UN 253: Top 20 links that would TRANSFORM Melbourne's buses in 2026

Earlier this week Labor announced its first substantive bus promise in its campaign to retain government in next month's state election. Monbulk MP Daniela De Martino was able to win support from her party for a new bus route between Emerald and Monbulk. 

The specific assurance of a new bus route is superior to the promise of a mere review (as offered for Melton). That's because reviews are vague and are easier to break promises on (as Labor did with the large north, north-east and Mildura reviews promised before the 2022 election). 

Cost-effectiveness

New or extended bus routes can be beneficial due to the new coverage and connections they can provide. However they may require new bus purchases, especially if a service that runs during peaks as well as off-peaks is desired.

That requirement increases costs and affects value for money when considering whether to add bus service or not. This is very area dependent.

For example if you add a bus service in an area like Tarneit, Craigieburn, Box Hill, Chadstone or Dandenong it is very likely to get good usage (even if it's infrequent) whereas usage in non-growth peri-urban areas (like Monbulk or the minister's seat of Eltham) is less guaranteed.

The likes of Monbulk may well deserve improved bus services, although suburbs like Campbellfield or Doveton, with some of Melbourne's lowest incomes, have a stronger case. A risk with politicised bus planning is that it does not align with greatest patronage potential or social need with resources misallocated between seats. One might still want extra bus services in areas like Monbulk, but the fiscally sensible government would plan this tightly, eg by reviewing underused or duplicative routes like the 694 that could offset some of a new route's cost. 

The Monbulk promise is however welcome in that there is at least some thinking going on about bus links that should exist but do not currently. This is largely due to many areas having legacy bus networks that have not had substantial reviews implemented for at least 15 and in some cases 40 years.

How fast has bus reform been?

In 2019 I identified 24 important 'missing links' that comprehensive bus reform would have almost certainly addressed. These are described in Part 1 and Part 2. 

Not one of the 24 routes could be said to have been fully implemented, though changes to bus networks have delivered other improvements in some of the areas these routes would have served. Pending implementation in areas like Seaford/Carrum Downs, Dandenong North and Wollert will be beneficial even if the links will be shorter than envisaged. These are the result of a rediscovery of buses since 2024 by a government that largely squandered its first decade with regards to bus services and reform. 

This limited progress means a list made in 2026 will be similar to 2019's. But this time I'll go clockwise around Melbourne, starting in the west. It is envisaged that all routes listed would operate over long hours with service every 20 minutes or better seven days. 

20 links to transform Melbourne's bus network

West

1. Point Cook - Werribee Plaza - Wyndham Vale: Right now it is hard to get out of Point Cook to go to anywhere but Williams Landing Station (which has nothing except a town centre not quite nearby). An east-west route, possibly formed from reforms or extensions to existing routes like 496 or 498, would address this. 

2. Sunshine - Melbourne Airport: A major gap that makes getting to Melbourne Airport from the west harder than it should be for workers. Yes there is now a Skybus but that high fare express option is geared to flyers not workers. A bus could be a welcome precursor to Airport Rail that won't happen any time soon. 

3. Caroline Springs to Melbourne Airport via Keilor Plains and Taylors Rd: A potential connector of jobs and a train feeder. Parts of Taylors Rd have the new 464 bus connectivity. 

4. Mt Atkinson to Caroline Springs: The Route 140 has brought public transport connectivity to Mt Atkinson but there is little at Rockbank except for a train station and it's a significant backtrack to go to Caroline Springs. 

5. Melton Station to Melton Shops: In theory there are bus routes but they are complex and infrequent with gaps of up to 60 minutes. A complete town network revamp is required. 

6. Footscray - Laverton via Millers Rd: There is already a bus that does this (411) but it's only every 40 min weekdays and 80 min weekends. Altona North is an area with massive scope for economical bus network reform but zero has happened under this government despite the local MP (for a time) having the public transport portfolio. 

7. Footscray - VU - Highpoint: A major corridor but only infrequent and indirect buses. Substantial bus reform involving routes like 223, 406 and 409 could work wonders here with a frequent 10 min corridor justified. Route 406 is particularly indirect as it serves a student village closed many years ago.  

North

8. Essendon to Highpoint: There is already a route there (468) but it's only every 40 minutes with no Sunday service despite Highpoint being a major destination and Craigieburn being a busy line. A 7 day connection could be economically done by rerouting the 903 orbital via Highpoint to replace the 468 and part of the 408. 

