A man who threatened to kill a fellow commuter and her father during an unprovoked racial attack on a Melbourne train claimed he was armed with four knives.

Arna Dionysopoulos was on her way home from work on a train travelling from North Melbourne to Footscray about 4.20pm on Wednesday when the man started abusing her after noticing her name on an identification tag.

The alleged racial abuser on the train.

The 26-year-old IT consultant was told she should "get out of Australia" and that the man would love to put a gun to her head and pull the trigger, and to do the same to her father.

Ms Dionysopoulos is the daughter of a Greek father and German mother, but was born in Australia.