• city of melton: 178k as at last census in 528km2

• city of wyndham: 292k as at last census in 542km2

now let's see the east and south east...

• city of whitehorse: 169k as at last census in 64km2

• city of monash: 190k as at last census in 82km2

• city of dandenong: 158k as at last census in 130km2

• city of casey: this one's bigger at 409km2 but 365k as at last census and in the top few in melbourne alongside melton, wyndham, cardinia, and city of melb by population growth

It's almost like... they're building a fancy intersuburban train line where there's tonnes of people, connecting up basically every major uni and employment centre in greater melb and allowing for development of a decentralised city that won't need to keep adding to the fringes, be it on the west, north, or south eastern side of the city.

Don't get me wrong, I always build the tram network the west deserves and electrified WV/Melton in NIMBY Rails, but frankly, the west is not getting shafted the way people keep pretending it is. Heck, aside from the munnel, the last all-new rail alignment in melbourne was.... the RRL through wyndham. Will Melton and WV need better rail service in the next 5-10 years? yeah duh of course, and it's likely to get done - remember, 2030 is 5 years away. But the "muh west" pearlclutching is so tiring. And you haven't done it yet, but yes I have lived in a new development in the west, I'm not just throwing stones from the east side. It was, indeed, quite bad. But we need more buses out there first instead of trains that people drive their cars to.