With the rail link still years away, Melbourne runs on coaches: SkyBus carries the airport load to Southern Cross in twenty-odd minutes for A$25.90, and the same terminal dispatches V/Line and interstate coaches across the southeast.
Until Airport Rail carries its first passenger — no earlier than 2030 — SkyBus is Melbourne's airport railway. Melbourne City Express runs kerbside from T1, T2 and T4 to Southern Cross Station roughly every ten minutes at peak, with free Wi-Fi and fixed fares: A$25.90 one way, A$43.40 return online, children A$6.60. Avalon Airport, the Jetstar field across the bay, gets its own express from Bay 74.
The budget alternative is real but slow: public bus route 901 to Broadmeadows station plus a train costs little more than a myki fare and takes over an hour — worth it only for the stubborn. Rideshare to the CBD runs A$55–75; the new T123 transport hub, opening this October, enlarges the pick-up zones.
Southern Cross's coach terminal is the state's road hub: V/Line air-conditioned coaches connect to regional Victoria where trains thin out — the coast beyond Geelong, the Murray towns, the ski fields in season — and interstate operators run overnight to Sydney (around twelve hours) and Adelaide (around ten).
Practical notes: SkyBus e-kiosks sit at the Bourke Street entry of Southern Cross and kerbside at the airport, card payment only; a ten-trip pass in the app drops the airport run to A$18 a ride; and on cruise days a dedicated shuttle supplements route 109 between Station Pier and the city.
Our read: treat SkyBus like a metro line — buy the return online, sit upstairs if you can, and be on Collins Street inside half an hour of the kerb. Use the 901 only if every dollar matters. And remember the rule of the city: the coach terminal, the V/Line platforms and the SkyBus bays are one building — Southern Cross is the transfer that makes Melbourne work.
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