> I'd appreciate more honesty and less ideology in such debates

and yet

> forced to use smelly, uncomfortable public transport

There is no need to public transport to be smelly and uncomfortable if enough money is spent on maintenance.

> There is no need to public transport to be smelly and uncomfortable if enough money is spent on maintenance.

I live in Vienna, which has arguably some of the best maintained and expensive public transport. It's still smelly, because people. They forbid food (initially only smelly food, but signs - pictograms in the subway - show any/all types of food) recently because people complained and during last summer the administration handed out free deodorants to passengers.

Sorry, public transport IS uncomfortable and smelly, like most places with many people.

I'm in Australia and the public transport is clean here. No food is allowed, and its enforced. There is the occasional smelly person, particularly in summer, unavoidable. In general though it works well.

I'd like to see some pictures of the inside of a subway train in the center of Melbourne on 6am on a Saturday... ;-)

It's a mentality issue - Singapore and Japan are also famous for clean public transport, but in most countries it's simply not possible.

I'm not in Melbourne so can't say, who knows what they get up to down there but whenever I've been there I've had no complaints. The fact that Singapore and Japan can do it, means its possible though if there's a political will.