A summer holiday bus timetable will be in place from Monday 22 December 2025 until Sunday 1 February 2026.
This will include free travel for the Canberra community on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve for all bus and light rail services.
The school holiday bus timetable will deliver the same reliable network and rapid and local service frequencies that are currently in place, while only removing the school services and diversions during the 6-week period.
The standard Saturday and Sunday timetables will be unchanged with a Sunday bus timetable in place for all public holidays, excluding Christmas Day which will have a bespoke Christmas Day bus timetable.
Christmas Day
Travel on Christmas Day will be FREE on both bus and light rail services.
Local bus services will run to a Christmas Day timetable and will operate every two hours, except for the Ginninderry service which will operate every 30-minutes. Rapid bus services will run throughout the day. Light rail will run to a regular Sunday frequency.
Information regarding these services is available on the Transport Canberra website.
New Year's Eve
To support Canberrans attending New Year's Eve celebrations, Transport Canberra will be providing free travel all day for bus and light rail services.
The regular bus timetable will run on New Year's Eve, with additional services operating between the Tuggeranong, Woden, City and Belconnen Interchanges to support the Canberra community to attend events around the city while they bring in the new year.
Light rail will deliver an extended timetable and increased services on New Year's Eve. This will offer 7.5-minute frequency until 11:00 pm, and then 10-minute frequency until 1:30 am. The last service will depart from Alinga Street at 2:30 am on New Year's Day.
Fare Free Evenings
Travel on bus and light rail services is also free every Friday and Saturday evening from 6:00 pm over the summer period until Saturday 28 February 2026.
This is to encourage the community to get out and enjoy the festive season with their family and friends every Friday and Saturday evening, knowing they can enjoy a free ride home at the end of the night.
Passengers are encouraged to tap on and off with their preferred payment method to register their zero-dollar fare during the free travel periods. This is to assist with patronage data for future planning purposes, and you will not be charged a fare.
Interim bus network from February
Passengers are also reminded that an interim bus network will commence on Monday 2 February 2026, aligning with all students returning to school for Term 1, as we manage road and traffic changes related to the National Capital Authority (NCA) led construction works on the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.
The school holiday bus timetables, the special free Christmas Day timetable and New Year's Eve transport options can be found at: www.transport.act.gov.au.