9. Moonee Ponds to Footscray: Again there's a route (404) but it has a similar infrequent 6 day service to the 468 with limited operating hours. Scope may exist to merge it with the 508 to create an inner orbital connecting Brunswick with Footscray via Moonee Ponds and Ascot Vale.  

10. Melbourne Airport to Greensborough via Broadmeadows: Route 901 does this but it's very indirect. Swapping it and 902 at both Broadmeadows and Greensborough would provide a more direct orbital that speeds airport travel from many northern suburbs. Weekend frequencies also need improving from every 30 to every 20 min to better mesh with trains along with the early 9pm Sunday finish extended to midnight. Could be done in conjunction with reform to 293 and 901 which together would provide a frequent Greensborough - Shoppingtown route (which despite the presence of two SmartBus orbitals is not currently provided due to their weak routing). 

11. Epping Plaza/Northern Hospital to Greensborough via Childs Rd: Much of this corridors is served by the confusing 566 route from Lalor. However Lalor is a more localised precinct while Epping has growth with a major shopping centre and hospital that the bus network does not reflect. This upgrade would involve the 566 being split into two routes to simplify the network. 

12. 527 extended to Broadmeadows: Would improve access to Melbourne Airport from the Hadfield area and provide a Coburg - Broadmeadows connection. A Sunday frequency upgrade and longer hours are also desirable. 

13. A simpler Bell St bus: A merger of the complex and part-time 513 and 514 to provide a bus every 20 min or better from Glenroy to Greensborough with bus network reform in the Lower Plenty area. Currently service levels on part of Bell Street are very low, especially on weekends with 40 min gaps between buses. 

East and South 

14. La Trobe Uni - Camberwell bus via Chandler Hwy: Would provide an important but unavailable connection. Could operate via Swinburne University. Scope to combine with reform to other routes such as 567 and 609. 

15. La Trobe University - Caulfield bus via Burke Rd: Would provide an essential but not provided for north-south connection in Melbourne's middle eastern suburbs. Could be done in conjunction with reform to existing routes like 548 and 624. 

16. Heidelberg - Pines Shopping Centre bus: Could replace a poorly used section of the 901 with improved connections to La Trobe University in conjunction with other network reform. 

17. Canterbury Rd bus: Could run from Box Hill to Ringwood via Forest Hill Chase. Could be done in conjunction with local bus network reform. 

18. Bayswater - Knox City via Scoresby Rd: Currently has the once daily 745A and a few 753 extensions but justifies a full service route. Requires other network reform for best effect. 

19. Glen Waverley - Ashburton - Caulfield via Glen Iris: A short extension of the 734 to Caulfield that better connects the south-east with the east. 

20. Bay St Sandringham - Southland bus: Provides a direct connection on a corridor currently without one. Potential to be done from an extended / reformed / upgraded Route 828. 

Conclusion 

These are just a few potential links that would make buses much more useful across Melbourne. If you have any more or consider some of the above unimportant, please leave your comments below. 

An index to all Useful Network items is here

TT 247: Progress on public holiday bus timetables

A week today is Melbourne Cup Day. A public holiday, at least in Metropolitan Melbourne and those towns that have not opted out in favour of another day, typically for their local show. It's often been a confusing day for bus users as not all routes run. While most run a Saturday timetable on public holidays like Cup Day this is not always the case; there exist some buses that run Saturdays, and, in two cases, Sundays, that do not operate on public holidays. 

However the complexities are become less common with changed contractual arrangements and enough smarts inside DTP to use these or subsequent timetable changes to reduce the number of routes with non-standard operating patterns. 

Back in 2019 I wrote about the public holiday gamble on Melbourne's buses. However what I would call the definitive guide appears on the Bus and Coach Society of Victoria website, or when that's occasionally unavailable the archived version here. 

The most recent changes happened on Sunday 25 October 2026. Transport Victoria's list of timetable changes is here. Six day routes in that list that gain public holiday service include 404, 407, 414, 415, and 538, 

The 4 October 2026 timetable change saw public holiday service added to Route 558 and 551 (latter in conjunction with 7 day service). And before that 536 gained public holiday service (in conjunction with its 7 day upgrade) in July 2026 with 503 and 506 getting public holiday service back in April.

Remaining bus routes that don't run on most public holidays

This represents faster progress in simplifying public holiday arrangements than we've seen for a while. This gets the remaining oddities down to: 

* 7 day routes that do not run public holidays

These are 681 and 682 in Rowville. No change, like almost anything to do with public transport in the Knox area, has happened for the last 15 to 20 years.  

