Passenger Numbers continue to grow on Melbourne's Public Transport

Since 2007 the Victorian Government has introduced 300 new weekly services to the metropolitan train timetable, rolled out the Early Bird Metcard and fast tracked the purchase of eight additional six-carriage trains on top of an earlier commitment for ten.

Tram patronage continues to grow with 3.4 million more trips carried on trams and 6.3 million more on buses in the past 12 months.



Bus travel has grown by 7.4 per cent in the past year and since 2006 we have upgraded more than 110 bus routes with longer operating hours and increased frequencies. Sunday bus patronage has grown by 44 per cent in the past year alone.



Public Transport Projects Underway


Short term

· Delivery of three-stage timetable overhaul to make the train network perform at its peak with first stage adding 105 new services in April this year

· Introduction of Early Bird ticketing to all metropolitan rail lines

· Route 401 from North Melb station to Melbourne Uni


Medium term

· Purchase of 18 new trains with a staged roll-out from late 2009
· Upgrade of major interchange points such as North Melbourne

· Development of back of house infrastructure projects including Cranbourne stabling

· Extra tracks on the Werribee, Dandenong, Epping/Hurstbridge and Craigieburn lines.

· Delivery of more park and ride facilities at stations

· Delivery of a radial bus network through SmartBus to connect suburbs and multi-modal transport hubs

· Improve existing local bus services

· Continued projects to give trams greater priority, improve tracks and provide better platform access



Long term

* Securing the future of public transport through the development of the Victorian Transport Plan to be released in November