But what public transport can people across our region use to help save fuel and money?
While for people in metropolitan areas, its as easy as not tapping their myki, people travelling on V/Line coaches need to book a free ticket to secure their seat.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking called for the move a couple of weeks ago ‘to help Victorians conserve fuel and save money’.
“If Victorians make the switch, it can make a real difference. Every commuter who leaves their car at home frees up fuel for the essential, time-critical work that keeps Victorians fed, whether that’s ensuring livestock are fed and cared for, or getting crops in the ground,” he said.
In an amazing statistic, Mr Hosking said last month that ‘if just one in five Victorian car commuters shifted to public transport, the fuel saved would be enough to plant roughly half of Australia’s wheat, barley, canola and lentil crop’.
While we need our city cousins to step up and help more than ever, there is little we can do in regional areas.
The lack of public transport options – either there is none available or the lack of services are not timely or suitable – makes it difficult to even consider the option in many regional areas.
Once again, a government policy that offers no real cost-of-living benefit to regional Victorians.
Regional Cities Victoria has labelled the measure to expose ‘a deeper and long-standing inequity for regional communities’. While chair Ben Blain, mayor of Warrnambool, welcomed the free public transport, he said public transport networks in regional Victoria were ‘not fit for purpose’.
“We hope this measure helps stabilise fuel supply because for regional communities, businesses and families, reliable access to fuel is not optional, it’s essential,” he said.
“But this announcement also highlights a hard truth: regional Victorians are being left behind when it comes to transport investment.
“For many people in regional areas, public transport simply isn’t a viable option for getting to work, school or daily life.”
Cr Blain said local bus networks in most regional cities had not been reviewed in more than 15 years, exacerbating the lack of coverage, frequency and integration needed to support growing populations and modern commuting patterns.
He also noted that regional rail services, with low-cost fares, are frequently operating at capacity.
We should be so lucky to even have a regular rail service to most of the region.
While V/Line services stop at Ararat and connect to a regional bus system, it is a far cry from the majority of regional areas that have train services several times a day.
For most of our region, fuel is crucial to our everyday lives.
Whether it be to get to work, travel between towns, the trucking industry to transport our goods or bring in goods to us, or farmers’ need for diesel and fertiliser in order to grow crops for their livelihoods but also to feed our nation, the fuel crisis has hit us particularly hard.
It’s going to take more than one month of free public transport to fix the fuel crisis.
The entire April 1, 2026 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
