{"id":395707,"date":"2026-03-29T10:57:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=395707"},"modified":"2026-03-29T10:58:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:58:28","slug":"free-public-transport-in-victoria-through-april-as-fuel-prices-continue-to-climb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=395707","title":{"rendered":"Free public transport in Victoria through April as fuel prices continue to climb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\n\n\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\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"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","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":382052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9770,47,186],"tags":[19754,993,8],"class_list":["post-395707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro-trains-melbourne","category-rail-news","category-v-line","tag-iran-conflict","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=395707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395712,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395707\/revisions\/395712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=395707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=395707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=395707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}