I doubt the accuracy of that table. It's been a number of years since I regularly took CityRail but I remember the price of trains in Sydney to go up pretty drastically the further into the suburbs you got. Like, $5/ride and such. Though maybe that was for fares all the way out to Wollongong.

I've always found the flat fee nature of the NY subway to be wonderfully egalitarian, since the high fees tend to be a regressive tax on those who can't afford to live close to the city.