Decades of half-measures left Bendigo's transport network straining at the seams

Bendigo's road and rail network is under more pressure than at any point in the city's post-war history, and the reasons stretch back further than most residents might expect. The population of Greater Bendigo has grown by more than 25 per cent since 2010, surpassing 120,000 people according to the 2021 Census, yet the core transport spine — the Calder Highway corridor, the Melbourne–Bendigo rail line, and the Midland Highway — has received only incremental upgrades across three decades of state and federal budgets.

Why does this matter right now? The Victorian Government's 2025–26 infrastructure statement flagged a $1.4 billion regional transport package, with the Bendigo rail corridor among the explicitly nominated priorities. Construction timelines are being locked in through mid-2026, meaning community and council submissions are either already closed or closing within weeks. The decisions being made this winter will shape commute times, freight routes and residential development patterns for a generation.

How the backlog built up

The story starts in the late 1990s, when the Kennett government's privatisation of the V/Line network shifted accountability away from state-owned infrastructure maintenance. Track quality between Kyneton and Bendigo deteriorated through the early 2000s while patronage quietly climbed. By 2015, the Melbourne–Bendigo service was regularly running 10 to 15 minutes late due to speed restrictions on sections near Woodend and Malmsbury. V/Line recorded a punctuality rate of just 67 per cent on the Bendigo line in its 2016 annual report — among the worst performing corridors in the state at the time.

Locally, Bendigo's urban road network was designed around a population cap that planners in the 1970s set at roughly 80,000 people. Husband Street, McIvor Road and the Midland Highway through Epsom were never built to handle the freight volumes that now accompany a regional centre with a live hospital expansion at Bendigo Health's Lister Street campus and a growing La Trobe University precinct on Edwards Road. The Camp Reserve Road interchange — a project flagged in three separate Greater Bendigo transport strategies since 2008 — remains unbuilt.

The city's bus network tells a similar story. Public Transport Victoria's 2023 service audit found that 14 of Bendigo's 17 fixed bus routes operated below the minimum frequency standard for a regional centre of Bendigo's size. Route 3, serving Kangaroo Flat and the Bendigo CBD via Pall Mall, runs at 40-minute intervals on weekdays — a timetable essentially unchanged since the early 1990s.

Where the money is and where it isn't

The 2026 federal budget allocated $340 million toward the Calder Highway duplication between Ravenswood and Bendigo's northern fringe, a project the Australian Automobile Association had costed at closer to $480 million in a 2024 report. That funding gap — roughly $140 million — is unresolved, and the state government has not publicly committed to bridging it. Regional Roads Victoria confirmed to councillors at Greater Bendigo's March 2026 ordinary meeting that detailed design work on the Ravenswood section is scheduled to conclude by September this year.

Bendigo Health's $700 million capital expansion, centred on the Lister Street campus, has also created a secondary pressure point. Construction traffic on Barnard Street and Mercy Street has prompted formal complaints from residents in the Golden Square neighbourhood, and Greater Bendigo Council is currently assessing a proposal to reroute heavy vehicles via the Midland Highway bypass during peak construction periods through late 2026.

For residents and businesses tracking these projects, the practical next step is Greater Bendigo Council's transport and infrastructure committee, which meets on 21 July at the Town Hall on Hargreaves Street. Regional Roads Victoria is expected to present updated Calder Highway timelines at that session. Separate submissions on the bus network review close on 18 July through Public Transport Victoria's online portal. Neither process will resolve a backlog built over 30 years overnight — but they represent the most direct avenue Bendigo residents have had in some time to shape what gets fixed first.