Review of online information – Easter & ANZAC Day 2025

UPDATED 10 APRIL 2025

Labour Day on March 10 2025 saw confusion for bus passengers in the suburbs with 11 out of 20 6-day-a-week-bus routes with no public holiday service incorrectly displaying timetable data on online timetables, the PTV app and GTFS data and further issues with information for university shuttles, with this confirmed as incorrect with an afternoon field trip around the northern suburbs.

One would hope checks and balances were now being done by PTV  to ensure that correct timetables were shown various public holidays ahead of Easter & ANZAC Day long weekends.

However, a detailed review of information on the PTV website made in one week before Easter (Thursday 10 April) suggest PTV has further only mudded the waters. It is not apparent what is actually going on, with inconsistencies now appearing between different routes and different public holidays for the same operator!

However, for now we are assuming the status quo continues for these 20 6-day-a-week bus routes, with no service on Easter Monday and Anzac Day. Our analysis however shows 7 routes incorrectly shown as running Easter Monday. Only 2 routes are incorrectly displaying timetable data for Anzac Day.

Universities are also closed across both Easter weekend and the national ANZAC Day holiday, but we have identified examples of timetables been shown in error.

Good Friday – 18 April

PTV advice for Good Friday:

A Sunday timetable applies to all routes except 681 & 682 in Rowville as they don’t run public holidays.

• Correctly shown as running: n/a
• Incorrectly shown as running: n/a
• Correctly no timetable shown: 681 & 682

Timetables for Night Network routes are footnoted “Night Network services operate overnight on Friday and Saturday nights only, including when a public holiday falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday”.

It appears Night Network services between 9pm and 12am are scheduled to operate as per the Friday Night Network timetable. However, trips before 7am should not operate.

Routes 190, 200, 250, 905, 907 & 908 operate late evening Sunday trips which operate as per a Sunday timetable on Good Friday evening.

Late Evening Friday trips on Routes 788, 900 & 901 were not funded as part of Night Network and therefore there is no service between 9:30pm and midnight on these routes (as per a normal Sunday timetable). Trips however operate after midnight as per Saturday morning Night Network. timetables.

For Route 703 only selected services are available after 9pm as some trips are funded to run weeknights, especially along Blackburn Rd.

• Early Morning Night network trips incorrectly shown: 170*, 190*, 630 (towards Elwood) & 951 (towards Brunswick)
• Late Night Network trips shown: 150, 180, 357, 386*, 406, 410, 420 (towards Sunshine)*, 670, 703, 788 & 833
• Late Night Network trips NOT shown: 420 (towards Watergardens), 630, 693 & 703*
• Missing data: 630 (towards Monash Uni) – No data shown for Good Friday; 833 – only showing Night Network trips

Notes:
Route 170 – “Early morning” 12:16am trip from Werribee does not run as Thursday timetable precedes Good Friday
Route 190 – trips between 12am and 1:30am should not be shown on a public holiday morning as a Thursday timetable precedes Good Friday
Route 386 – after midnight trips shown on Good Friday rather than Easter Saturday
Route 420 – Night Network trips for Good Friday only shown towards Sunshine
Route 703 – Sunday evening Blackburn to Oakleigh South trips at 8:25pm & 8:55pm omitted

Catching buses on public holidays is a gamble in Melbourne. Most routes run a Saturday timetable, but some don’t run, others finish at noon. And there is often confusion about finish times on routes that are part of the 24/7 Night Network on weekends (and others, particularly around Wyndham).

Time to fix the mess & make buses simpler – for both passengers and PTV who often slip-up with online information, which flows onto their app, Google Maps, 3rd party apps and answers call centre & customer service staff give.

• Saturday timetable on most public holidays
• First trains around 5am
• Last trains around midnight
• No Night Network trains either end of the day
• Good Friday and Christmas Day a Sunday timetable applies, with first trains starting between 7am & 9am (as per pre-2016 timetables when Night Network begun)
• Extra early morning trains on ANZAC Day for Dawn Services

• Saturday timetable on most public holidays
• First trams around 5am
• Last trams around midnight
• Trams finish around an hour earlier than Saturday, with services between 12am & 1am (added in September 2006) not operating
• No Night Network trams (Routes 19, 67, 75,  86, 96 & 109) either end of the day
• Good Friday and Christmas Day a Sunday timetable applies, however first trams start at weekday times between 7am & 9am (as per pre-2016 timetables when Night Network begun). On Good Friday “evening” Night Network services also operate in the early hours of Easter Saturday.
• Extra early morning trains on ANZAC Day for Dawn Services

Every route, line and depot follows the same guidelines – one travelling in St Kilda for instance doesn’t need to worry that different rules apply whether depending on which depot runs their tram or if the suburban-only Chapel St tram does it’s own thing.

Not that it maters for trams anyway – daytime services effectively run a turn-up-and-go service on most routes on public holidays, with waits of 20 minutes after 9pm the main sour point (30 mins morning/evening on Christmas Day and Good Friday).

An exception to the above occurs when public holidays fall on a Sunday (such as Australia Day in 2025) – a Sunday timetable applies including the normal early morning Night Network services. The public holiday timetables apply on the substitute public holiday instead.

If only one could say the same for buses – “A Saturday timetable applies on most public holidays with no Night Network trips”.  Indeed PTV often suggests this is the case, as does Metro Trains or Yarra Trams in alerts on their website and social media channels. Alas, it’s not that simple thanks to the unloved nature of buses in Melbourne.

Advice from Metro Trains for Labour Day 2025 that doesn’t mention the exceptions to the rule for buses

Up until 2006 buses largely ran a Sunday timetable on public holidays. At the time, a majority of suburban buses finished around 7pm on weeknights and 6pm Saturdays. After some modest upgrades in the suburbs from 2002 – 2006, 28% of bus routes (a total of 87) ran on Sundays.

As part of the Meeting our Transport Challenges plan launched by the State government in May 2006 ahead on an upcoming state budget, somewhat of a revolution was set to take place. An additional $1.4 billion ($2.3 billion in 2025 terms) was to be funded over a 10-year period for various bus upgrades across Melbourne, including the rollout of additional SmartBus routes, new routes in growth suburbs and a metropolitan-wide series of bus reviews.

A new minimum standard of service would apply to 250 local bus routes across Melbourne – these would now run 6am to 9pm weeknights; 8am to 9pm Saturdays and 9am to 9pm Sundays. Ambitiously this would extend early evening and Sunday services to around 160 routes which at the time didn’t operate Sundays, despite the deregulation of retail trading a decade earlier. Other routes would have their weekend services extended from 6pm finishes to 9pm.

In September & October 2006 the first routes were upgraded, including the introduction of the 900 Wellington Rd SmartBus between Caulfield & Rowville.

