Meeting Our Transport Challenges turns 20

Twenty years ago on a day like today you wouldn't have been able to catch a bus on any but a few routes in metropolitan Melbourne. That's because it was a Sunday and very few Melbourne buses operated. 

Whereas today around three-quarters of our bus routes feature Sunday service. The same applied if you were one of those unfortunates in need of a bus after 7pm - there was basically no service in a city (then) of nearly four million people. Even if you did have a train or tram nearby about the only trip you could do was one to or away from the CBD, almost never directly across suburbs. 

The policy that changed all that turned 20 today. While its record for rail transport was mixed, Meeting Our Transport Challenges, launched by minister Peter Batchelor on 17 May 2006, was the biggest and most successful bus plan the state had ever produced. A title it retains today - nothing newer has ever come close. 

The lead-up

The Melbourne 2030 plan (based on denser housing around a network of suburban major activity centres and a 20% modal share target for public transport) was meant to be accompanied by transport plans for trains, trams and buses. Planning had been done but not made public. Stakeholders (rightly) scoffed at a metropolitan plan that did not much include transport. 

Amid some disquiet in the planning and transport sectors the Bus Plan was leaked in early 2003. A summary was published in May 2003 PTUA News.  Key points included: 

* Premium services operating with basic 15 minute headway running 5 am until midnight, with genuine traffic priority and real-time passenger information systems

* Local services operating at least 6 am until 10 pm, with “improved frequencies”

* Four new orbital bus routes

* “Small but significant” improvements such as running routes right into railway stations 

The July 2003 PTUA News reported on the Tram Plan while October 2023 News said that the Bus Plan was still unreleased and languishing. 

The government at this time was preoccupied with salvaging train and tram franchising after the exit of National Express, building a new roof for the (then) Spencer Street Station and Regional Fast Rail. There had been many scattered but minor bus upgrades in late 2002 but the pace had slowed since, especially after a large election win by the incumbent government. The Melbourne 2030 Implementation Reference Group called for large investments in public transport infrastructure and services in 2005. 

(If you thought this was familiar, pretty much all the above repeated 20 years later in 2022-2024, including the criticisms)

The plan

Things changed after some quiet years. The 2005 State Budget invested heavily in new bus services. What was previously spoken about as a Transport and Liveability Statement came out in May 2006 as Meeting Our Transport Challenges. You can read it here. 

Pre-release audio grabs: https://ptua.org.au/posts/2006/tls-pre-audio/

PTUA reaction: https://ptua.org.au/posts/2006/tls-botched/

There were rail plans (eg the 3rd track to Dandenong) but based on what got implemented, MOTC was largely a bus plan. One can very much see that bus elements came from the previous 2003-era planning work. For example the 'Premium services' that were SmartBuses, the local services being extended to operate 7 days until 9pm (ie 'minimum standards') and the four orbital routes. MOTC also included bus network reviews though this was the hardest and least implemented part of the plan. 

Here I described 34 bus routes upgraded in just a few months in 2007: 
https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2007/06/34-melbourne-bus-routes-upgraded-with.html

My progress report from 2008 is at: https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2008/11/meeting-our-transport-challenges-hows.html

A look back from a vantage point of 2019: https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2019/06/service-success-stories-since-2006.html

A more recent item on how they upgraded bus services at a rate that DTP's Network Service Changes pipeline would consider impossible today is here: https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2025/09/tt-213-how-melbourne-added-8000-weekly.html

And finally a look at what makes bus plans succeed or fail. Not everything in MOTC happened but more of it did than most other plans, at least for buses. https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2025/10/un-215-what-makes-bus-plans-succeed-or.html 

Achievements and legacy

MOTC was weak on the rail infrastructure side. Its infrastructure proposals were modest and some, like the third track to Dandenong, were not completed. 

Instead Bracks government politics favoured large spending on rail infrastructure in the regions (Regional Fast Rail to Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Traralgon), showy projects like Southern Cross Station (delivered under a PPP to keep it off the books)  but infrastructure parsimony in Melbourne due to a wish to be seen as responsible financial managers. Just two years later the now Brumby government was forced to be bolder but the benefits came too late to save them at the ballot box in 2010 as rail patronage surged and reliability collapsed. 

MOTC was also weak on the rail service side, even for modest off-peak service increases that are possible with the existing fleet. We are only now starting to get funded (in the 2025 and 2026 state budgets) modest off-peak frequency uplifts (towards 20 minute maximum waits) that we could have had 20 years ago.  

It was really in buses that MOTC shone - for both regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne. While not necessarily the sort of thing that large mode shift is made of, the adoption of a 60 minute minimum 'safety net' service standard until 9pm every day of the week for local bus services was a substantial advance. Especially given its fast roll-out involving over 100 routes in just a few years. While a significant backlog remains with some popular routes (eg 281, 404, 468, 503, 506, 549, 844 etc) remaining without Sunday service, MOTC continues to have influence to this day. 

The orbital SmartBuses never got rolled out to the full four route network (we only got 2 3/4 orbitals). It was an attractively simple concept, even if some sections overlapped existing routes and/or traversed areas with weak patronage. Still they were patronage successes, helping to make our network less of an asterisk and more of a grid by enabling cross-suburban travel. Attempts to reform the orbitals remain in abeyance with even busy sections remaining with 30 minute gaps on weekends, poor for a premium route and not consistently connecting with trains that typically run every 20 minutes. The SmartBus network has seen no expansion since 2010 though some non-orbital routes like 905 and 907 have gained improved hours and frequencies. 

As for the other big MOTC bus initiative, that of network reviews, the less said the better. The reviews were done (not all with wise or cost-effective proposals) but implementation was sluggish. A pattern that continues to this day despite potential 'greater good' service uplifts they may enable. 

Despite these limitations, Meeting Our Transport Challenges was huge for buses. It added 25% to service with usage rising by about that amount in just a few years from 2006. There has been no bigger or more influential bus plan than MOTC has been in at least 50 years. And its lessons continue to be fresh for today. 

If someone ever says we can't have fast uplifts in bus services on funding or delivery capacity grounds just point them to the record under MOTC. We did it then and can do it now. All it takes is political will.