The NightRider was a network of bus services in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. It operated on weekends and for special events from the

Melbourne central business district The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

to the outer suburbs on 13 routes, with over 300 stops between 01:30 (00:00 on the Doncaster route) and 04:30 on Saturdays and 05:30 on Sundays. NightRider ceased operation on 27 December 2015, being replaced by

Night Network ''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV (TV network), ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, ...

's Night Bus services which commenced operation in 2016.

History

The NightRider network was launched in May 1993 with nine routes all originating on

Swanston Street Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically bisects Melbourne's city centre and is famous as the wor ...

.Night Rider ''

Australian Bus Panorama The Bus & Coach Society of Victoria (BCSV) is a bus preservation society in Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, ...

'' issue 8/9 June 1993 page 32 They were the first night routes in

after the

Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had be ...

withdrew its services in the 1960s. In November 2008, the NightRider network was overhauled. The logo and branding were replaced, and operators of several routes changed. New routes commenced to

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

Healesville Healesville is a town in Victoria, Australia, 64 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Healesville recorded a population of 7,589 in the 2021 census. H ...

and Cranbourne. Frequencies were increased from 60 to 30 minutes. Due to

Metro Trains Melbourne Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the operator and brand name of train services on the electrified metropolitan rail network serving the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest urban rail network in Au ...

now running until 01:00, the first services were revised to depart at 01:30 instead of 00:30 on most services. Route numbers were issued by

Metlink Metlink was the marketing body and umbrella brand for public train, tram and bus Transport in Melbourne, transport operators in Melbourne, Australia. On 2 April 2012, the operations of Metlink were transferred to the newly created public trans ...

for the first time (previously some operators did display them on buses) and are all in the 900 series, with the numbers corresponding to the predominant route number allocations at the outer termini. For example, many buses in the Dandenong area were in the 800s, hence the number 980 and 981 was allocated to them. Originally fares were set at a flat $5 regardless of distance travelled. From March 2007 standard Metcard tickets were adopted for use on the service. Buses were labelled with a large NightRider logo, and text saying "NightRider – The after midnight bus service".

Routes

Buses ran half hourly from 01:30 (00:00 on Doncaster route 961) to 04:30 on Saturdays and 05:30 on Sundays on the following routes:NightRider buses

Public Transport Victoria Public Transport Victoria (PTV) is the brand name for public transport in the Australian state of Victoria. It was previously the trading name of the Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authority in Victo ...

References

{{MelbournePublicTransport Bus transport in Melbourne Night bus service Public transport in Melbourne 1993 establishments in Australia 2015 disestablishments in Australia