In my hometown, buses are once hourly, and the trains to Melbourne are also one in an hour. I didn't find it that inconvenient really but I suppose when you have to catch two buses for an hour-long journey vs. driving for 15 minutes, it's obvious why country folk don't use public transport.
In Melbourne, I love the trams even though they are a bit loose on time. I find that in the day they are frequent enough for it not to be a big deal, but in the evening it can be pretty inconvenient. As for buses I only ever habitually took the 401/402 between North Melbourne, the RMH and Melbourne Uni. It was always on time, roared through the streets like noone's business and never failed me. I love you 401. The metros between Southern Cross, North Melbourne and Footscray were also pretty reliable albeit with some delays. Pretty good.
V-Line is horrible... don't even get me started ... I loved having to sit down in the middle of the aisle next to the bin because they could only have 3 carriages instead of 6 for the peak 6 o'clock service. I also missed work because they couldn't connect the carriages properly as well lol. disGusting.
Huge fan of the double decker trains in Sydney though. Can't wait for the damn light rail to finish so I can actually use it. Not sure if it will be quicker than buses though.
Big feels. I'm always amused when I catch a train in Sydney. Will it sit upstairs or downstairs? So mAnY OpTioNs lmao
I live so close to one of the light rail stops it's not funny. I can't wait to use it but I'm praying it's quicker than the bus. If it's not I'm going to be very hurt and disappointed.
In saying this, I literally hate buses. A train, a team, a ferry, anything is better. In my experience so far, Sydney has good buses but they're still buses and I still hate them. So despite Sydney's superior double-deckers, Opal app (oh, the days before Google Pay for Myki...) and bus frequency, Melbourne has trams and lots of train stations and that's where it's at.