* 6 day routes that do not run public holidays

490, 548, 549, 550, 559, 671, 672, 677, Croydon FlexiRide, Lilydale FlexiRide & Mooroolbark FlexiRide

Essentially the above are either flexible route services, Ventura Ivanhoe depot services or Croydon area routes. Oddly, despite both being run by Kinetic, 558 has a timetable with holiday service but 559 does not. This number has been approximately halved due to the abovementioned recent improvements. 

Routes that justify not only public holiday but also Sunday service include 549, 548, 559, 550, 671, 672, 490 and the FlexiRides in about that order. 

* 6 day routes with little or no public holiday afternoon service due to legacy Saturday morning-based timetables

509, 512, 558, 697, 699, 814, 844 & 857. 

These all finish by early afternoon on public holidays as per their old Saturday timetables. 559 in the Reservoir/Thomastown area also doesn’t run past 1pm on Saturdays but doesn't run public holidays. No change as Saturday timetables have not been significantly updated for many years. 

Of the above list the routes with highest usage and unique catchment to justify Saturday afternoon service include 814, 558, 844, 857, 512 and 697, in about that order.

To this should be added the significant number of bus routes that have Saturday afternoon service but at half frequency compared to Saturday mornings. This affects most public holidays due to the Saturday timetable being in effect. The most notable example is the 552 in Reservoir (every 15 min Saturday mornings, 30 min Saturday afternoons) but many other exist (eg the current 804 timetable hourly on Saturday mornings, 2 hourly on Saturday afternoons). 

The above two issues are not due to a lack of timetable standardisation on public holidays but because some Saturday timetables, substantially untouched for decades, are based around pre 1980s shop trading hours. Under these arrangements Saturday mornings had a service similar to weekday midday frequencies but no or diminished service ran on Saturday afternoons. 

* 5 day routes with no public holiday service

The oddity here is not the lack of public holiday service but the lack of weekend service on routes that could be expected to have significant Saturday or Sunday usage. Where five day routes operated on public holidays this was typically due to them serving university campuses that did not always observe public holidays. However the practice of universities not observing public holidays appears to be declining. 

Some five day routes have been upgraded to run seven days according to the standard pattern (which includes public holiday service). Route 551 between Heidelberg and La Trobe University was a recent addition, with 546 (also in Heidelberg) being upgrades some time prior. Route 802 in Dandenong has been funded to go from 5 to 7 days.  

Routes that justify upgrades to include weekend service include the likes 237, 774, 675, 783, 680, 609, 389, 758, 531, 823, 757 and 745. These are listed in descending order of weekday productivity here. 

* Good Friday and Christmas Day services

As these operate to a Sunday timetable the large number of bus routes in Melbourne that do not operate on Sundays do not run on these days.  

Since Sunday public transport usage is only slightly below that of Saturdays on routes with similar service levels, the rationale for a network entirely of routes that run either 7 days (for general routes) or 5 days (for specialised routes) is much stronger than current arrangements where a significant (though gradually diminishing) minority of Melbourne bus routes still operate 5.5 or 6 days per week. Unique sections of the bus network with such limited service is mapped below: 

Suburbs with concentrations of buses that don't run 7 days (despite having high usage potential and/or high social needs) include Laverton, Maribyrnong, Moonee Ponds, Brunswick, Campbellfield, Dandenong and Springvale. Frankston, Knox and much of the outer East also have very high concentrations of limited service bus routes with essentially no timetable upgrades this century. 

Summary

Catching buses on public holidays remains somewhat of a gamble in Melbourne as around 10 fixed bus routes that run 6 or 7 days per week do not adhere to the standard public holiday arrangements. However your odds of encountering one are diminishing thanks to gradual standardisation. The cost of finishing the job off is now trivial with better user legibility, simpler administration and fewer Transport Victoria data errors major benefits.  

After then further work to add Saturday afternoon and Sunday service would deliver a genuine 7 day public transport network across Melbourne for relatively little cost and finally end the widespread confusion bus passengers face each public holiday. 

Timetable Tuesday index

TT 246: The new October 25th bus timetables

Just three weeks after the October 4 bus upgrades, with benefits for Caroline Springs, more bus improvements are coming this Sunday, October 25.

These will give some welcome coverage and connectivity gains. I'll also describe some of the strange timetabling choices that boosted frequency at quiet times while retaining infrequent service when it's busier.   

