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Melbourne is home to the largest operational tram network in the world, carrying more than 200 million passengers each year. But have you ever wondered which route is the most popular?
Tram passenger data accessed by The Age shows the monthly patronage on 22 of the city’s 24 tram routes between January 2019 and June 2025.
Route 96 takes the crown for Melbourne’s busiest service. Patronage numbers for the St Kilda Beach to East Brunswick route have consistently sat above one million people per month since September 2022.
The 96 runs through high-density residential areas in Melbourne’s inner-north, many of which are not serviced by trains, and stops at popular attractions including Bourke Street Mall, Crown Casino, MSAC and Melbourne Museum, which might be why it’s the most crammed.
Other popular services include the routes 109 and 86, which are among the longest routes, as well as the 58 and 19, which both stop near The University of Melbourne and run through the CBD.
Katya Finnegan is primarily a train user, but catches the 96 tram between her work and university. She said that the trip is generally efficient, but the design of the E-class trams means people often block the doors.
“No one really gets off when someone’s trying to get off, which I guess makes them feel even busier,” Finnegan said.
For Petra and Matthew, who are on holiday from Germany and didn’t want to give their last names, the 96 trams felt busier than the other routes they’d travelled on.
“A lot of the time I feel squeezed in. And we’d [rather] walk!” Matthew said.
Comparatively, route 82 is Melbourne’s quietest tram. Servicing a short 9.2km distance between Footscray and Moonee Ponds, its patronage hovers around the 100,000 people per month mark.
The 82 tram is one of two services that are entirely outside the Melbourne CBD – along with the route 78 between North Richmond and Balaclava. The 78 is also among the quietest tram services, as are routes 57 and 64.
Yudha Korwa, who lives in Melbourne’s west and regularly catches the route 82 tram as part of his work commute, said he was surprised to hear about its low patronage rates.
He has a couple of local transport options – including two bus routes – but prefers to catch the tram as its path is more direct.
“The tram is more [safe]. It’s easy to go to the train station,” Korwa said.
Talia Dalipis used to be a regular on the route 82 tram when she was attending high school – but this time she’s catching it to Highpoint Shopping Centre.
The service is often full of students outside of school hours because Footscray High and Maribyrnong College are both close to stops, she said.
“During the day it’s pretty chill … But definitely in the mornings and the afternoons it gets really crowded,” Dalipis said.
Tram patronage numbers are calculated by counting the number of people who board a tram service and touch on their myki card. This is then cross-referenced with Automatic Vehicle Monitoring data to provide a final estimate.
Passenger numbers weren’t available for tram routes 30 and 35, as passenger counts are impacted by their placement in the CBD’s free tram zone.
Tram patronage took an unsurprising dive during the COVID lockdowns – when public transport use in Melbourne was limited. Most of these numbers are now trending upwards towards their pre-pandemic levels.
A spokesperson from the Department of Transport and Planning said that a range of tram timetable changes were rolled out across most routes following the final lockdown period in 2021.
With more people gravitating to remote work, passenger feedback indicated a lesser demand for trams during morning rush hour. Instead, there was a new emphasis on increased services on weekends, evenings, and during major events, they said.
The spokesperson also acknowledged that use of trams had been steadily climbing and that there was a possibility of future timetable changes.
“Patronage continues to increase and we will monitor services and make adjustments as travel patterns evolve,” they said.
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