To help introduce visitors to the Southern Star over the busy holiday season, VicUrban and ING Real Estate will provide their free shuttle service between Southern Cross Station and Docklands Drive, Docklands. The service will begin from November 28th at 10am and will continue seven days a week between 10am to 8pm, providing direct and easy access to the Docklands precincts of Waterfront City and NewQuay for three months.

Departing from outside Southern Cross Station on Collins Street, the bus will do a continual loop via Spencer and La Trobe Streets, stopping at the Southern Star near Harbour Town, before returning via Harbour Esplanade where it will also make a stop at Telstra Dome before returning to the corner of Collins and Spencer Streets.

On a more permanent basis, The City of Melbourne has also announced that from December 1, it will extend its popular free city tourist shuttle bus route to include stops at Waterfront City and Harbour Esplanade.

City of Melbourne CEO Dr Kathy Alexander said the service was now taking in a more expansive route and that the free hop on / hop off service provides for tourists who want to take in more of Melbourne’s world-class sites and attractions.

From 1 December, the new free tourist shuttle service will operate every 30 minutes between 9.30am & 4.30pm daily excluding Good Friday and Christmas Day. Further information is available online at www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/shuttle.

News of the two free shuttle services follows the State Government’s announcement it will extend the free City Circle Tram route to include Docklands Drive from mid 2009.