The icing on the cake was that as a route was upgraded to these new minimum standards, public holiday timetables would be adjusted to match the patterns for trains and trams.

Public holiday standardisation was important as bus operators often had their own arrangements that added confusion for passengers, especially when few routes mirrored the train timetable pattern of running a Saturday timetable on public holidays.

The only issue was that this was implemented in an ad-hoc basis as each individual route was upgraded, rather than on an operator-by-operator or area-by-area basis (such as the areas for the 16 bus reviews being undertaken at the time). And for some time routes that already ran Sundays were overlooked for standardisation – Melbourne Bus Link routes were only addressed in 2013 when the Transdev contract began.

During the period from 2006 -2010, the rule of a thumb became if your route was upgraded to run Sundays recently, it would now run a Saturday timetable on a public holiday, whereas the rest would maintain following a Sunday timetable or nothing at all. After the Red Orbital 903 SmartBus began in April 2009, Ventura & NationalBus got a funding boost to standarise their 6-day routes to a Saturday timetable on most public holidays.

The momentum rolling out the minimum standards program ran out of steam at the end of 2010 when there was a change of State Goverment. Since then, there has only been piecemeal upgrades to bus routes in established suburbs, often with years without a single upgrade. The news is better in growth suburbs, with new routes generally getting introduced to the minimum standards from Day 1.

At the start of 2025 there are still some 45 bus routes across Melbourne that only run 6-days-a-week. Some efforts were made in 2015 to standardise public holiday patterns across selected operators which has left just 20 bus routes with Saturday timetables not running on a public holiday.

The need for some non-minimum standards routes to operate on some public holidays due to some universities operating and the different rules for Night Network (which does not respect public holidays) adds further complications.

Melbourne currently has 354 daytime bus routes plus 7 FlexiRide routes, a total of 361.

A further 13 bus routes operate overnight on Saturday and Sunday mornings as part of Night Network which generally don’t run public holidays – other than New Year’s Day morning and the Easter weekend. These have been excluded from the below analysis. 

273 bus routes (76%) run 7 days a week, but two routes in Rowville (681 & 682) do not run public holidays (also finishing at 5:30pm on Sundays).

✅ 7-day-a-week services running public holidays (271)
❌ 7-day-a-week services not running public holidays (2): 681 & 682

For 7-day-a-week routes a Saturday timetable applies on most public holidays expect Christmas Day and Good Friday when a Sunday timetable operates. This pattern matches trams, trains and V/Line.

A further 45 routes (12.5%) run 6 days a week. Of these, 9 routes finish around lunchtime on Saturdays and a further 4 run limited timetables. A total of 317 out of 360 bus routes/FlexiRide zones across Melbourne currently run on Saturdays. 88% of Melbourne bus routes run on Saturdays.

Of the 45 routes that only operate 6 days a week, 25 bus routes operate Saturday timetables on public holidays and the other 20 don’t run (or over 40% of 6-day-a-week services). Across Melbourne, about 6.6% of bus routes that run Saturdays do not run on public holidays (20 out of 317 bus routes).

✅ 6-day-a-week services running public holidays (25): 236, 273, 281, 404, 431, 468, 483, 509, 512, 542 south, 689, 694, 697, 699, 772, 773, 776, 786, 787, 804, 814, 840, 844, 857 & 885

❌ 6-day-a-week services not running public holidays (20): 407, 414, 415, 490, 503, 506, 526, 536, 538, 548, 549, 550, 558, 559, 671, 672, 677, Croydon FlexiRide, Lilydale FlexiRide & Mooroolbark FlexiRide

Further complicating matters, 9 routes serving university campuses operate on selected public holidays including Labour Day, King’s Birthday, Grand Final Eve & Melbourne Cup Day when either classes, exams or SWOT-Vac is held. But this also varies by institution and route – note the different patterns for 202, 401 & 403 at Melbourne Uni!

✅ Uni routes running King’s Birthday (4): 201, 401, 601 & 887
❌ Uni routes not running King’s Birthday (5): 202, 301, 403, 548 & 551
AS AT JUNE 2024

✅ Uni routes running Grand Final Eve (2): 601 & 887
❌ Uni routes not running Grand Final Eve (7): 201, 202, 301, 401, 403, 548 & 551
AS AT SEPTEMBER 2024

In short, the daytime public holiday service levels for some 53 routes (15%) is not apparent without careful checking of footnotes, PDF timetables, stop timetable templates plus the PTV journey planner and even then there are often various errors or inconsistencies with official information.

For the 21 daytime routes that offer overnight Friday and Saturday services as part of Night Network, 10 routes finish around midnight on public holidays and the other 11 finish around 9pm. A further Wyndham routes also finish at 9pm on public holidays.

A further 22 daytime routes without Night Network timetables continue to operate until midnight on public holidays, with a total of 34 out of 45 routes (76%) with late night Saturday buses also run after 9pm on public holidays. These 32 routes represent around 12% of buses operating on Saturdays.

❌ Night Network & Wyndham routes finishing around 9pm on public holidays (13): 150, 357, 386, 406, 410, 420, 494, 495, 630, 670, 693, 703 & 833
✅ Night Network routes finishing around 12am public holidays (10): 180, 190, 207, 250, 788, 900, 901, 905, 907 & 908
✅ Other routes finishing around 12am on public holidays (22): 170, 200, 216, 220, 223, 234, 235, 246, 302, 305, 426, 456, 460, 508, 600, 603, 604, 732, 798, 902, 903 & 906

Simplifying the mess

The interim fix would be simple – run every bus route with a Saturday timetable on most public holidays (other than Christmas Day and Good Friday when a Sunday timetable applies). This would bring all buses in line with trains, trams and V/Line trains.

A good description such as what we have endeavoured to provide here is only a stop-gap. The real fix to this problem is the completion of the (almost done) standardisation of public holiday arrangements across the network.

There are significant community benefits especially given that public holidays often coincide with major events and the presence of non-regular passengers on the network (who need greater than usual information to navigate the system).

Of the 45 bus routes that currently only run 6-days-a-week, 25 currently run on public holidays, leaving 20 that don’t.

There are 13 public holidays in Victoria each year. Past observations suggest these forgotten routes already operate on Easter Saturday while three public holidays follow a Sunday timetable – Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. All that’s needed is a modest upgrade to run 20 routes an additional 9 days per year (plus Christmas Day and Good Friday for 681 & 682 in Rowville) – not even a rounding error in the overall scheme of the metropolitan bus network funding.

A further relatively low-cost ambition would be for those routes that finish at lunchtime on Saturdays to be extended to operate until at least 5pm. These operating hours reflect pre-1987 retail shopping hours and are an embarrassing archaism in 2025 . As this would require additional service kilometers on around 60 days of the year, this likely need some recurrent funding in the state budget. Just nine bus routes across Melbourne currently finish at lunchtime on Saturdays – 509, 512, 558, 559, 697, 699, 814, 844 & 857.

