Commuters traveling on inner-city tram

Melbourne needs two more underground rail tunnels by 2035 to cope with exploding population growth, the City Council has proposed.

It also says trams need road and traffic light priority throughout the city – as in Zurich – to cope with the demand.

Melbourne City Council has put forward its vision to expand the city's public transport network, as it prepares for an extra 116,000 people taking trains into the city in the morning peak by 2031 – almost double the present number.

There is room for improvement, the council's discussion paper concedes. Trains are overcrowded, trams are impossibly slow and tram stops are poorly designed and cramped.