04/09/2026
Two 'watershed' anniversaries worth acknowledging this week, a day apart two decades ago.
First of all, today marks 20 years since the first bus routes in Melbourne were upgraded to the 'minimum standards' benchmark.
This saw bus routes progressively extended to operate until 9pm 7 days a week, with (largely) maximum one hour waits.
Public Holiday timetables on these routes were standardised to a Saturday timetable to match trains & trams while reduced Christmas Holiday timetables were largely abolished.
Previously, over two-thirds of Melbourne bus routes finished by 7pm weeknights, lunchtime or 5pm or 6pm Saturdays with Sunday services scant and where provided 90 min or 2 hour gaps common.
And only a select few ran on Friday evenings for late night shopping.
This reflected service cuts that had occurred for decades since the 1960s by private operators and largely not reviewed or reversed since government subsidies were introduced (mid 1970s) followed by multi-modal fares from the early 1980s.
A series of rolling upgrades would see the new hours ultimately cover around 150 routes by late 2010 and were funded as part of the state government's 2006 'Meeting our Transport Challenges' plan.
The inagural routes to be upgraded were:
* 307 City - Mitcham (via Doncaster)
* 481 Sunbury - Mount Lion
* 485 Sunbury - Wilsons Lane
* 486 Sunbury - Goonawarra
* 487 Sunbury - Killara Heights
* 577 Epping Plaza - Mill Park Lakes
* 893 Dandenong - Cranbourne (via Hampton Park)
We'll post further insights and historic timetables in the coming weeks.
The previous day, 3 September 2006, saw the culmination some one of the biggest investments to Victoria's regional rail network with Regional Fast Rail.
Beyond significant line upgrades for faster 'Flagship' speeds and new Vlocity rail cars, new timetables were introduced with over 400 extra weekly services.
This represented a major shift in the approach of scheduling interurban lines to destinations inculding Bendigo, Ballarat & Traralgon with hourly clockface headways common for the parts of the day (inculding weekends), making services much more attractive.
Additional peak, evening services and late night trains were also added.
A rebuilt Southern Cross Station had also been completed in 2005, replacing the run-down & unwelcoming facilities of Spencer Street Station.
Passengers voted with their feet, with annual patronage on V/Line more than doubling from from roughly 6 million to over 13.5 million per year by 2012, without the rapid outer urban growth that has overwhelmed V/Line in the past decade.
The higher frequencies and faster trip times encouraged a trend for 'tree-changers' to move to centres like Kyneton, Gisborne and Warragul but have access to regular trains for both peak hour and leisure travel.
Again, we plan to share some more detailed posts soon.
Both upgrades have been among the most significant upgrades to take place in Victoria in the past generation and deserve historic acknowledgement & reflection.