Medium-term all 45 6-day-a-week routes should be upgraded to the minimum standards level, with Sunday service introduced. In the past few years 9 routes in the middle-ring suburbs have been upgraded to a 7-day timetable – 271, 284, 285, 546, 612, 704, 766, 800 & 815 (as 816) – but more progress is needed!

Zero-Emission Bus Franchises

The new Zero-Emission Bus Franchises are set to commence in July 2025 and the ongoing muddling of information risks a new operator following a different timetable on a public holiday than the incumbent, especially if referring to the PTV website data which could be incorrect.

It remains unclear if any standardisation of public holiday timetables will take place in July, especially in regards to the 6-day-a-week routes and university shuttles.

Further inconsistencies will also be introduced should the status quo remain – for example in the new CDC North-West region, Monday to Saturday Route 468 will operate on public holidays, but not Routes 407, 490, 536 or 538.

An example with potential to trip up operators, drivers and passengers going forward is that 6-day-a-week Routes 407 & 468 both serve Highpoint Shopping Centre, a busy centre on public holidays, yet only the latter route should be operating based on current arrangements (under Ryan’s).

Kinetic will take over all routes in the inner north, a majority inherited from Dysons. Routes 503 & 506 do not operate on public holidays whereas nearby 6-day-a-week Routes 509 & 512 do, despite their early afternoon finish. Route 558 to North-West Reservoir also doesn’t run on public holidays.

Review of online information – Labour Day 2025

The confusing array of exceptions both across Melbourne and in regional centres is known for bewildering even the experts at Public Transport Victoria, with their online summaries, timetables (both at stops and online) and GTFS data in the PTV app and third party apps showing incorrect information on occasion. In some cases, information on a summary article of the PTV website even contradicts what is shown on the timetables!

This turned out to the be the case on Labour Day, with various incorrect sources of information. Even attempts to clarify information with operators proved fruitless, with both Dysons and Ventura providing the wrong answer to basic questions on what routes would and wouldn’t be running.

As noted in our field trip & app observations on the day below, ultimately online timetables & GTFS data were shown incorrectly for some 11 of 20 routes that were not running – 407, 414, 415, 526, 549, 550, 671, 672, 677, 681 & 682. To make matters worse, a staff member at Ventura incorrectly advised 3 of these routes (526, 549 & 550) were running when clarification was sought.

Two routes serving universities also ran but did not have online timetables shown – 201 to Deakin Uni and 551 to La Trobe Uni – despite being institutions being closed on Labour Day. 

Furthermore, PTV’s summary article incorrectly stated Routes 401 & 403 were running when services didn’t operate as Melbourne Uni was closed.

For some 16 bus routes across Melbourne, online information on the PTV website was incorrect for Labour Day, with the potential to leave passengers stranded on the side of the road waiting for buses not running. 

PTV SUMMARY ADVICE
A review of the initial version of the summary article on the PTV website for Labour Day 2025 on Thursday 6 March against online timetables and in some cases contacting bus operators suggested PTV was rather confused about what is actually going on and will likely leave people who heed their advice to “Plan Ahead” stranded after they rely on incorrect information from their summary, online timetables, the journey planner and GTFS data in third party apps.

As it turned out however, this summary article was more accurate than online timetables.

• CORRECT: Routes 201, 202, 301 & 601 will run a on a weekday timetable.
• CORRECT: Routes 407. 415. 490, 503, 506, 526, 536, 538, 549, 550, 558, 559, 671, 672,  677, 681 & 682 will not run
• CORRECT: FlexiRide services in Croydon, Lilydale & Mooroolbark will not run
• INCORRECT: Routes 401 & 403 will run on a weekday timetable – no services ran as Melbourne Uni was closed on Labour Day
• UNCLEAR: Routes 548 & 887 ran to a Saturday timetable, not a special timetable (887 now runs 365 days a year and perhaps doesn’t need mention)
• UNCLEAR: Special timetable for Route 551 was not available in online timetables, journey planner or 3rd party apps

UPDATE – FRIDAY 7 MARCH
Late on Friday afternoon before the long weekend it appears that PTV became aware of the extent of confusion with inconsistent and incorrect information and timetables for many routes (as detailed below) and they reverted to the older vague summary text for both Metro & Regional Buses which effectively doesn’t say much – especially in regards to the 9 university shuttles and 20 metropolitan bus routes that run Saturdays but not public holidays.

The suggestion to use the journey planner and to check timetables online is foolhardy however – as detailed below, 11 Saturday routes were incorrectly shown on the JP and online timetables as running – 407, 414, 415, 526, 549, 550, 671, 672, 677, 681 & 682. 

Meanwhile, the 201 shuttle from Box Hill to Deakin Uni ran but no online timetable data was uploaded.

ONLINE TIMETABLES & GTFS DATA

A look at online information for the nine university routes:

University shuttle buses around Melbourne largely operate on Labour Day, catering for classes that traditionally have been held on this day. A more detailed review of this from Kings Birthday 2024 can be found towards the bottom of this article.

A recent change in EBAs for university staff means that the tradition of universities holding classes and exams on Labour Day, Kings Birthday, Grand Final Eve and Melbourne Cup Day appears to be on the way out (although Monash Uni and VU will still hold classes on Labour Day 2025).

It was unclear though which university shuttles would be running or not as the online summary for many routes contradicted the available online timetable data. PDF templates (which are also mirror those used for stop timetables) also still suggest buses will be running.

Customer service staff at both Dysons and Ventura were also seemingly unaware of what was actually happening, providing incorrect answers regarding which routes were operating or not in regards to Route 301 (Dysons) and Routes 526, 549, 550 & 551 (Ventura).

If university shuttles are no longer required to operate on select public holidays, this funding could be redirected to standardise routes that currently don’t run. Indeed, this appears what could happen at Ventura Ivanhoe, with Routes 526, 549 & 550 incorrectly shown as running on Labour Day for the first time in lieu of the special timetable for Route 551 (which normally only operates on weekdays). However, Route 551 ultimately ran while the other three didn’t.

• LaTrobe Uni is closed on Labour Day
• Listed as running a special timetable on PTV summary
• No timetable data shown on online timetable/GTFS data (incorrect)
• PDF template footnote suggests a special timetable on Melbourne Cup Day & Labour Day
• Ventura has confirmed via email Route 551 will not be operating on Labour Day 
• Route 551 observed (in person) as operating to the special timetable on Labour Day

Croydon, Mooroolbark & Lilydale FlexiRide – Ventura Eastern Region
It is assumed that the FlexiRide service did not operate to match the status quo of the former Invicta routes in the Ventura Eastern Region.

Thanks to Jason Lee for initially flagging some of the issues above.