140 Rockbank - Tarneit

The biggest change is undoubtedly the extension of the 140A, which since June has run from Rockbank to Mt Atkinson. The 140A was only intended as a temporary route to provide the first regular public transport to the hitherto unserved Mount Atkinson 'island'.  

While the 140A connected Mt Atkinson to Rockbank, there's nothing there except a train station. So travel to even a supermarket required a long trip involving changing to another service and sometimes significant backtracking. With there being much more at Tarneit than Rockbank the extended route will be warmly welcomed by the Mt Atkinson community and others. Transport Victoria's item on this extension is here. 

Now to the timetabling. Being Melbourne this inevitably involves a lot of history. Because even if timetables change remnants of past practice stubbornly peep through in certain places. Whereas no-one blinks if a Big Build project runs a few billion dollars over, bus timetables are more aggressively budgeted (a $100 000 pa difference may be significant). So DTP bus timetable planning is like trying to paint a wall with a litre less paint than you really need for a consistent finish. (That is unless they have enough for double coat on less visible parts of wall and single coat on more visible areas - but more on that later).

Having said that there have been wins. New growth area bus routes have recently been implemented with a wider span of hours than was the case a few years ago. For example a finish nearer to 11pm than 9pm and earlier starts on weekends. And, especially in Wyndham, they are also more likely to be every 20 minutes off-peak (at least on weekdays) than the previously typical 40 minute frequency. 

140A was an example with a weekday 20 minute frequency across most of the day. The longer 140 continues this but adds a 20 minute frequency for most of Saturday. That's an improvement from 5 to 6 days. But the budget didn't quite extend to Sundays. That will remain every 40 minutes even though Sunday bus usage is typically not much less than Saturday's these days. 

I raise this as a timetable oddity as this is not the only one to exist in this timetable change. While a new route, the 140's pattern of a 20 minute 6 day frequency with a 40 minute service on Sundays replicates 50+ year old routes in Melbourne's western and northern middle suburbs with similar service levels. Examples include 406, 408, 465, 472 and 527. These possibly reflect Saturday (or at least Saturday morning) being a working day and Sunday being the Sabbath and, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, regarded as being so quiet that it was a prime target for service cuts. 

The 2006 Meeting our Transport Challenge upgrades reversed this spiral. It introduced a minimum service standard and Sunday service on numerous bus routes 15 to 20 years ago. These typically involved Sunday service every 40 to 60 minutes, even on main road routes that ran every 15 to 20 min on weekdays and 20 minutes on Saturdays. 

The 2026 state budget included funding to remove this Sunday service fall-off on busy routes like the 508. Some new or upgraded routes in the west (eg 153, 154, 182 and 186) already have a Sunday service the same as weekdays and Saturdays (ie every 20 minutes).

In Craigieburn (another growth area that has seen some recent bus upgrades) the pattern is generally every 20 minutes weekdays, every 40 minutes weekends. Cranbourne and Clyde in the south-east is a mix between the two.

However in all cases Sunday frequency is the same as Saturday, unlike the 25 October Route 140 timetable which replicates old scheduling practices on a new route. The latter indicates the strictness of budgeting for service upgrades. Long gaps in a bus timetable can be tolerated for years (if not decades) as there is no budget for (say) $100 - $200k pa fixes whereas large blow-outs on major capital projects is accepted as part of life.     

A small part of Route 140 around Tarneit is shown on the Love the Bus map for the outer west but the exact start date is not indicated. Neither are there yet drop down links to the timetable for it nor the even higher service routes 463 and 464 that started earlier in the month.

It seems that no matter how many creative consultants they splurge money on, Transport Victoria can be its own worst enemy with an entrenched 'set and forget' attitude to content that undersells the network. As opposed to a best-practice culture that continually reviews material and messaging when improvements happen. It's not an isolated case either; buses have accepted credit card payment for months but Transport Victoria's Airport Travel page misleads tourists and others by still claiming that passengers need a Myki card to travel. 

542 7 day upgrade

One timetable oddity that will get fixed on October 25 concerns Route 542. This route runs from Roxburgh Park to Pascoe Vale via Broadmeadows. The northern half runs 7 days but the southern half  was 6 days per week with shorter operating hours.

2026 State Budget funding will extend 7 day service to the full route and improve Sunday frequency from 60 to 40 minutes, matching that on other days of the week. 

This improvement will benefit parts of Broadmeadows, Jacana, Glenroy, Oak Park and Pascoe Vale. But, true to form, Transport Victoria has left off mentioning the best parts of this upgrade (ie the 542's new and improved frequency Sunday service) on its website news item. 

