The remarkable sequence of events which led to Melbourne having the world's largest tram network

It may come as a surprise but Melbourne became the city with the largest tram network in the world relatively recently.

As much as this impressive achievement has to do with the city, its history, the key decisions around its transportation policy (which led to the city becoming the only one in Australia that retained its major tram network), and multiple efforts which have brought many relatively recent expansions, including the Box Hill, Docklands, and Vermont South extensions.

However, Melbourne had been still very far from getting the world's largest tram network until it suddenly received that status almost overnight through nothing else than... the actions of the Government of St.Petersburg, Russia – which in early 2000s, over less than a decade, intentionally and successfully sabotaged nearly 1/3 of St.Petersburg's tram network.

Obviously, the then-existing system, largely inherited from the Soviets, needed further investment and repair. On top of that, it was getting severely impacted by the mass automobile and growing congestion, and required introduction of priority to remain a reasonable way of moving around.

Bringing the city-owned public transport system at the brink of starvation and causing intentional damage to its network and infrastructure may seem incomprehensible an idea in the world concerned about climate, sustainability, equity, and quality of life. However, the alternative temptations and motivations were too irresistible to drop.

The plan was as simple, as it was efficient.

Meticulously planned and efficiently executed in several stages, the effort has been largely concentrated around wiping out the centralmost pieces of network making the cross-town and cross-river movements impossible and getting rid of many of those lines where people would travel the most. As part of the effort, two centralmost tram depots were also closed, demolished, and sold to developers.

The map below, prepared by Daniil Yermakov, shows the extent of the damage and traces the relevant dates of line closures. Note how the city geography, with its numerous rivers and islands, screams for more high-capacity public transportation, and how many of the obviously critical connections have been affected.

The decrease from 305 to 226 km (since 2020 - 236 km) has led to the tram patronage loss of approximately 50%, or nearly 500 million annual trips.

Most of these people had to find alternatives for their daily travel, and the alternatives were there waiting.

Working since early 1990s (if not late 1980s) in direct competition with the municipal transportation, the privately operated 'marshrutka' vans – small, overcrowded, devoid of any amenities, capable of navigating the city traffic faster than rusty trams and buses (where there would still be any) – have become by that time already a proven, massively successful business model aimed at extracting enormous streams of untraceable cash from the public.

Their owners could not have possibly dreamt for anything better than for the municipal public transport system be largely damaged, if not dismantled. And by an incredible coincidence, that was exactly what was done.

As happens with any other city that, for one reason or another, had done damage to its own public transport services and infrastructure in the past, getting back on track is an incredibly complex process that, even when the clear vision is there, takes years if not decades, and a considerable financial commitment from the budget.

Today, even though considerable progress around public transport improvements and the maintenance of the remaining tram network has been achieved (including particularly impressive outcomes with the private-public partnership in the Eastern outskirts), little to nothing has been done to fix the two-decade-old wrongdoings.

None of the critical network gaps have been properly fixed, and where the trams are still running in the city core, they do so in barely convenient patterns, missing key destinations, and stuck in traffic. Many of the missing tram links remain underserved or barely served by other modes, too, despite the growth in the population and travel demand, and still represent scars on the city's urban transportation network.

With no clear vision in place, and the overall context of Russia in 2024, it may safely be assumed that the tram network in Melbourne will retain its status as the world's largest for the foreseeable future.