Regional buses

PTV initially attempted to list which regional bus routes are running on Labour Day:

However, this was not without issues, including:

Missing online timetables & GTFS data – town buses in Mildura, Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Portland and the Warragul and Garfield to Traralgon “West Gippsland Transit” bus (confusingly split over multiple timetables). PDF template footnotes are also missing in most cases.

Wodonga weekday buses – PTV summary states a weekday timetable will apply in Wodonga (as NSW observes Labour Day in October), but calling the depot suggests there won’t be any buses running south of the Murray. The online timetables are not showing any service. The NSW town buses in Albury (which are also shown on the PTV website) are also not shown as running on Labour Day.

Additional public holiday routes – There’s also examples of regional buses running on Labour Day that are not listed in either the summary article or shown on online timetables – these include the recently upgraded Gisborne town buses and Sale – Loch Sport bus (but not the Sale town buses).

Albury Intertown Buses – There are also school time trips into Albury from Mt Beauty (confirmed as running) and Corowa (via both Rutherglen & Howlong) that are not shown as running in either the summary list or online timetables, whereas the equivalent services from Beechworth and Myrtleford are shown as running (but incorrectly with public holiday services also shown on other days throughout the year when schools either side of the border are closed).

UPDATE – FRIDAY 7 MARCH
After becoming aware of the issues, PTV swiftly removed their summary of regional buses running on Labour Day late on Friday 7 March ahead of the long weekend and replaced it with this vague note: “Regional Bus Services vary based on the operator. Services will operate on Monday 10 March with adjusted timetables or will not run.”

This effectively says nothing given the numerous variations that exist between different towns and provincial cities, with variations from Saturday timetables, Sunday timetables and no service and even cross-border intertown runs into Albury running a weekday timetable for school students.

And passengers and call centre staff are unable to contact local operators on the day of travel to check, with most depot offices not being staffed on public holidays.

Luckily however its mostly a case of online timetables missing rather than routes shown as running when no buses will run (unlike 9 metropolitan routes that are incorrectly shown as running on online timetables).

Labour Day Field Trip – Monday 10/3/2025

• 202 (Kinetic) – weekday timetable despite Melbourne Uni being closed
• 301 (Dysons) – weekday timetable despite LaTrobe Uni being closed. Incorrectly advised by Dysons as not running. Shown on online PTV timetable data.
• 509 (Dysons) – 2:30pm finish
• 512 (Kinetic) – 2pm finish. Stop timetables incorrectly show no public holiday service. 
• 546 (Dysons) – upgraded to run 7 days in July 2024
• 548 (Ventura) – Saturday timetable
• 551 (Ventura) – special timetable (not shown online). Incorrectly advised by Ventura as not running.
• 561 (Dysons) – public holiday service added with Pascoe Vale extension in 2016
• 800 (Ventura)  – upgraded to run 7 days in November 2024

• 401 (Transit Systems) – shown in PTV summary
• 503 (Dysons) – no change since ownership change in March 2024 despite other Dysons routes in Brunswick running (504, 508 & 509)
• 526 (Ventura)  – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Incorrectly advised by Ventura as running.
• 538 (Dysons) – no change to public holiday pattern with Saturday upgrade/route change in December 2023
• 549 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Incorrectly advised by Ventura as running.
• 550 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Incorrectly advised by Ventura as running.

• 468 (Ryans)
• 689 (Ventura) – running despite no service on ex-Invicta routes in adjacent Croydon/Lilydale area
• 697 (Ventura) – 1pm finish
• 699 (Ventura) – two Saturday morning trips
• 787 (Ventura)
• 857 (Ventura) – 1pm finish

• 407 (CDC Sunshine) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by CDC as not running.
• 414 (CDC Wyndham) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by CDC as not running.
• 415 (CDC Wyndham) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by CDC as not running.
• 671 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by Ventura as not running.
• 672 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by Ventura as not running.
• 677 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by Ventura as not running.
• 681 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by Ventura as not running.
• 682 (Ventura) – incorrectly shown in online timetable data. Advised by Ventura as not running.

A deeper dive into Melbourne’s buses on public holidays

As summarised above, catching a bus in Metropolitan Melbourne on a public holiday is often a confusing task, requiring passengers to check timetables carefully to work out if their bus is running or not. Even then, the information provided by PTV is often incorrect or incomplete.

Moonee Valley Coaches #81, a 2013 Iveco Metro Volgren CR228L has just turned into Glenlyon Rd from Nicholson St, heading west for Moonee Ponds (The desto scrolls between Westgarth & Moonee Ponds) (21/12/2013) (Mick Kane)

While this has been an issue for many decades, the dynamic changed in 2006 with the roll-out of the minimum standards program by the ALP state government, which promised buses running to 9pm 7 days a week across suburban Melbourne, at least once an hour. Previously a majority of routes didn’t run Sundays or public holidays and finished around 7pm weekdays and 5pm Saturdays.

A smaller side benefit of the same program was the decision to align public holiday patterns to match trains, with Saturday services operating on the vast majority (Sunday timetables on Good Friday & Christmas Day).

The progressive (but incomplete) roll-out of the minimum standards led to over 200 routes running to the new standard. A couple of dozen more also run were upgraded to a 7 day timetable but still finish around 7pm on weekends.

As of March 2025, Metropolitan Melbourne has 354 standard bus routes plus seven FlexRide bus routes in outer areas including Rowville, Rosebud, Lilydale Tarneit North and Melton. A total of 361 metropolitan daytime bus services. A further 13 bus routes operate on Saturday & Sunday mornings as part of Night Network – these have been excluded from the below percentages.  

Analysis by Peter Parker on his Melbourne on Transit blog (plus recent upgrades & changes) indicates 273 of these routes operate 7 days a week (76%) however many do not conform to minimum standards due to span or frequency issues on certain days (such as 6pm or 7pm finishes on weekends).

Despite the minimum standards guidelines, 45 bus routes around Melbourne (12.5%) are still stuck running to a 6-day a week timetable. Another 43 buses routes don’t run on weekends at all, mostly a mix of peak-hour commuter routes from Manningham, industrial routes, university shuttles & shopper services.

Seven of these 45 6-day-a-week routes still finish at lunchtime on Saturdays, almost four decades after Saturday afternoon trading for retail shops was first legalised. Others have infrequent timetables or drop to once every 2 hours after midday.

For each 6-day a week service, it is inconsistent whether or not public holiday services have been funded in the past decade.

Whether you look at it a suburb or operator basis, there is little rhyme or reason as to which 6-day a week services currently run on public holidays.

