{"id":586244,"date":"2026-04-05T03:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586244\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:07:13","slug":"commuter-fears-over-free-public-transport-in-australian-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586244\/","title":{"rendered":"Commuter fears over free public transport in Australian state"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wheels are turning on free public transport for millions of Australians as regional commuters warn of derailed travel plans.<\/p>\n

Travel on Victoria’s trains, trams and buses became free from Tuesday until the end of April.<\/p>\n

The fare reprieve is designed to take pressure off motorists at the petrol pump, encouraging people to ditch their cars and reduce demand for fuel.<\/p>\n

But the initiative is causing headaches for some commuters, who fear services will be swamped. Portland grandmother Wendy Taylor worries she won’t be able to find a seat on the train to Geelong for an upcoming medical appointment.<\/p>\n

For the month, seat reservations are not available on long distance V\/Line services, meaning it is a matter of first-come-first-served.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A person wearing a mask in Australia. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

While the state government said existing seat reservations will be honoured, Taylor fears hers might be lost in the rush.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’d much rather just pay for it and you’re guaranteed a seat,” she told AAP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just think it will be a dog’s breakfast.”<\/p>\n

Rather than risk not finding a seat on the train to Melbourne, Warrnambool local David Colson plans to drive to his doctor’s visit.<\/p>\n

“The irony is they’re tying to put less strain on fuel, but I’ll be driving myself when normally I’d be getting the train,” Colson said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit different to be standing on the way home from Collingwood to Heidelberg than it is for three hours on the train to Warrnambool.”<\/p>\n

\"Melbourne<\/p>\n

Melbourne metro train (file photo). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

No additional services have been allocated for April, but Premier Jacinta Allan said the transport network is well-placed to handle it.<\/p>\n

“We have a strong public transport system because we’ve literally built it,” she told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The state Labor government will monitor the number of people using public transport to guide whether additional services are needed, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But many believe overcrowding is a matter of when, not if.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are some areas of Melbourne and Victoria where trains, trams and buses are already quite crowded,” Public Transport Users Association spokesperson Daniel Bowen said.<\/p>\n

“The government should be planning to deploy more services where they can.”<\/p>\n

Buses will replace trains for sections of the Warrnambool and Geelong lines from April 11 to 24.<\/p>\n

South-West Coast MP Roma Britnell said she had been raising the issue of unsafe overcrowding on V\/Line services with the public transport minister for months.<\/p>\n

“The lack of understanding from this government is gobsmacking,” the Liberal MP said.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s move is expected to cost AU$71 million in lost revenue but Allan said a regular public transport user would save AU$228 over the month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tasmania is the only other state to have rolled out free transport, with buses and ferries free from Monday until July 1.<\/p>\n

Western Australia, Queensland and NSW have indicated they won’t follow suit.<\/p>\n

“There’s no such thing as free public transport,” NSW Premier Chris Minns told ABC TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wheels are turning on free public transport for millions of Australians as regional commuters warn of derailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-586244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586244","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=586244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}