Public Transport to this weekend's Victorian Labor Conference

If you're a Labor Party hack, hopeful or has-been, there's no bigger weekend in the year than this.

Today, Saturday and Sunday hundreds of you will gather at Moonee Valley Racecourse for a weekend of  deliberations, deals and debates.  

Climbing careerists will be there for the schmoozing, seeking selfies with former and current premiers and sounding out preselectors for potential vacant 'safe' seats in 2026.

Otherwise forgotten 1970s and 1980s backbenchers will be catching up with old cronies, swapping stacks of factional war stories (no Bill Hartley mentions please!) or sharing the latest bereavement. 

The Coopers, Fishers, Milleners and Electroplaters Union will be seeking party resolutions on their industries' extreme state significance as evidence of their might within government to take back to members.  

School cleaners will seek more pay and transport unions will want trains back in public hands. If they are young, scheming delegates may be sussing-out numbers for future pre-selections. Or the more mature might prefer angling for a cruisy advisory board or super fund gig. 

Star ministers may publicly love the attention but will be privately relieved when it's over. To them conference success means nothing happening after rousing leader speeches. That is no passing of uneconomic or controversial left-field motions. Although if any do get passed then expectations of implementing them must be hosed down. 

Getting there and getting home

What is of interest here is how delegates can reach the venue from across Melbourne and across the state by public transport. Especially given that the conference spans both weekdays and weekends. 

I'm going to guess that a fair number will stick around well in to the evening with formal or informal stand-up socialising and strategising. Whether it's pub or parliament there's never enough seats for those you wish to please, no matter how big the house.

Well known events demonstrate that getting home is more important to get right than getting there. 

Drinking and driving is not advised lest that earns you tomorrow's front page. 

You don't want to become the Tim Smith of the party do you? 

And even if you don't crash, doing the Groth thing with a government car will just get you served with the Steve Herbert treatment, which, trust me, is not what you want in this stage of your career. There's always someone who knows, and, chances are, they are in your own party. 

A quiet Uber ride home is the safe 'faceless men' option. Maybe that's fine for a low profile MLC whose main needed skill is to raise their hand when requested. 

But it's the selfie on public transport that can really do wonders for your 'person of the people' image on your socials. As is needed to build the personal brand that signals that you are on the way to better. That you'll walk and wait in the cold also reassures your factional backers you have what it takes for survival in 2026. Hence this guide.  

PT in Moonee Ponds

Below is a rough map showing public transport routes near the conference venue at the racecourse. Buses stop outside, tram is a short walk with trains only slightly longer. 

First of all Friday (that is today). You're not going to have any problems getting there. The 59 tram from Elizabeth St is every few minutes. The 82 is an option if coming from Footscray. The buses are pretty good being every 15-20 minutes on main routes. Trains are every 20 minutes during the day (better in peaks) so do check the timetable if in a hurry. Maybe allow 15 minutes walk from the racecourse to the station. 

Some MPs get a one-seat ride from their office. Eg Ben Carroll can get the 59 tram, Katie Hall has the 404 bus, Melissa Horne the 472, Sheena Watt 504, Kat Theophanous the 508 and Kathleen Matthews-Ward the Craigieburn line train to name a few. Josh Bull can even take the fast 483 bus from Sunbury. But Danny Pearson is the luckiest, being walking distance. 

Getting home? Your options depend on how late you linger. Before 7pm everything's running. But much after then service really thins out. The 404 bus, quicker and more direct to Footscray than the 82 tram, runs its last trip at 7:20pm. The 506 right outside the venue drops off to every 40 minutes with last bus at 8:50pm. Unlike the lucky Frankston line the Craigieburn line falls back to a 30 minute frequency after 7:35pm from Moonee Ponds into the city. So plan carefully or just get the slower but closer and more frequent 59 tram. Most bus routes finish around 9pm. 

Small hours party animal raconteurs do have some ways out, it being a Friday when Night Network (a 2016 Labor creation) is running. Options here are Craigieburn trains every hour or the 959 bus (which sort of replicates the 59 tram).  

 
On Saturday all bus routes are running. Frequencies drop back a bit. Late stayers need to be particularly mindful of the 404 and 506 due to their early finishes  (7:20 and 6:00pm respectively). Trams are frequent during the day. The Craigieburn line will run every 20 minutes during the day, dropping to the usual 30 minutes at night. This compares to every 15 minutes for an equivalent line in Sydney. This should however be the last conference the 30 minute frequency applies as evening trains will go to every 20 minutes following a 2025 budget funding package for the Craigieburn and Upfield lines. 

Night Network will operate much as it does on Friday night though the Metro website advises of a short duration bus replacement during the very wee hours. 

Getting there on Sundays is where PT to Moonee Ponds really falls down. It's currently sparse with the Craigieburn line trains only every 40 minutes in the morning. That's especially a gamble if you're connecting from another train or bus (which is probably also only every 30 to 60 minutes). You might also want V/Line from Geelong or Melton to start earlier, depending on your planned arrival. 

As for the 59 tram, the Robert Risson terminus at the bottom end of Elizabeth St isn't the most salubrious place on a Sunday morning. Tram 59 leaves there every 30 minutes, later improving to every 20 and then every 12 minutes. For an arrival before 8am, even though broad daylight, you're in Night Network territory with the 959 bus from the city your choice for a continuous trip.  

Buses? The minister might well say that 'the time for bus is now' but current timetables at Moonee Ponds reflect a very distant yesteryear. Routes 404, 483 and 506 do not run at all on Sundays. Despite 506 being Melbourne's busiest bus without Sunday service and 404 being a potential direct link to Footscray via Kensington Banks. 

The main route 508 from Alphington and Brunswick has a 40 minute wait if you just miss one. That gets super crowded on weekends with its timetable unchanged for many many years. 472 is another with a stuck in the past timetable; whereas it runs every 15 minutes on weekdays it drops to an unmemorable every 50 minutes on Sundays. The first full length trip arrives Moonee Ponds at 9:50, making it unsuitable for those with early starts.  

Better conference connections next year?

The Craigieburn line will have been boosted with maximum waits dropped from 40 to 20 minutes by the time of next year's conference. That's a worthwhile improvement for evening and Sunday morning travellers. However it is short of the 10 minute daytime off-peak service as proposed in the 2016 Metro Tunnel business case and as justified by existing patronage. 

So far there's no word on bus and tram improvements. The most notable ones (which would be smart inclusions in the 2026 state budget) include: 

* 7 day service on Routes 404 and 506 with wider operating hours
* Route 508 weekend frequency boosted from 30-40 to 20 min with wider operating hours
* Tram 59 and 82 evening and Sunday morning frequencies boosted from 30 to 20 min

None of the above require additional rolling stock. They are also routes with high existing patronage and even stronger potential with better 7 day service. Plus they would benefit Moonee Ponds which has dense (and densifying) housing with disproportionately low PT frequency.  

With suitable action like the above maybe delegates at next year's state conference will be in a position to move a motion praising the state government for the significant public transport service upgrades implemented at Moonee Ponds?