Dysons #886 (Scania K280UB, Volgren “Optimus”) with #476 & #494 (Scania K230UB, Volgren “CR228L”) at Glenroy on Routes 513, 536 & 534 respectively (2/1/2018) (Damien Edwards)

Examples of 6-day a week routes are scattered across Melbourne, but particular clusters focus around areas such as:

• Footscray & Yarraville
• Doncaster
• Croydon & Lilydale
• Belgrave
• Dandenong
• Frankston
• plus several examples throughout the northern suburbs

There are also two routes in Rowville that run 7 days but not on public holidays.

It should not be forgotten there are also isolated examples of local routes running weekdays only that also deserve a full-time service, for instance the 551 (Heidelberg – La Trobe Uni), 680 (Lilydale – Mooroolbark) & 823 (Southland – North Brighton)

On Winton Rd, East Malvern is CDC Melbourne Oakleigh Depot #84 (Denning Phoenix Low Floor – Cat, Custom Coaches “CB60 Evo II”) (9/2/2015) (Peter Kane)

The situation of means that passengers must be extra diligent when planning a trip on the bus network on Sundays and public holidays, whether that be a trip to the nearest regional shopping centre; trying to visit family or friends by using multiple routes; or just trying to avoid an expensive public holiday taxi fare to get to work.

If this was the case between different tram routes or tram depots operating wildly different frequency levels or spans on public holidays, there would be a passenger and media outcry.

But with buses carrying a fraction of the passengers, the issue unfortunately remains unresolved nearly twenty years since the minimum standards program was inaugurated in mid 2006 as part of Meeting our Transport Challenges plan. This bewildering and long running saga has now dragged on under eight different transport ministers!

On many occasions, even the PTV website articles, timetables & journey planner or third-party apps get information wrong, adding to the confusion passengers face. Even operators have at times slipped up with their news items at times.

Going back as far as mid 2009, several piecemeal attempts have been made to bring public holiday timetables for 6-day a week services into line with buses now running 7 days a week.

Despite this, over twenty routes across Melbourne still miss out or over 40% of the metropolitan routes that still only run 6-days a week.

For the layman it’s often a challenge to work out if your bus is running on a public holiday or not. For someone catching a bus in Moonee Ponds, only Route 506 doesn’t operate, despite Routes 404, 468 & 483 also not running on Sundays.

Meanwhile in the outer-east, Ventura run their 6-day-a-week routes traditionally from Monbulk or Croydon depots on public holidays (Routes 689, 694, 697 & 699) but not those once operated by Invicta – Routes 671, 672, 676, 681, 682 & various FlexiRide routes.

The ongoing move to put buses in orange & white PTV livery also means many passengers no longer realise who operates their local bus route – for example Croydon is served by both Kinetic and Ventura buses, yet 3 out of 11 local routes run on Saturdays but not a public holidays (671, 672 & Croydon FlexiRide) while a fourth runs both on Saturdays and public holidays (689).

Below is a list of the two tribes of 6-day a week routes, those that run on public holidays and those that miss out. Where relevant routes are marked where services finish at lunchtime or run to a limited timetable.

6-day-a-week routes operating on most public holidays – 25 routes

• 236 (City – Garden City)
• 273 (Nunawading – The Pines)
• 281 (Templestowe – Deakin Uni)
• 404 (Footscray – Moonee Ponds)
• 431 (Yarraville – Kingsville)
• 468 (Essendon – Highpoint)
• 483 (Sunbury – Moonee Ponds)
• 509 (Barkly Square – West Brunswick) ^
• 512 (Strathmore – East Coburg) ^
• 542 south (Broadmeadows – Pascoe Vale)
• 689 (Croydon – Montrose)
• 694 (Belgrave – Olinda)
• 697 (Belgrave – Belgrave South) ^
• 699 (Belgrave – Upwey) ^
• 772 (Frankston – Eliza Heights)
• 773 (Frankston – Frankston South)
• 776 (Frankston – Pearcedale) *
• 786 (Rye – St Andrews Beach) *
• 787 (Rosebud – Sorrento) *
• 804 (Dandenong – Chadstone)
• 814 (Dandenong – Springvale South) ^
• 840 (Pakenham – Gembrook) *
• 844 (Dandenong – Doveton) ^
• 857 (Dandenong – Chelsea) ^
• 885 (Springvale – Glen Waverley)

^ – service runs finishes around lunchtime – 7 routes
* – infrequent / limited service – 4 routes

6-day-a-week routes not operating on most public holidays – 20 routes

• 407 (Highpoint – Avondale Heights)
• 414 (Footscray – Laverton)
• 415 (Williamstown – Laverton)
• 490 (Airport West – Gowanbrae)
• 503 (Essendon – East Brunswick)
• 506 (Moonee Ponds – Westgarth)
• 526 (Coburg – West Preston)
• 536 (Glenroy – Gowrie)
• 538 (Broadmeadows – Somerset Estate)
• 548 (Kew – La Trobe Uni) #
• 549 (Northland – Ivanhoe)
• 550 (Northland – La Trobe Uni)
• 558 (Reservoir – North-West Reservoir) ^
• 559 (Lalor East Loop) ^
• 671 (Croydon – Chirnside Park)
• 672 (Croydon – Chirnside Park)
• 677 (Lilydale – Chirnside Park)
• Lilydale – Chirnside Park FlexiRide
• Mooroolbark – Chirnside Park FlexiRide
• Mooroolbark – Croydon FlexiRide

^ – service runs finishes around lunchtime – 2 routes
* – infrequent / limited service – 0 routes
# – operates selected public holidays for uni classes – 1 route

As noted above, there are also two routes in Rowville that fail to operate on public holidays, despite running across the week, as below.

Ventura Lilydale #719 (Dennis Dart SLF, Geelong Coachworks) is seen turning right into Burwood Highway, Knox on a 681 to Knox City. (9/8/2017) (Jonathan Fee)

7-day-a-week routes not operating on most public holidays – 2 routes

• 681 (Knox City – Lysterfield Loop, Clockwise)
• 682 (Knox City – Lysterfield Loop, Anti-Clockwise)

These routes were created in March 2002 after lobbying by local operator Invicta for weekend services in Rowville to take local youth to Stud Park and Knox City for late night shopping on Thursday and Friday plus weekend services. Also added were Sunday buses on Route 665 along Stud Rd and a Saturday service for Ventura’s 754 to Glen Waverley.

The department at the time was reluctant to fund the upgrades and failed to include a public holiday service. After a 6-month trial & additional funding in the 2002-2003 state budget, weekday services were also added, superseding the short-lived weekday 692 to Ferntree Gully.

This situation has never been resolved despite the minimum standards program being rolled out from 2006 – governments continue to place Rowville and Lysterfield in the too-hard basket for a rational and useable bus network. The introduction of FlexiRide in Rowville in December 2020 (replacing timetabled TeleBus trips) would have been an apt time to review these duplicative routes & their timetable levels, but it was deemed out of scope.

