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Methodology

Every score on this site is computed from published timetable data. Below you can explore the simple "plain English" summary or toggle to review the exact mathematical formulas.

Published by Fusion Party Australia transport policy team.

Score range
0 to 100
Scoring dimensions
Frequency 50%, Coverage 50%
Coverage area
Metropolitan Melbourne
Data vintage
PTV GTFS processed 2026-07-10
Suburbs scored
774

Part 01

The Data We Use

We build these scores using the exact same timetable and stop information published by public transport operators, combined with official census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

  • Real Timetables: We use the official Public Transport Victoria (PTV) scheduling data. This includes all trains, trams, buses, and coaches.
  • Representative Day: We score the network based on a standard school-term Wednesday. We don't skew the results using public holidays, school holidays, or weekend-only timetables (though we do measure weekend service separately for the frequency score).
  • Dwelling Count: We look at where homes actually exist using the ABS Census. This helps us weight the scores by real population distribution.

Part 02

The Score Bands

Every address and suburb receives a score from 0 to 100, which falls into one of five color-coded bands. A higher score means more frequent services, closer stops, and better connections.

0–29
STRANDED
30–49
POOR
50–69
PATCHY
70–84
DECENT
85+
GOOD

Part 03

How We Score a Stop

Each individual stop (whether it's a train station, tram stop, or bus sign) is scored out of 100 based on two equally important ingredients:

1. Frequency (50% of the score): "How long you wait"

We measure how often services arrive during morning and afternoon peaks, off-peak weekdays, and weekends. A 5-minute wait gets a top score, while a 30-minute wait drops the score significantly. We also reward stops that run 7 days a week and run late into the night.

2. Coverage (50% of the score): "Where you can go"

We look at the connections a stop offers. Does it take you directly to major city hubs (like Flinders Street)? Can you easily interchange to other lines or travel between suburbs without going all the way into the city first? We also reward stops that have other transit options close by.

The Weak-Link Penalty

Public transport is only as good as its weakest link. If a stop has great coverage but the bus only comes once an hour, or if a bus comes every 5 minutes but goes nowhere useful, the score is heavily penalized. Both frequency and coverage must be decent to get a good score.

Part 04

How Address and Suburb Scores are Calculated

Address Scores

When you search a specific address, we look at every transit stop within an 800-metre walk (about a 10-minute walk). Your address score is determined by your best nearby service, plus a bonus if you have a diverse mix of options (like both a train and a bus).

Suburb Scores: Real-World Coverage

To find a suburb's typical score, we avoid simply averaging the stops. Averaging the stops would let a single train station inflate the score of a huge suburb where most people live miles away. Instead:

  • We divide the suburb's actual boundaries into 250-metre grid squares.
  • We score each square individually, measuring what transport is within walking distance.
  • We weight the scores by where houses and apartments actually exist using census data.

This means a suburb only gets a high score if high-quality transport is actually accessible to the majority of its residents.

Part 05

What We Do Not Measure

To keep our scoring objective and focused on planning, we intentionally leave out:

  • Fares and Ticket Prices: A frequent service is unusable if it doesn't exist, regardless of how much it costs to ride.
  • Punctuality and Cancellations: Our score is based on the promised timetable. In reality, delays and cancellations make service worse, not better, than what we show.
  • Speed: Having a predictable, frequent service beats an occasional fast express.

Part 06

The Network Plan: How We Build the 'Fix'

Every suburb page features a budgeted, proposed feeder bus network to show how we can fix poor access. Here is how it is designed:

  • Connecting to What Works: The goal of the plan is to connect residents directly to existing high-quality train, tram, or bus corridor hubs (stops scoring 70 or above).
  • The Walk Target: We aim to place a high-quality stop within 400 metres (a 5-minute walk) of 80% of residents, and within 800 metres of 100% of residents.
  • Cost-Efficiency: We prioritize routing candidate buses along existing road corridors that serve the highest number of homes per dollar spent. We then estimate the net annual operating cost by subtracting the cost of redundant, low-frequency routes that the new plan replaces.

Part 07

Car vs. Public Transport

For suburbs where we've computed it, we show how long a real public transport trip takes compared to driving, averaged across nearby jobs and homes rather than one cherry-picked destination. This is still rolling out suburb by suburb, and for now only shows best-case (free-flow) driving times -- peak-hour traffic comparisons are coming once we have the right data access in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my suburb have a low score when there is a train station nearby?

A suburb's score is computed by dividing the entire suburb into 250-metre grid squares and weighting the result by where homes actually exist (using census data). A single train station provides excellent service for the people living right next to it, but if 90% of the suburb's residents live too far away to walk to the station, the suburb's overall score will reflect that lack of access.

Where does the data come from?

All timetables, route alignments, and stop locations are sourced from the official Public Transport Victoria (PTV) GTFS schedule data published on the Victorian government's Data Vic portal. Suburb boundaries are defined by the authoritative Vicmap Admin locality dataset, and dwelling densities are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census mesh blocks.

Does the score account for late, cancelled, or "ghost" services?

No. The score measures the promise of the published timetable. We assume services run exactly as scheduled. Because real-world cancellations, late runs, and ghost buses degrade the user experience, the score represents the best possible version of the service.

Why isn't my suburb listed in the league table?

To ensure rankings are meaningful and fair, a suburb must have at least 3 active, scheduled stops inside its official boundary to qualify for the league table. Additionally, our high-resolution grid analysis is currently scoped to Greater Melbourne and the surrounding commuter corridors where official Vicmap boundary and ABS population data are fully integrated.

How is the proposed "Fix" (the Network Plan) designed?

We run a computer model that identifies areas where residents live too far from high-quality transit. It proposes feeder bus routes along existing road corridors to connect those residents directly to existing high-frequency train, tram, or bus hubs. The model selects the most cost-effective routes first, aiming to bring high-quality transport within walking distance of everyone in the suburb.

Check a suburb against this page any time, straight from its score card.

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