The Public Transport Corporation (PTC) was a

Victoria State Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the executive government of the Australian state of Victoria. As a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, the State Government was first formed in 1851 when Vic ...

owned

statutory authority A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being empowered or delegated to set rules (for example reg ...

formed under the

Transport Act 1983 The Transport Act 1983 was the main statute establishing government transport organisations and regulating land transport activities in the State of Victoria, Australia for 27 years from mid-1983 to mid-2010. The act was used as the vehicle for ...

which operated passenger and freight trains, trams and bus services. The PTC was also responsible for directly operating some bus services and procuring bus services from private operators. It was established on 1 July 1989 as a result of the passage and commencement of the Transport (Amendment) Act 1989 to manage the responsibilities of the State Transport Authority and the

Metropolitan Transit Authority Metropolitan Transit Authority may refer to: * Metropolitan Transit Authority (Boston), succeeded by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) * Metropolitan Transit Authority (Victoria), Melbourne, Australia * Erie Metropolitan Trans ...

. In suburban

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 ...

it continued to be referred to by the MTA's nickname of ''The Met,'' while in regional Victoria it operated as

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

. The operational rail and tram activities of the PTC were franchised in 1999 by the Kennett Government through the intermediary of a new agency, the

Director of Public Transport The Director of Public Transport (also referred to as the Director, or the DPT) was the head of the Public Transport Division (PTD) of the Department of Transport (Victoria, 2008-2013), Victorian Department of Transport. PTD was the government ...

, a statutory office within the

Department of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

. The director was required to enter into franchise agreements with private rail and tram companies for the on-the-ground delivery of public transport services. The land and infrastructure assets of the Public Transport Corporation were transferred to another new agency,

VicTrack VicTrack, the trading name of the Victorian Rail Track Corporation, is a business enterprise of the Victorian Government which owns all railway and tram lines, associated rail lands, track corridors and other infrastructure in the state of Vic ...

, who then leased those assets to the Director of Public Transport, which in turn sub-leased the assets to the private operators.

Formation

The Public Transport Corporation was initially established under changes made to the

by the Transport (Amendment) Act 1989. The statutory changes abolished the former State Transport Authority and

thereby creating the Public Transport Corporation in its place. The functions of the PTC were an

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

of those of its two predecessors. The green and gold livery on vehicles was retained, though with a new double arrow logo. The PTC was subject to the control and general direction of the former Director-General of Transport initially and then later to the Secretary to the Department of Transport and, ultimately, the Minister for Transport. A 14-member Public Transport Corporation Board was appointed by the Minister to provide advice to the Chief Executive of the PTC.

Demise

Franchising of the PTC commenced under the Kennett Government of the 1990s. Privatisation began with some of the bus operations in December 1993.

was split into Passenger and Freight divisions, with the latter sold outright. ''The Met'' was divided into

Bayside Trains M>Train (pron. "M train") was a train operator in Melbourne, Australia, which operated some of the city's suburban rail operations. Formed in July 1998 as Bayside Trains, a business unit of the Public Transport Corporation, it was privatised ...

, Hillside Trains, Swanston Trams and

Yarra Trams Yarra Trams is the trading name of the operator of the Trams in Melbourne, tram network in Melbourne, Australia, which is owned by VicTrack and leased to Yarra Trams by the Victoria State Government, Victorian Department of Transport and Planni ...

on 1 July 1998 and these along with V/Line's passenger operations passed to the private sector in August 1999. These separate bodies were all franchised separately as follows: * Doncaster East &

Fitzroy North Fitzroy North is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Merri-bek, Merri-bek and City of Yarra, Yarra Local government areas of Victo ...

bus depots → 1993 National Bus Company → 2013

Transdev Melbourne Transdev Melbourne was a bus operator in Melbourne, Australia, that operated the Melbourne Bus Franchise with a fleet of 534 buses on 49 bus routes from August 2013 until January 2022, when the franchise was awarded to Kinetic Melbourne. It ope ...

→ 2022

Kinetic Melbourne Kinetic Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Australia, operating a fleet of 602 buses on 45 bus routes, as well as seven SmartBus routes. It commenced operations on 31 January 2022, taking over all routes previously operated by Transdev Me ...

* Footscray &

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

bus depots → 1998 Melbourne Bus Link → 2013

→ 2022

* V/Line Freight → 1999 Freight Victoria → 2004

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Governm ...

* V/Line Passenger → 1999

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

→ 2002 State Government, receivers appointed → 2003 State Government * Bayside Trains → 1999

( M>Train) → 2002 State Government, receivers appointed → 2004

Connex Melbourne Connex Melbourne was a train operator in Melbourne, Australia. Formed in July 1998 as Hillside Trains, a business unit of the Public Transport Corporation, it was privatised in August 1999 becoming a subsidiary of Veolia Transport, Connex. In ...

→ 2009

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 ...

* Hillside Trains → 1999

→ 2009

* Swanston Trams → 1999

( M>Tram) → 2002 State Government, receivers appointed → 2004

TransdevTSL TransdevTSL, formerly MetroLink, was a 50/50 joint venture between the old Transdev and Transfield Services that operated trams in Melbourne, ferries in Brisbane and buses in Sydney. The joint venture was dissolved in December 2010 when Tran ...

→ 2009

Keolis Downer Keolis Downer is a public transport operator that operates bus, train, tram and ferry services in Australia. It is a joint venture between Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group, and Downer Rail, an Australian railway enginee ...

→ 1999

→ 2009

The remaining functions of the corporation were transferred to

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 ...

, later

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 ...

Formation

Demise

References

See also