Craigieburn's amazing new Saturday evening bus timetables

The 23 August rail timetable saw the Upfield and Craigieburn lines lose their 30 minute evening and 40 minute Sunday morning gaps in favour of a a 20 minute maximum wait. Most Craigieburn bus routes will have changed times to preserve connectivity to these more frequent train services.

For example 30 minute evening bus services, which harmonised with the earlier train timetable, will go to either 20 or every 40 minutes to preserve this harmonisation. A summary for a typical Craigieburn route (I've used the 533) is below.

The new timetables are better overall. But they enlarge some existing oddities and have aspects that are not intuitive. 

For example there is a general expectation (especially in Melbourne!) that public transport at night is less frequent than during the day, even at busy stations. Box Hill is an extreme case where the weekend evening train frequency collapses from 10 to 30 minutes in a short time around 7pm. 

Up to now the typical Craigieburn bus route ran a little more frequently (30 min) on Saturday nights than it did during the day (every 40 min). That is it connected with every second train during the day and every train at night. That oddity did not apply on weekdays due to the 20 minute interpeak bus frequency. The 40 min day/30 min night pattern is odd but you can accept that as the alternative (to harmonise with trains) would have been hourly evening bus services. 

The October 25 timetable change deals with weeknights and Saturdays differently. On weeknights the 30 minute average frequency was dealt with by increasing mid-evening service from 30 to 20 minutes but decreasing late evening service from 30 to 40 minutes. It could be described as a 'greatest good for the greatest number' type upgrade with good legibility across the day (apart from the non-clockfaceness of the 40 minute gaps late at night). 

In contrast the Saturday timetable was done differently. There was no 20 minute service to build down from. And a cut from 30 to 40 minutes (with no offsetting period of 20 minute service as was done on weekdays) was presumably thought too severe, even if it would harmonise with the new 20 minute evening train frequency.

So they opened the cheque book and funded an upgrade of Saturday evening service from every 30 to every 20 minutes until last buses (up to almost midnight). Every 20 minutes at this time is very frequent for a Melbourne bus, especially a local route. It even beats key train lines (such as Ringwood) and the SmartBus orbitals which remain with 30 minute Saturday evening frequencies. And the 20 minute Saturday evening service was not just implemented on busier bus routes like the 533 that run every 20 minutes interpeak on weekdays, but also lesser served routes like the 525 which runs a 40 minute weekday midday service. 

Another variation is the 532 between Broadmeadows, Dallas, Upfield and Craigieburn. This is potentially an important route as it has potential to be a rail precursor bus connection between Upfield and Craigieburn. The new timetable retains the midday 30 minute frequency (which does not meet trains every 20 min) but adds mid-evening trips to provide a 20 minute frequency (which does). Meanwhile Saturday service remains a non-harmonised every 30 min and Sundays only every 60 minutes.  

There is a certain appeal to having a homebound evening timetable that meets every train arrival with a bus. However having a 20 minute evening frequency while daytime service remains at 30, 40 and even 60 minute intervals sounds odd.  

And there may be some opportunity costs of this generosity if service is austere at other times. An example is weekends during the day where, unlike Wyndham with widespread 7 day 20 minute frequencies, not a single bus route in Craigieburn runs better than every 40 minutes. Redistributing service from Saturday evenings to weekends during the day on the busier routes (eg 529 and 533) might be somewhat controversial but may have a higher benefit overall. Possibly something to consider for the next timetable change after loading statistics become available.  

Other areas

Buses in other parts of Melbourne operated by CDC will have some minor timetable changes. These include routes in the west, north and south-east. 

It looks like some 6 day routes are getting a service on those public holidays that have a Saturday timetable. This can be seen on the pdf timetable where times are listed individually for each public holidays with holiday footnotes. Examples of 6 day routes that gain public holiday service include 407, 414 and 415.

Route 538 has public holidays listed in the timetable but the old template still (which omits footnotes). The Transport Victoria news item confirms 538 operation on public holidays. But there is a risk that not attending to this causes timetables at stops to correctly show the new times but not accurately show public holiday arrangements. 

Summary 

Some good bus service extensions, especially in Melbourne's north and west, will start this Sunday. These will be welcomed with new travel opportunities enabled. But some unusual choices have been made as to the times and routes that get 20 minute service and those that don't. Also, with less than a week to go, Transport Victoria has not communicated the upgrades as well as it could, marketing campaigns and consultants notwithstanding.  

See Timetable Tuesday items here