A further complexity for both these routes are when public holidays fall on weekends – on Australia Day 2025, which fell on a Sunday, it was noted buses were operating on Routes 681 & 682 on Sunday 26th January. But no buses ran on Australia Day Public Holiday on the Monday.

FlexiRide

The often lauded FlexiRide on-demand service in Melbourne’s outer suburbs deserves a special mention for a completely inconsistent set of operating hours between each of the 7 metropolitan and 2 regional zones:

• Rowville – runs weekdays only (6am to 8pm) – no weekend service
• Rosebud – runs weekdays only (8am to 3:45pm) – interpeak only
• Croydon, Mooroolbark & Lilydale – runs weekdays (6am to 8pm) & Saturdays (8am to 6pm). No public holiday services.
• Melton South – runs weekdays (6am to 9pm), Saturdays (7am to 9pm) & Sundays and public holidays (8am to 9:30pm)
• Tarneit North – runs weekdays (6am to 9pm), Saturdays and public holidays (7am to 9pm) & Sundays (8am to 9:30pm)
• Woodend – runs weekdays only (8:15am to 4:15pm) – interpeak only
• Yarrawonga – runs weekdays (8:50am to 3:50pm) & Saturdays (8:50am to 11:50am) – interpeak & Saturday morning only

Of the 9 FlexiRide areas, only two of them abide to the minimum standards hours and the Melton South FlexiRide starts at 8am on public holidays.

Night Network

In January 2016 all night service was introduced on all metropolitan trains plus 6 key tram routes as part of the ALP state government’s HomeSafe initiative . As a result, the existing NightRider network was totally overhauled, with a new network of routes introduced, many connecting with trains at suburban stations instead of CBD stations.

A subsequent review found many of these routes were confusing and poorly used and a revised model was implemented which saw 24-hour services introduced across 21 regular bus routes across Melbourne which served similar areas. Hourly trips were added between 9pm & 7am the next day. 13 stand-alone NightBus routes also continue to operate between roughly 1am and 5am (6am Sundays in some cases), with only one (959 to Broadmeadows via Airport West) running to the CBD.

Of the regular routes now running 24-hours on weekends, 47% of these routes previously finished at midnight on Saturday, but for the rest buses continue to finish at 9pm on public holiday evenings with late night trips footnoted “Night Network services operate overnight on Friday and Saturday nights only, including when a public holiday falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.”

Night Network bus routes with midnight finishes on both Saturdays & most public holidays – 10 routes

• 180 (Werribee – Tarneit)
• 190 (Werribee – Wyndham Vale)
• 207 (City – Doncaster Shoppingtown)
• 250 (City –  La Trobe Uni)
• 788 (Frankston – Portsea) – Night Bus between Frankston & Sorrento only
• SmartBus 900 (Caulfield – Huntingdale – Rowville) – Night Bus between Oakleigh & Rowville only
• SmartBus 901 (Frankston – Melbourne Airport) – Night Bus between Dandenong & Ringwood only
• SmartBus 905 (City –  The Pines)
• SmartBus 907 (City – Doncaster – Mitcham)
• SmartBus 908 (City – The Pines) – Night Bus connects with 907 at Doncaster Park+Ride

Night Network & Wyndham routes with all night buses on Saturdays but 9pm finishes on public holidays – 11 routes

• 150 (Williams Landing – Tarneit)
• 357 (Thomastown – Epping – Wollert West)
• 386 (Bundoora RMIT – South Morang – Mernda)
• 406 (Footscray – Keilor East)
• 410 (Footscray – Sunshine via Ballarat Rd)
• 420 (Sunshine – Watergardens)
• 494 (Williams Landing – Point Cook South)
• 495 (Williams Landing – Point Cook South)
• 630 (Monash Uni – Elwood)
• 670 (Ringwood – Lilydale)
• 693 (Oakleigh – Belgrave)  – Night Bus between Oakeleigh & Scoresby only
• SmartBus 703 (Blackburn – Monash Uni – Middle Brighton)
• 833 (Frankston – Carrum Downs – Carrum)

CDC Melbourne Werribee Depot #93 (Mercedes Benz O405NH, ABM “CB60”) seen on Route 170 to Werribee at Tarneit Station (24/6/2015) (Bradley Matthews)

Further to this inconsistency, there are other “connector” routes across the suburbs that enjoy late night finishes around 11pm or 12am on public holidays that match the Saturday span:

‘Connector’ bus routes with late night finishes on Saturdays & most public holidays – 22 routes

• 170 (Werribee – Tarneit)
• 200 (City – Bulleen)
• 216 (City – Footscray – Sunshine)
• 220 (City – Footscray – Sunshine)
• 223 (Yarraville – Footscray – Highpoint)
• 234 (City – Garden City)
• 235 (City – Fishermans Bend)
• 246 (Clifton Hill – St Kilda – Elsternwick)
• 302 (City – Balywn North – Box Hill)
• 305 (City – Doncaster Shoppingtown – The Pines)
• 426 (Sunshine – Caroline Springs)
• 456 (Sunshine – Melton)
• 460 (Caroline Springs Station – Watergardens
• 508 (Moonee Ponds – Alphington)
• 600 (St Kilda – Sandringham – Southland)
• 603 (Burnley – Brighton Beach)
• 604 (Anzac Station – Elsternwick)
• 732 (Vermont South – Knox City)
• 798 (Cranbourne Park Shopping Centre – Selandra Rise)
• SmartBus 902 (Chelsea – Nunawading – Greensborough – Airport West)
• SmartBus 903 (Mordialloc –Box Hill – Essendon – Altona)
• SmartBus 906 (City – Warrandyte)

In Wyndham, recent timetable changes to Routes 170 & 180 now see them run on public holiday evenings, introduced in November 2023 in conjunction with the new Tarneit Station interchange. Unfortunately this standardisation did not extend to nearby Routes 494 & 495 loop in Point Cook and remains unresolved with a minor route change made in August 2024.

One observation made on NYE 2024 however was that Route 180 only ran trips after 9:30pm funded by the Night Network program (and not a full Friday evening timetable) and that Routes 170, 494 & 495 finished at 9:30pm. This is impossible to communicate clearly to passengers other than in online timetable data and potentially leads to long waits for those relying on stop or paper timetables to plan their journey. Others are left to find a lift or rideshare option home from the station.

Out of 273 bus routes with 7-day services, a total of 32 routes run until midnight on public holidays (or 11%). Most of these are either former MMTB/Vicrail (government) bus routes in the inner suburbs or SmartBus corridors however some feeder routes around Werribee, Caroline Springs & Cranbourne.

University services – 2024 review

Services to university campuses also have further complexities – buses on various shuttle routes run on selected public holidays to cater for students attending classes on Labour Day and Grand Final Eve and exams held on King’s Birthday and Melbourne Cup Day (plus libraries open for SWOT-Vac).

