The cost of mixing trams with traffic

Melbourne’s tram network may be the largest in the world, but new data suggests it is also among the slowest.

Analysis from The Age shows some of the city’s busiest corridors operating at sluggish speeds during peak hour.

On Route 11 during morning peak, trams average 11.8km/h along the southern end of Brunswick Street making it the slowest stretch outside the CBD.

Meanwhile, along Swanston Street - widely regarded as the world’s busiest tram corridor - eight routes converge at an average speed of just 7.3km/h between Flinders and Lonsdale Streets.

Professor Graham Currie FTSE, Chair of Public Transport at Monash Civil and Environmental Engineering, points to traffic as a key constraint saying “We should be providing rights of way from trams - they are carrying hundreds of people. They are the most efficient use of space. Parking is a very inefficient use of that space.”