are roughly comparable in size and population, making a comparison interesting.

NYC, Paris and London are major cities. Teheran is between Sydney and Melbourne in area but has 3X the population.

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