However, it appears that this situation has been reviewed in recent years and Deakin & La Trobe universities are now closed on state public holidays. Despite this, buses continue to run!

The current online information is muddled and often incomplete or incorrect, as noted below.

University shuttle routes running on “selected” public holidays – 9 routes
(NB: 548 & 887 both run Saturdays and are also counted above)

201 (Deakin Uni – Box Hill)

• Academic calendar & Exam Timetable for Deakin Uni indicates the university is closed on all public holidays in 2024
• Trips footnoted:  “Only operates on days Deakin University is open (university remains open on Melbourne Cup Day, Labour Day and King’s Birthday)”
• PDF template doesn’t show a public holiday pattern
• Online PDF timetable only shows a Labour Day timetable every 15 mins
• Incorrectly not tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024
• Confirmed via Ventura Tracker app that three buses are running on King’s Birthday 2024

202 (Melbourne Uni – Victoria Park – Yarra Bend)

• Academic calendar for Melbourne Uni indicates classes are held on Labour Day and exams on Melbourne Cup Day in 2024. University closed on King’s Birthday and Grand Final Eve
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable incorrectly shows services running a 10 min weekday frequency on Easter Monday and King’s Birthday (as well as Melbourne Cup Day & Labour Day)
• Correctly not tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024

301 (La Trobe Uni – Reservoir)

• Academic calendar for La Trobe Uni indicates the university is closed on all public holidays in 2024
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable only shows a Labour Day & Melbourne Cup Day timetable every 10 mins
• Correctly not tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024

401 (Melbourne Uni – North Melbourne)

• Academic calendar for Melbourne Uni indicates classes are held on Labour Day and exams on Melbourne Cup Day in 2024. University closed on King’s Birthday and Grand Final Eve
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable additionally shows buses running on Kings Birthday at the normal 4-6 min frequency
• Tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024

403 (Melbourne Uni – Footscray)

• Academic calendar for Melbourne Uni indicates classes are held on Labour Day and exams on Melbourne Cup Day in 2024. University closed on King’s Birthday and Grand Final Eve
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable does not show buses running on Melbourne Cup Day
• Correctly not tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024

548 (La Trobe Uni – Ivanhoe – Kew)

• Academic calendar for La Trobe Uni indicates the university is closed on all public holidays in 2024
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable indicates a Saturday timetable applies on Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day (not a special timetable)
• Online PDF timetable additionally indicates a Saturday timetable operating on Grand Final Eve
• Observations at Ivanhoe Station on Grand Final Eve in 2023 confirm that buses do not operate on Grand Final Eve (548 & 551 did in initial years of this holiday pre-Covid)
• Correctly not tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024
• Correctly not tracking on the Ventura Tracker app on King’s Birthday 2024

551 (La Trobe Uni – Heidelberg)

• Academic calendar for La Trobe Uni indicates the university is closed on all public holidays in 2024
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Special timetable shown for Labour Day & Melbourne Cup Day – every 40 minutes
• Correctly not tracking on the PTV app
• Correctly not tracking on the Ventura Tracker app on King’s Birthday 2024

601 (Monash Uni – Huntingdale)

• Principal dates & University Holidays calendar for Monash indicates classes are held on Labour Day and exams on King’s Birthday and Melbourne Cup Day in 2024. University closed on Grand Final Eve
• PDF template doesn’t show a public holiday pattern
• No footnotes to indicate which public holidays 601 operates
• Likely public holiday pattern is Labour Day, King’s Birthday and Melbourne Cup Day and possibly Grand Final Eve
• Online PDF timetable shows buses also operating Australia Day & ANZAC Day which are both recongised university holidays
• Route 601 was observed as running on Australia Day Public Holiday Monday in 2025, when the university was closed. The online timetable didn’t show this however but instead showed buses operating on Australia Day Sunday!
• Tracking on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024

887 (Frankston – Monash Uni Peninsula – Rosebud)

• Principal dates & University Holidays calendar for Monash indicates classes are held on Labour Day and exams on King’s Birthday and Melbourne Cup Day in 2024. University closed on Grand Final Eve
• PDF template states: “No services on Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays (except Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day when a special timetable operates)”
• Online PDF timetable indicates a Saturday timetable applies on Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day (not a special timetable)
• Online PDF timetable additionally indicates a Saturday timetable also applies on Australia Day, Easter Monday, ANZAC Day, King’s Birthday. Grand Final Eve and Boxing Day.
• Online PDF timetable additionally indicates a Sunday timetable applies on Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday
• Correctly tracking on the PTV app
• Correctly tracking on the Ventura Tracker app on King’s Birthday 2024
• A full public holiday service was funded as part of the Mornington Peninsula upgrades package at the start of 2022 but the old “PenBus” arrangments are still showing online

Some further background…

Traditionally many private bus operators found running public holiday buses profitable, given many people made use of the extra day off for recreational pastimes or visiting family and friends.

In the days of the free market overseen by the state Transport Regulation Board, some private  operators started their Sunday timetables at 8am or 9am, instead of the usual early afternoon start. Others chose to run a reduced variation of their Saturday timetable.

With the ongoing move to the private car, many operators were forced to withdraw their Sunday buses but some continued to provide a public holiday timetable.

In the mid-1970s government subsides were introduced to “save” countless routes in the suburbs and regulate vehicle purchases and fares. Come 1983 The Met was formed and planning for bus services was more centralised, although dozens of private operators continued to ply routes across suburban Melbourne.

In the mid 1990s train and tram services on public holidays were standardised to run a Saturday timetable with a Sunday timetable applying for Good Friday and Christmas Day.

Sita #32 & #97 (Volvo B10B, Volgren) seen at Yarraville Station on Kingsville Route 431 duties in September 2010 during the interchange rebuild (Jason Hollmes)

However, the same didn’t occur to buses, with the general status quo was the handful of buses that ran on Sundays would generally run to a Sunday timetable on public holidays, and the rest simply had no service.

At the time there were however a long list of exceptions to this rule however – special timetables for routes serving La Trobe Uni when classes were held; similarly Saturday timetables on select holidays for Eastrans 630 & Melbourne Bus Link routes; no public holiday service on Ryans 465, Westrans 410 or 411, Panorama 582, Invicta 681/682; (just to name a few), many routes losing public holiday services in the early 90s during the large metropolitan service rationalisations.

Furthermore, somewhat at random, not all of these routes ran Good Friday and Christmas Day, but others did not. Yet another classic example of buses being the poor cousin.

Bus passengers would see the start of change from late 2006. The ALP state government funded a massive upgrade of evening & weekend bus services across Melbourne as part of their “Meeting our Transport Challenges” plan, which saw a progressive roll-out of so-called minimum service standards from late 2006.

