Best Geelong suburbs for public transport

North Geelong tops the ranking, with a median peak-hour wait of 1 minutes. Geelong and Marshall round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 47 eligible Geelong suburbs.

This ranking scores every eligible Geelong suburb on public-transport quality — a composite of peak and off-peak arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD access. Walkability, safety, and CBD distance are blended in as tie-breakers.

The transport-quality score is derived from each state's GTFS timetable feed. We sample a representative weekday and Saturday and count arrivals at every stop inside the suburb, then weight the mode mix (a train station outranks a bus stop at the same headway) and layer in the peak headway of any trip that terminates in the Geelong CBD. Percentile ranks are computed within Geelong's candidate pool, so a suburb's transit ranking is relative to other Geelong suburbs — a Sydney "top 5%" and a Perth "top 5%" both hit rank 1 of their own city's pool.

Geelong suburbs with the best public transport

Ranked on the GTFS-derived transport-quality score — peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. Blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access as secondary factors.

1

North Geelong

VIC 3215 · 3,225 residents

89.6/100 transport · 96.0 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 86.2
2

Geelong

VIC 3220 · 5,811 residents

89.2/100 transport · 318.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 83.2
3

Marshall

VIC 3216 · 2,299 residents

89.8/100 transport · 36.0 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

C 81.9
4

Corio

VIC 3214 · 15,497 residents

86.1/100 transport · 241.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 81.2
5

Lara

VIC 3212 · 19,014 residents

90.0/100 transport · 158.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 76.2
6

Norlane

VIC 3214 · 8,682 residents

76.3/100 transport · 167.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 75.7
7

Torquay

VIC 3228 · 18,534 residents

77.2/100 transport · 111.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 75.1
8

Grovedale

VIC 3216 · 14,869 residents

76.6/100 transport · 205.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 74.7
9

Belmont

VIC 3216 · 15,066 residents

76.7/100 transport · 199.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 74.6
10

South Geelong

VIC 3220 · 1,014 residents

89.0/100 transport · 95.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 72.7
11

Hamlyn Heights

VIC 3215 · 6,518 residents

76.2/100 transport · 76.0 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 72.0
12

Mount Duneed

VIC 3217 · 6,182 residents

89.7/100 transport · 63.0 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 71.5
13

Highton

VIC 3216 · 20,736 residents

76.2/100 transport · 163.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 71.3
14

Geelong West

VIC 3218 · 7,345 residents

76.1/100 transport · 129.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 68.8
15

Ocean Grove

VIC 3226 · 17,714 residents

76.5/100 transport · 55.5 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 67.4

Ranked from 47 qualifying suburbs.

How we ranked these

60% transport-quality composite (peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight, and direct-CBD headway) · 15% walkability · 15% safety (bushfire, crime, flood risks combined) · 10% CBD access. Percentile ranks are computed within Geelong's candidate pool. Suburbs below the ingest arrivals-per-week floor are excluded rather than ranked at zero. See how we calculate for the full methodology.

Common questions about this ranking

What are the best Geelong suburbs for public transport?

North Geelong tops the ranking, with a median peak-hour wait of 1 minutes. Geelong and Marshall round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 47 eligible Geelong suburbs.

How is this ranking scored?

Each eligible Geelong suburb is scored on a composite transport-quality signal blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access. The transport-quality signal itself blends peak-hour (7-9am + 5-7pm) and off-peak weekday arrivals, Saturday service, median headway, span-of-service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. The composite carries the heaviest weight in the final score (60%); percentile ranks are computed within Geelong's candidate pool, not nationally.

Where does the timetable data come from?

Every state government publishes a GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) timetable feed covering all scheduled buses, trains, trams, and ferries in the state. We ingest these feeds and aggregate arrivals across every stop inside each suburb boundary on a representative Wednesday and Saturday. Nothing paid, nothing scraped — it's the same data that powers the transit-planner apps.

Does this measure reliability or on-time performance?

No — scheduled service only. GTFS-realtime feeds carry delays and cancellations but they're per-agency, per-day, and not part of this ingest. A suburb whose bus network runs 20 minutes late every peak still scores here on the timetable. Reliability data is a candidate for a future layer.

How often is this list updated?

The top 15 is recomputed whenever we re-run the GTFS aggregation pipeline. Feeds themselves refresh weekly to monthly per agency; big service changes (a new metro line, a route reshuffle) land in the next re-computation.

Same list in other cities

Related

Rankings last computed 12 October 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.

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