This paper looks at the motivations, institutional frameworks, goals and preliminary results of Victoria’s Transit Cities program – a key element of the Melbourne 2030 strategy – and the FrenchGerman project Bahn.Ville which examined several rail lines in Germany and France regarding their suitability to act as anchors for urban development, and the roles of...

This paper examines the claimed capacity constraints on the Melbourne rail system in detail, utilising throughput standards derived from current best practice, but also from past performance and planning in Melbourne, and concludes that the claimed constraints are not substantiated.