The Melbourne Public Transit System

Extensive public transit is always exciting in a foreign country, as we lack such benefits where we live. We have taken advantage of public transit in Melbourne using the light rail metro trains, trams, and buses. To ride you need either a Myki pass card or Myki money card. You then "tap on" your card onto an electric scanner when entering the train area and "tap off" when exiting. The scanner then calculates the fee based on an algorithm using time on train, zone number, destination, and day of week and deducts money from the Myki money card. 

Alternatively, you can have a Myki pass which allows unlimited travel in a pre-purchased time period. If you are using public transit 7 days or more, a Myki Pass is the most economical choice. Our first few hours in Melbourne we purchased a Myki Pass which allows us unlimited travel throughout zones 1 and 2 in the city for our 31 days in Melbourne. This frees us. We don't have to worry if we have enough money to ride or if we are making an expensive mistake by taking a train the wrong direction. We get to explore uninhibited. 

On the train, our main mode of transportation

The suburb we're staying in, Altona, is southwest of Melbourne city center and further out than other suburbs. Our ride to the city center or back involves 1-2 train transfers, but is still only about 30 minutes, even less during peak times. Trains leave from Altona every 20 minutes, and as previously mentioned, we're only a 3 minute walk from the station. We enjoy the scenery on the way in and out of the city and notice new things each time. 

Waiting a few minutes for a train transfer back to Altona

Overall the train system is intuitive and within two days we felt very comfortable finding our way around. The lines extend from the city center like the spokes of a wheel, so you pretty much always have to go to the "city center loop" to get where you want to go. Here's a map of zones 1 and 2. Altona is on the Werribee line. 

As an added benefit, the Melbourne metro train system has an amusing, catchy promotional and safety campaign using billboards and video. You can see the video, Dumb Ways to Die, below. It makes Brandon and I laugh every time we watch it. 

( https://youtu.be/IJNR2EpS0jw )