Governments of previous generations let Melbourne's once glorious rail network deteriorate for decades, chiefly because the public had abandoned public transport in favour of their cars, but then got caught napping when people started marching back to the trains in the early 1990s.

Train strain: Successive governments have failed to meet growing demand since the early '90s. Credit:Craig Abraham

The revival hasn't slowed – patronage has jumped 316 per cent since 1993-94 – and successive governments have simply failed to keep pace with the growing demand ever since.

The former Baillieu/Napthine government committed almost a billion dollars towards maintenance in its four years in office, yet the lengthy shopping list of chronic faults and worn-out equipment in Metro's audit reveals it was barely enough to make a start on dragging Melbourne's rail network out of the early 20th century and into the 21st.

In many respects, Metro's warts-and-all audit is a good thing: they have done the work to pinpoint every bit of the network that is failing and propose solutions.