Sign on to the Better Buses for the West Open Letter of Support. To sign on as organisation email contact the Sustainable Cities Campaign.
Go here for more information about the Better Buses Campaign (Friends of the Earth).
Better Buses for the West — Open Letter of Support
We are people, communities and organisations who are committed to transport justice in Melbourne’s western suburbs, including the municipalities of Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton and Wyndham.
The problem:
Despite having some of the fastest growing regions in Australia, the West is critically underserved by buses which follow long, winding and convoluted routes with a frequency of 40-60 minutes in many areas, rendering them basically unusable.
These bus services exacerbate the impacts of historical underinvestment in the West, which have led to economic inequality, social isolation, car dependency, increased air pollution, and reduced business activity in the West.
We have included below our lived experiences of transport inequity in the West.
The solution
We believe that these issues, each grounded in transport inequity, can be addressed by the Victorian Government investing in transformational bus network reform into a grid-based network of buses running every 10 minutes, all day, every day. This could be done through the adoption of the Westbus plan.
The government currently spends $190 million per annum on buses in the West, well below the average per capita average across Melbourne. Westbus would invest an extra $95 million per year to ensure that the West keeps up with the rest by introducing:
- Bus routes in a grid structure – enabling direct routes;
- Bus frequency of every 10 minutes, all day every day;
- Clean, electric buses and state-owned charging infrastructure;
- Bus routes to the new Metro Tunnel stops – preventing additional congestion; and
- Bus infrastructure that is accessible and reliable, including shelters to keep our communities safe from the heat, wind and rain, and information available in community languages.
Our ask
Ahead of the Victorian state election in November 2026, we are calling on all major parties to confirm that, if elected, they will fund a transformational network reform of buses in Melbourne’s west.