[hug]

Some trams go further than the distance that anyone I know would call "inner suburbs".

Bundoora, Preston, and Box Hill to the north, Surrey Hills to the East, Carnegie to the South. (I don't think anything goes West further than Maribyrnong?)

All suburbs, more than 10km from the city, full of people who work 9 to 5 in unglamorous jobs.

Sure, it's cheaper further out, in places that will take over 45 minutes to commute from... but that's the case everywhere in the world, as far as I know. And it's not like Melbourne doesn't have a bus system to rival Sydney's.