{"id":570825,"date":"2026-03-28T22:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:31:15","slug":"free-public-transport-in-victoria-through-april-as-fuel-prices-continue-to-climb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570825\/","title":{"rendered":"Free public transport in Victoria through April as fuel prices continue to climb"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian government has announced public transport will be free across the state in April in a bid to relieve cost-of-living pressures.<\/p>\n

The measure, which the government estimates will cost $70 million, comes as fuel costs continue to rise due to supply shocks in the Middle East, driving up prices on everyday goods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Cars<\/p>\n

The Iran war has caused oil supply shocks, which have led to higher fuel prices. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

All public transport across metropolitan and V\/Line services will be free in Victoria from this Tuesday (March 31) until April 30.<\/p>\n

“This is a temporary measure to help with the cost of living \u2014 it will take pressure off the pump and help you save,” Premier Jacinta Allan said.<\/p>\n

“This won’t solve every problem, but it’s an immediate step to help Victorians right now while we keep working on new solutions to make Victoria more affordable.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Victorians will not need their Myki cards to use public transport in April. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Minister for Public and Active Transport, Gabrielle Williams, said train station ticket barriers would be open throughout the temporary free-travel period, so travellers would not need to tap on, or off.<\/p>\n

“If people do accidentally tap on, there will be a zero charge coded into the back end of the system,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We estimate it will cost a little bit over $70 million in forgone revenue.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, as fuel prices began to climb, the Greens called for the government to implement free public transport.<\/p>\n

The Greens referred to Parliamentary Budget Office costings, which it said estimated the measure would cost the government about $79.4 million and save a commuter household up to $500 from their family budget for the month.<\/p>\n

The government said it hoped making public transport more affordable would incentivise people to use the system instead of driving cars.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

V\/Line services will be free through April. (ABC News: Violette Storm)<\/p>\n

Myki passes, such as yearly passes will be automatically paused and resume after April.<\/p>\n

The government said it expected trains, trams and buses to get busier but that the network would be able to handle the demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian government has announced public transport will be free across the state in April in a bid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2610,17846,44,1655,38238,660,26693],"class_list":["post-570825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cost-of-living","tag-free","tag-news","tag-pressure","tag-public-transport","tag-victoria","tag-victorian-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}