Merri-bek BUG

What can you do? 

1. Read the background information here
2. Call/write to your local MP AND the Minister for Public and Active Transport the Hon. Gabrielle Williams and tell them how this will impact you and your friends and family now, and in the future.

Minister for Public & Active Transport – Hon. Gabrielle Williams

Background

What is proposed and why

The DTP propose banning ALL e-bikes (except folding e-bikes) from trains and coaches across Victoria. 

This is in response to one local e-bike fire on a train in Melbourne and some interstate and overseas. The e-bike fire in Melbourne was a standard mountain bike with battery and motor fitted in a home conversion. 

The DTPs own supporting documents make it clear that fires are caused by home conversions and cheap non-compliant electric bikes and motorcycles. 

The ban is proposed to apply to ALL e-bikes including those that comply with EN15194 and which have not been associated with fires. 

The context

In 2018 Coroner Audrey Jamison first recommended that the Victorian State Government better regulate e-bikes and electric motorcycles and in particular establish how best to detect and prevent people operating high-powered electric bicycles without licence or registration as if they were power-assisted pedal cycles. (page 16) 

In 2021 the Morrison government changed import regulations on electric bicycles making it easier to import bicycles and electric motorcycles that do not comply with regulations. 

In 2025 Coroner Audey Jamison considered her initial recommendation in 2018, any action taken by the state government and agencies and remarked that ‘….the regulation of e-bicycles in Victoria, including to ensure they fit within the prescribed parameters, appears suboptimal.’ (page 7) 

The current situation where there exists a risk of fires on trains (and increasing road safety issues) is one that the Victorian government has allowed to develop despite the above recommendations . 

Who uses e-bikes. 

E-bikes (both those compliant with international standards and those that are not) are used in conjunction with trains by people to;

–access work opportunities, particularly when public transport reach or frequency is inadequate at either end of their trip. This is particularly true for shift workers, those working in industrial or outer suburban areas and those living where PT access to trains is poor. 

-for delivery riders to access their work areas. While delivery rider’s bikes are often non-compliant they are generally less powerful than the e-bikes/electric motorbikes often being ridden by others. 

-by people living with medical condictions and disabilities that make it more difficult for them to access trains by other means (ie: they can’t walk far, can’t drive or are unable to because of their medication etc) 

-by people filling in gaps in the cycling network. Some parts of people’s journeys are not covered by safe cycling routes and these gaps in the cycling network are often where people decide to use a train for part of their journey

-by people accessing recreational opportunities. 

-by people taking part in social activities, ir social bike rides, with a range of riders in age and endurance. 

-by families 

The impact

Despite trips made by train+e-bike combinations being a part of the transport system the DTP have no data on how many people make these trips, from where, why and how often. It is impossible for the DTP to measure the impact of this decision in the absence of any meaningful data. 

Some of the impacts of this decision people have mentioned to us are;

-people will lose access to work opportunities, recreational and social opportunities.

-many of these people are already from cohorts of the population who are vulnerable to transport inaccessibility, poor job prospects, poorer health outcomes or isolation.

-the people most likely to comply with the ban are those riding good quality standard compliant e-bikes that have never been associated with a fire. 

-the people riding the poorest home conversions and cheapest electric bicycles will still take their bikes on the train. 

-there will be a huge incentive for people for whom losing access to the train journey component of their trip has serious consequences (ie: losing access to work opportunities) to buy even more powerful unregulated electric motorcycles so that they can cover the journey previously made by train. This will have a serious road safety impact on them and others, particularly vulnerable road users on shared paths. 

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