The Sydney Morning Herald logo
The Sydney Morning Herald logo

Public transport

Advertisement
IPhone users will finally be able to tap onto trains.

Can you use tap-and go with a myki pass? What about a concession card? Your questions answered

Confused at the government’s new tap and go train payments? We answer all your questions here.

  • Isabel McMillan

Latest

Travellers will finally be able to tap on and off trains using phones or bank cards.

Some commuters can finally ditch myki cards. But there are key exceptions

Those on trams and buses will still need a physical card. And myki passes won’t be supported by the new system.

  • Daniella White and Patrick Hatch
Matthew Wright (far right) is leading a campaign to make public transport permanently free in Victoria, with help from his niece Maya Wright (middle right) and fellow advocates Andrea Bunting (far left) and Dave Holmes (middle left).

Victorians enjoyed a free ride for two months. That ends on Monday

After two months, public transport is going to cost us money again. But some are making the case to make it free forever.

  • Bridget McArthur
The Craigieburn train maintenance centre.

The train line robbery: How Metro Trains underpaid its own workers

A dispute over millions of dollars in superannuation has resulted in workers taking on both Metro Trains and their own unions to get their entitlements.

  • Clay Lucas
Chay Ung has spent years perfecting the recipes for which Dragon Express has become renown.

Sunshine restaurant serves up last sizzling steak before making way for airport rail superhub

Dragon Express will close to make way for the multibillion-dollar airport rail project – one of nine buildings being compulsorily acquired by the Victorian government.

  • Alexander Darling
Premier Jacinta Allan at the Labor Party state conference in 2025.

Free rides and fully funded schools: Labor members press for policy changes

In what looms as a soft launch of Labor’s election campaign, the party’s state conference will debate permanently waiving public transport fees and boosting school funding.

  • Kieran Rooney
Advertisement
Locals living near a dangerous level crossing in Melbourne’s south-east say they were caught off guard by the state government’s decision to quietly push back much-needed removal works by three years.

One line in the state budget has pushed back this dangerous level crossing removal by years

Highett residents have long been promised level crossings on Highett Road and Wickham Road would be removed by 2029, but they’ll now have to put up with them until 2032.

  • Gemma Grant

A stranger assaulted Hannah on a tram. She may never have reported him if not for this

It was a busy weekday when Hannah spotted a man acting erratically on her train. When she changed to a tram to escape him, he followed, and then assaulted her in broad daylight.

  • Bridget McArthur
Victoria’s public transport network has recorded the busiest month in six years off the back of free fares.

Free fares send passenger numbers surging back to pre-COVID levels

High petrol prices also contributed to the jump in patronage, as April became the busiest month on the network in more than six years.  

  • Patrick Hatch
Emergency services freeing the teenager from underneath the train at North Melbourne station on Monday.

‘Traumatic scene’: Boy trapped under train had backpack caught on carriage

The year 7 student fell onto the tracks after his school bag became snared on a train carriage on Monday afternoon.

  • Angus Delaney and Patrick Hatch