UPDATED JUNE 2024

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.

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 June 2024, Metropolitan Melbourne has 351 standard bus routes plus seven FlexRide bus routes in outer areas including Rowville, Rosebud, Lilydale Tarneit North and Melton. Routes 475 in Diggers Rest and 501 in Donnybrook have been added since the start of the year.

Analysis by Peter Parker on his Melbourne on Transit blog indicates 267 of these routes operate 7 days a week (78%) however many do not conform to minimum standards due to span or frequency issues on certain days.

Despite the minimum standards guidelines, just under 50 bus routes around Melbourne (14%) are still stuck running to a 6-day a week timetable.

Seven of theses routes still finish at lunchtime on Saturdays, three & a half decades after Saturday afternoon trading for 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.

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)

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 situation 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.

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 – 28 routes

• 236 (City – Garden City)
• 273 (Nunawading – The Pines)
• 281 (Templestowe – Deakin Uni)
• 284 (Box Hill – Doncaster Park+Ride)
• 285 (Camberwell – Doncaster Park+Ride)
• 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) *
• 800 (Dandenong – Chadstone)
• 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 – 21 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) ^
• 612 (Chadstone – Box Hill)
• 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 – 4 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.

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)

September 2021 saw another complexity introduced when 21 regular bus routes across Melbourne were added to the Night Network with overnight services added on Friday and Saturday nights. Hourly trips were added between 9pm & 7am the next day.

About 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 routes with late night finishes on Saturdays but not 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)
• 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)

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 (Alfred Hospital – Brighton Beach)
• 604 (Alfred Hospital – Gardenvale)
• 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 upgrades to Routes 170 & 180 now see them run on public holidays, likely introduced in November 2023 in conjunction with the new Tarneit Station interchange.

This funding boost did not extend to Routes 494 & 495 loop in Point Cook  with both routes continuing to finish around 9pm on public holiday evenings despite midnight finishes on Saturdays.

‘Connector’ bus routes with late night on Saturdays BUT not on public holidays – 2 routes

• 494 (Williams Landing – Point Cook South)
• 495 (Williams Landing – Point Cook South)

Out of 267 bus routes with 7-day services, a total of 32 routes run until midnight on public holidays (or 12%). 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.

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.

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

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

546 (Melbourne Uni – Clifton Hill – Heidelberg)

• 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
• Route 546 fails operate on any public holidays since its “operator-funded” extension to Melbourne Uni on 30/1/1995

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)”
• Online PDF timetable indicates a Saturday timetable applies on Melbourne Cup Day and Labour Day (not a special timetable)
• 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
• 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

In Summary…

Melbourne currently has 351 daytime bus routes plus 7 FlexiRide routes, a total of 358.

267 bus routes (74.5%) run 7 days a week, but two routes in Rowville (681 & 682) do not run public holidays.

A further 49 routes (13.7%) run 6 days a week. Of these, 7 routes finish around lunchtime on Saturdays and a further 4 run limited timetables. A total of 318 out of 358 bus routes/FlexiRide zones across Melbourne currently run on Saturdays. 88.3% of Melbourne bus routes run on Saturdays.

Of the 49 routes that only operate 6 days a week, 28 bus routes operate Saturday timetables on public holidays and the other 21 don’t run (or over 40% of 6 day a week services). Across Melbourne, over 6.6% of bus routes that run Saturdays do not run on public holidays (21 out of 318 bus routes).

A further 9 routes serving university campuses operate on selected public holidays including Labour Day, King’s Birthday and Grand Final Eve.

In short, the daytime public holiday service levels for some 58 routes (16%) is not apparent without careful checking of footnotes, PDF timetables, stop timetable templates and the PTV journey planner and even then there are often errors or inconsistencies with official information.

For the 21 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 22 routes without Night Network timetables continue to operate until midnight on public holidays, with a total of 32 out of 45 routes (75%) with late night Saturday buses also running after 9pm on public holidays. These 32 routes represent 12% of buses operating on Saturdays.

Some further background…

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

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 exceptions to the rule. Furthermore, somewhat at random, not all of these routes ran Good Friday and Christmas Day, but others did not. Yet another 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 hourly headways, moves were 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 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.

Although a mess, one was hoping this would be an interim issue. However, with the minimum standards roll-out remaining incomplete, 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 at this point 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 additonal 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.

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.

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 2015. Bus services in Sunbury along with Ryans’ 468 & Sita’s 404 & 431 also enjoyed the introduction of public holiday trips around this time, 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. Legacy routes 235, 271, 370, 518, 570, 704, 766, 799, 815 (as 816) & 887 have all gained Sunday services since 2014, with each now following the standard public holiday pattern.

Outer suburbs have gained numerus 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.

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.

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, possibly made in conjunction with the new Tarneit interchange which opened in November 2023.

Unfortunately, this changes does not extend to CDC Wyndham routes 150 (Night Bus), 494 or 495 which continue to have late night trips cancelled. Information on the PTV app on King’s Birthday 2024 incorrectly suggests these trips run on Friday & Saturday.