Supporting passengers through change
Author: Lauren Streifer, CEO, PTAANZ
This story first appeared in Rail Express.
On the day Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel opened to the public, I stood in the spectacular new Town Hall Station and felt an immediate sense of pride – and anticipation.
The finished station was a powerful reminder of what the transport sector can achieve when government and industry work together.
But what excites me even more than opening day is the launch of the full Metro Tunnel timetable, which is live as of February 1, 2026. It’s amazing to see passengers exploring new connections, changing how they move, and the possibilities enabled by infrastructure.
Across Australia and New Zealand, a once-in-a-generation investment in rail is reshaping our journeys.
So far in 2026, Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel has already increased capacity and created new connections with 1000 extra services a week.
Later this year, Sydney Metro’s M1 extension to Bankstown will tackle key network bottlenecks, giving people a truly turn-up-and-go service at 31 stations.
In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Auckland’s City Rail Link will boost Kiwis’ access to jobs and opportunities, putting public transport front of mind.
Elsewhere, Perth’s METRONET rail extension represents the largest public transport investment Western Australia has ever seen, while Queensland’s Cross River Rail underpins Brisbane’s rapid growth and will support that city as the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games host.
As a sector, we can be proud of these projects. But as they open, a question emerges. How do we make the most of these opportunities to change customer behaviour, in turn decreasing road congestion and reducing emissions? These projects are transformative, but transformation is not automatic.
Avoiding the Field of Dreams fallacy
In the 1989 film Field of Dreams, actor Kevin Costner’s character hears a mystical voice which tells him to build a baseball stadium, despite not having a business plan (or indeed any experience!). “If you build it, they will come,” urges the voice.
When it comes to new public transport, we sometimes talk about mode shift in similar ways. We assume potential passengers will change their behaviour as an inevitable outcome of building new infrastructure. The reality is different.
According to behaviour change specialist Professor Susan Michie, the way people choose to act is shaped by their capability, opportunity and motivation. Travel choices are not just based on the provision of services but a host of other factors, including education and training, cost, communication and marketing.
We have seen this challenge play out in practice. After opening day, some operators have faced the task of increasing patronage to meet their targets, using behavioural marketing, pricing levers, and improved experience to attract more customers.
Even the best-designed rail project will fall short unless communities know how to use it, pay for it, connect with it, and fit it into daily life. Changing travel behaviour is not only an engineering and planning challenge, but a challenge of hearts and minds, too.
Why this matters now
The stakes could not be higher. Both Melbourne and Sydney are growing by the equivalent population of Canberra every four years. By 2051, Melbourne is expected to reach 10 million people – almost double its population today.
Meanwhile, transport is one of the largest contributors to climate change, even as governments are investing record amounts in new rail infrastructure to reduce emissions and move people more efficiently.
Whether that investment succeeds depends on one thing: sustained mode shift towards more journeys on trains, trams and buses, plus walking and cycling.
When passengers are actively supported through this change, public transport becomes their obvious choice. If we fail, we risk missing climate targets, under-serving the people-focused cities our communities deserve, and jeopardising future investment.
Supporting passengers through change
Global examples show us how communities can be supported through change.
For the 2024 Olympics, Paris rolled out 60 kilometres of bright pink cycleways to help move spectators, installed 20,000 bike parking spaces, and splashed maps and “Paris loves bikes!” posters across the city.
To discourage unnecessary driving through the city centre, London has implemented road user charging. It invests half of the money collected back into the transport network – and nearly 40 per cent into improving bus services.
In 2022, Germany introduced a €9 summer ticket to combat cost of living pressures, which proved to be wildly popular. As a result, 35 per cent of passengers surveyed said they were using public transport more.
Closer to home, Transport for New South Wales worked with leading Macquarie Park employers to herald the extension of Sydney Metro services to the district. Transport officers hosted briefings for local businesses, mapped the district’s new catchment area, provided travel tips, and advertised the new service for weeks after opening day.
Today, people working in Macquarie Park are more than four times more likely to commute by public or active transport than the New South Wales average.
Measuring what matters
Measuring our sector’s impact is vital for understanding what works, and where we can grow. At the Public Transport Association Australia and New Zealand (PTAANZ), we are proud to bring together public transport agencies across the region to co-develop the first-ever ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) Mode Shift Index. This index will enable agencies to share data on how people travel, and to better understand the impact of policy and investment decisions.
By tracking behaviour over time, rather than just the number of assets or services delivered, this data could be used to support passengers and improve future journeys – leading to more people-focused, liveable, and sustainable cities.
From opening day to every day
Australia excels when it comes to delivering high-quality public transport infrastructure. The next frontier is ensuring that investment translates into everyday behaviour change that benefits everyone.
This requires us to think beyond assets and focus on the end-to-end passenger experience. The true measure of success will be whether people continue to use new services – confidently, repeatedly and by choice.
If we want rail investment to realise its full economic, social and climate value – and ensure we have an ongoing infrastructure investment pipeline – we need to work differently, and together.
These themes will be front and centre at the PTAANZ Public Transport Policy Symposium in Melbourne on 29 – 30 April, where government and industry leaders will explore how to drive sustained mode shift.