Other than the progressive roll-out of extended span until 9pm 7 day across over two hundred routes and guaranteed hourly headways, moves were quietly made to align public holiday bus timetables with trains & trams at long last. Sunbury was an unfortunate oddity out in the upgrade program, for sometime town buses continued to follow a Sunday timetable on pubic holidays.

In the transition period, there were plenty of inconsistencies between routes, for instance the busy 700, 703 & 888/9 Smartbus routes operating to a Sunday timetable on public holidays, while the majority of intersecting routes progressively adhered to a Saturday timetable.

Selected local routes that already ran 7 days were overlooked for the upgrades & subsequent public holiday standardisation, such such as Grenda Routes 843, 845, 849 & 861 to Endeavour Hills Eastrans 605 (City – Gardenvale) & Invicta’s 681/682 loops between Knox City and Lysterfield (no public holiday service).

Initially, it was understood that those routes that missed out on a upgrade were not standardised, and generally those routes that only ran Monday to Saturday continued to miss out on a public holiday service.

Grenda’s #144 (Volvo B12BLE, Volgren “CR228L”) seen on a Mossgiel Park 843 service in 2004. (Peter Kane)

Although a mess, one was hoping this would be an interim issue gradually resolved with 4 or 5 years.

However, with the minimum standards roll-out remaining incomplete and things being a muddle, it became apparent that moving to a consistent public holiday pattern across all bus routes would be preferable.

In mid 2009, shortly after the introduction of the Red orbital 903, Ventura & the then DoT came to an agreement to standardise public holiday timetables across all Ventura and Nationalbus routes to the same pattern as those routes running minimum standards.

By this stage, the only Ventura routes with a Saturday timetable but not public holidays were 689 & 766, however most Nationalbus routes were still running to a Sunday timetable on public holidays, with the exception of freeway routes 304 & 307 which had been upgraded to minimum standards with additional weekend services added. Other than a public holiday frequency boost for trunk routes that operated Sunday, the change saw a number of 6-day-a-week routes gain public holiday services for the first time.

Ventura soon made a series of takeovers – firstly US Bus Lines at the end of 2009, Ivanhoe Bus Company in mid-2010 and effectively doubled their operation purchasing Grenda’s and its associated subsidiaries in January 2012.

These takeovers did not align to this arrangement – now only 6-day routes run by Ventura’s Oakleigh, Croydon and Knox routes ran on public holidays, not those in the south-east or the Lilydale depot ex Invicta. This would remain an issue for over 3 years (see below) and remains partly unresolved for two depots.

This policy of standardising public holiday services in conjunction with service improvements continued under the Coalition Government. The introduction of Sunday services on 504 in 2011, a new network in South Morang in 2012, the new Brimbank network plus Sunday services in Wyndham in 2014 were further examples of standardisation, as was a Saturday frequency upgrade to 772 in Frankston in April 2013.

Moreland #64 (Mercedes Benz O405NH, Custom Coaches “CB60”) on the Saturday lunchtime Melville Rd terminator in Reynard St, West Coburg. This is the only trip of the week that terminates at Melville Rd and Reynard St (29/3/2013) (Jason Roberts)

As always though, there is an exception – due to funding constraints, when East-West 561 was extended to reach Coburg in May 2011, with Sunday services added, the existing arrangement continued – that is Labour Day & Cup Day are the only two public holidays that the route operates, both to a Saturday timetable. No buses ran other public holidays!

A condition of the new bus franchise saw Transdev upgrade the former Melbourne Bus Link routes to the new pattern in 2013. Previously these routes had only operated to a Saturday timetable on Labour Day and Cup Day. 215 reportedly ran to a special timetable on public holidays to maintain interlining with 460 (which ran to the standard pattern) however this timetable was never available publicly.

The change of state government back to the ALP saw modest funding flow to standardise various 6-day a week routes at the former Grenda & U.S. Bus Lines depots in June 2015 which had been taken over by Ventura 3 years earlier. However, the Invanhoe and Invicta operations didn’t conform, possibly due to being on different contracts. This issue remains outstanding in 2025, 15 years after the Ivanhoe purchase.

Around the same time, bus services in Sunbury, which were still being operated to a Sunday timetable on public holidays since 2006 were also standarised, as were Ryan’s 468 & Sita’s 404 & 431 (however they continue to lack a Sunday service).

Bus upgrades have continued at a scant pace in recent years under the current Andrews/Allan ALP State Goverment.

Outer suburbs have gained numerous new routes in the past decade and most have conformed to the minimum standards timetables, including Sunday buses and 9pm finishes. One notable exception is the demand-responsive FlexiRide routes, with varying operating hours applying and only two of seven zones running on Sundays and public holidays.

Legacy routes 370, 518, 570, 704, 799, 815 (as 816) & 887 all gained Sunday services between 2014 & 2021, with each now following the standard public holiday pattern.

Seen at Eildon in early 2021, McKenzie’s 6060AO (Mercedes Benz OH1830, Express) ending its 3-hour meander from Melbourne (Thomas Hobley)

Despite poor weekend frequencies, public holiday timetables on CDC’s Route 605 were made uniform as of July 2018 when the route was diverted via Birdwood Ave (due to Metro Tunnel works) while the removal of the Connans Hill deviation of 512 in February 2021 similarly saw the Saturday morning timetable now apply on public holidays.

Until November 2023 McKenzie’s Route 684 between Melbourne & Eildon ran to a special public holiday timetable. While one would effectively consider this a pseudo V/Line coach service given the distance & service level, Healesville residents may use the service to supplement the more frequent 685 connection to Lilydale, which runs to its normal Saturday timetable. In conjuction with changes in the Yarra Valley, 684 now runs an identical timetable on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays.

Since late 2023 a somewhat renewed focus on resolving the lack on Sunday buses has seen 7-day service added on Routes 235, 271, 284, 285, 546, 612, 766 & 800.

Meanwhile, Route 538 around Broadmeadows & Campbellfield gained a Saturday afternoon service in December 2023 (with a route change) but continues to lack public holiday service.

Another quiet but welcome change made recently is that CDC Wyndham Routes 170 & 180 now operate until after midnight on public holiday evenings.

When late night Friday and Saturday trips were introduced as part of network reform in 2015, they weren’t funded to run on public holiday evenings (unlike 190 which ran until 1am to meet the last Geelong train). This change is more recent, made in conjunction with the new Tarneit interchange which opened in November 2023.

Unfortunately this standardisation did not extend to nearby Routes 494 & 495 loop in Point Cook and remains unresolved with a minor route change made in August 2024. Adjoining Route 150, which only runs after 9pm Saturdays as part of Night Network, also still does not run until midnight on public holidays.

Further reading

Peter Parker from the popular Melbourne on Transit transport planning blog has also discussed this issue previously – read his thoughts from 2019 here – The public holiday gamble on Melbourne buses