Free or not free, if the bus is not running today, you can't catch it.
In Melbourne and in regional towns, dozens of buses don't run 7 days a week, including some routes serving major shopping centres.

This map of household cost-of-living stress and car dependency is more important than ever right now. Public transport services in the most affected areas are inadequate. Government should be doing what they can to boost them. Even just running the buses more often can help a lot to provide options.

Zip lines to Fishermans Bend: With the State Government failing to commit to major public transport upgrades into the growing precinct, such as the Metro 2 tunnel or even tram extensions, a plan has emerged to run zip lines into the area. https://ptua.org.au/posts/2026/zip-line-plan-for-fishermans-bend/

The free PT month is an opportunity for government to improve services so more people can make use of the offer, and to look at fare reform (such as short trip fares and automatic weekly caps) to make public transport more cost-competitive with driving on a permanent basis. https://ptua.org.au/posts/2026/free-pt-in-april/