Liveability

I see that the Economist has decided that Melbourne is the world's most "liveable" city.  Well, I don't disagree that it's quite pleasant living in Melbourne, but let's not become complacent.   Melbourne isn't perfect.   Dare we mention, for example, public transport?  As one post on Trip Advisor points out, with a train frequency of 30 minutes in the evening on many lines, how can Melbourne gain this title?  Evening tram frequencies on many routes aren't much better.  And, when one does arrive, have the assessors ever tried to squeeze on an over-crowded tram after a night football game has finished?  An airport rail link would help some of us avoid that peak-time congestion on the freeway, too.  And don't even mention the Metro tunnel (compare the progress being made on London's Crossrail project).

By the way, note that there's a down-side to being a liveable city:   some companies use surveys such as this to determine the amount of "hardship allowance" paid to expatriates asked to relocate to the cities concerned.  Hence, Melbourne might find it more challenging to attract expatriates because they might like to trade a little "liveability" for a slightly better  allowance!