ABSTRACT
The public transport 'deficit' was the major storyline of Melbourne public transport from 1965-1982. Defining payments to maintain public transport as 'social service payments', of course, reinforces the storyline that public transport is a form of welfare. Urban public transport is an excellent community investment. A clear commitment to public transport has replaced an atmosphere of decline and decay in public transport. The government created a Victorian Transport Directorate (VTD) 'to apply co-ordinated management to the total transport task'. The restructuring seemed to promise major rethinking of the urban transport task, and there followed some progress in increased investment in new rolling stock and the introduction of integrated ticketing across the system. On the 'sustainability' storyline, the earliest reference to the environmental benefits of rail transport is a note about the potential of trams to provide low cost mobility to the citizens of this city without in any way increasing pollution hazards.
