Buses in Melbourne

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Buses in Melbourne
A Ventura bus operating route 670 in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs
Overview
Owner	Public Transport Victoria
Locale	Melbourne, Victoria Australia
Transit type	Bus
Website	Public Transport Victoria
Operation
Began operation	1912; 112 years ago (1912)
Operator(s)	Broadmeadows Bus Service CDC Melbourne Cranbourne Transit Dysons Kastoria Bus Lines Kinetic Melbourne Martyrs Bus Service McKenzie's Tourist Services Panorama Coaches Ryan Brothers Bus Service Sunbury Bus Service Transit Systems Victoria Ventura Bus Lines

Buses in Melbourne, Australia, are a major form of public transport in Melbourne, with an extensive bus network. There are 346 routes in operation with a varying range of service frequencies, (including Night Network, excluding Kew School Services) operated by privately owned bus companies under franchise from the State Government, under the Public Transport Victoria branding. The Night Network bus system consists of 10 routes and operates on Friday and Saturday nights, and a SmartBus orbital bus network currently consisting of nine routes, which is intended to facilitate cross city travel, while the current network is predominantly a radial network.^[1] Most of the bus network is a covered by the myki ticketing system.

Several private operators provide bus services to Melbourne's major airports, the most significant of which is SkyBus. These services do not utilise the myki ticketing system.

Some local government councils operate free local community bus services within their local areas. There are also tourist bus services in the CBD and nearby tourist attractions.

While the city relies predominantly on an inner-city tram network and radial train network, the outer suburbs of Melbourne are primarily serviced by bus. Melbourne's buses also provide a local feeder to Melbourne's train and tram network. Unlike Melbourne's train and tram networks, up until the 1950s, buses in Melbourne were operated in a largely unregulated free market by private companies.^[2]

Post World War II, bus use in Melbourne peaked in 1952–1953 at 157 million passenger trips. Melbourne's total population at the time was 1.5 million meaning that on average each resident used a bus 100 times per year. By 1980–1981, patronage had fallen to a low of 71.5 million passenger trips for a population of 2.8 million - meaning that trips per capita had fallen to 25 per annum.^[2] In the 2013-2014 financial year, a total of 127.6 million passenger trips were recorded on Melbourne's buses by its 4.3 million residents. While this was an increase of 10.2 percent on the previous year^[1] and continued the trend of the previous decade, patronage was still only 29 trips per capita per annum.^[2][3]