Significant bus reform rejected by Victorian Cabinet as bus plan stalls

Following last week’s handing down of documents that revealed the Victorian government was underinvesting in the state’s bus services compared to all other Australian jurisdictions, further documents released yesterday show that the state Cabinet rejected bus reform plans in 2023.

Around 2,000 pages of material related to the review of Victoria’s Bus Plan were handed down by the government yesterday, showing that significant bus reform was recommended by the Department of Transport and rejected by Cabinet two years ago.

The released documents were first requested last year by Upper House member for Western Metro Truung Luu, showing that the department had recommended a new bus network with buses running every 10 minutes on a 1.6km grid throughout the city, supported by some local routes.

This suggestion aligned with Melbourne University research that said bus routes like this are affordable and can create a fast, frequent and reliable service to connect suburban Melburnians to train lines.

The papers make it clear that Labor’s Cabinet rejected transformational bus reform that would bring life-changing new services to Melbourne’s fastest growing suburbs, in favour of ‘big build’ projects.

Advocacy group Sustainable Cities, part of Friends of the Earth, say communities in the west have been angry for years over the lack of action on Labor’s bus plan, which was first touted in 2021 by then public transport minister Ben Carroll with the promise of restructuring and simplifying bus services.

Communities in Melbourne’s west have been advocating for a fast, frequent and connected grid of buses to replace the current broken network. Existing slow, winding bus services leave people waiting up to an hour for a bus that rarely gets them where they need to go.

Local bus activist Senthill Sundaram says these same communities have expressed growing frustration at the lack of action and accountability, with the department, government and bus companies all pointing the finger at one another for why network reform wasn’t happening according to the Plan’s timeline.

“We finally know why we don’t have 10-minute frequencies on fast direct routes – it’s the Labor Cabinet,” Sundaram says.

“It’s not that it’s expensive or impractical, in fact they were flooded with evidence that better buses are the answer. If their own department is putting forward the solution, why is Victorian Labor rejecting the Bus Plan?”

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The many documents released also discuss the substantial investment placed into research benefits, including the impact of reform on community safety and amenity, women’s safety and benefits to disabled Victorians.

Department research also indicated most Melbournians would be willing to walk a little further for a more frequent and direct service, and that Victoria has the lowest per capita investment in bus service in the country.
“The government owes the community an explanation for rejecting common-sense improvements. Blaming contracts, operators, or timing is not good enough,” Sundaram says.

“People in the west, in particular, deserve to know why they’re still waiting for the network they were promised while other big build projects pass them by.”

University of Melbourne honorary senior fellow and author of the ‘Better Buses for Melbourne’s West’ report Dr John Stone says it’s “deeply frustrating” that reform was ignored.

“It is long past time that the government followed the advice of its own planners and a host of independent experts,” Stone says.

“The government must act now and give the people of the west what they desperately need: a fast, frequent grid network.”