For seven years in a row, Melbourne held the crowning glory of the world’s most liveable city. Will the finalisation of the Metro Tunnel be enough for our city to reclaim top spot?
If there are two things that Melburnians hold dear to their hearts, it’s public transport and bragging rights on liveability.
While the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) knocked Melbourne from the top spot of their yearly assessment of the world’s most liveable city in 2018 after a seven-year streak, the overhaul of the public transport network in Victoria could potentially see Melbourne reclaim the title.
The Metro Tunnel effect
The Metro Tunnel Project is set to change the way Melburnians and outer-suburb residents move around the city.
The extensive project includes the construction of five new stations, brand new trains and a direct route that will minimise disruptions and facilitate efficiency.
Set to open in 2025, the Metro Tunnel has been tens of years, thousands of hours and billions of dollars in the making.
This all begs the question – will it be enough to boost our most liveable city ranking?
Infrastructure and the Global Liveability Index
The EIU, a research and analysis division of the Economist Group, is best known for its yearly global liveability ranking.
Through assessments of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure of 173 global cities, the EIU compiles a list each year determining the ranking of each city’s urban quality of life.
For the past three years, Austria’s capital Vienna has claimed the number one spot, with Melbourne at fourth place in 2024.
Despite holding onto a top ten spot in this year’s Global Liveability Index, Melbourne’s fall from third to fourth can be attributed to the perilous state of the housing market.
The EIU’s 2024 report stated, “We have downgraded overall infrastructure scores for Australia, owing to an ongoing housing crisis that has led to an all-time low availability of rental properties in many of the cities.”
Housing prices in the inner suburbs of many of the EIU’s most livable cities are higher than Melbourne’s. Melbourne’s ranking is also considerably affected by the difficulty of commuting from the outer suburbs, which in turn affects the supply of housing in the outer areas.
Victoria’ Big Build projects aim to address these issues. A spokesperson from the Metro Tunnel Project says the tunnel’s implementation “will open up the city like never before”, giving residents “more ways to move around Melbourne”, thus allowing easier access to growing city hubs outside of Melbourne’s CBD.
Another Big Build project, the Suburban Rail Loop, will assist in connecting residents on the city’s outskirts, catering to Melbourne’s growing population by providing convenient and efficient rail networks. With more accessibility to city hubs outside central Melbourne, Victorians can sprawl further from the congested hub, meaning Melbourne can expand in accordance with the growing population.
“Suburban Rail Loop will help young people find homes where they want to live – with plans for thousands more homes and more housing options in the neighbourhoods around the new train stations,” a spokesperson from the Suburban Rail Loop says. “SRL will not only transform our public transport system, it will help shape the way the city grows and deliver more homes in the right places – on the doorstep of world-class public transport.”
Will the Metro Tunnel allow Melbourne to rise from fourth place?
While the housing crisis continues to affect many Melburnians’ quality of life, it may be some time before we see an uptick in the city’s ranking on the Global Liveability Index.
The Metro Tunnel is expected to be completed next year, but the eastern part of the Suburban Rail Loop won’t be ready until at least 2035, with the northern part from Box Hill to Melbourne Airport estimated to be complete by 2053.
Ultimately, the importance that the EIU places on infrastructure projects and their flow-on effects is hard to overstate, but it’s up to them to quantify it. Melbourne could see a rise in next year’s EIU report if the countries ranked above us falter in their own spending: third-placed Zurich, for instance, faces its own housing crisis.
However, until the current housing situation improves and more affordable housing – and accessible transport to get there – is made available, the city’s liveability may stagnate.
The Metro Tunnel will help people move around the city more easily with less rail congestion allowing for more trains and shorter travel times from the outer suburbs. This in turn will create the right environment for additional high-density housing supply – amplified by recent changes in state government regulation – along Melbourne’s train lines.
However, until there actually is more housing for Melburnians to move to, fourth place may be the best we can do for the foreseeable future.
For constant updates on the Big Build, including the Metro Tunnel and Suburban Rail Loop, head here.
