Overseen by Public Transport Victoria, the network comprises nine key cross-town and orbital bus routes around Melbourne.

[5] On 16 October 2006, route 900 began operation, connecting major areas in south-eastern Melbourne including Chadstone SC, Oakleigh and Monash University.

It runs between Chelsea and Airport West, connecting to nine railway stations, three tram routes and over 60 local lines, spanning 76 kilometres (47 mi).

Those routes were designed to provide a public transport connection between the Doncaster area and the Melbourne central business district.

[14] In April 2015, the proposed network change, including the splitting of the orbial routes, was rejected by the newly-elected Andrews Labor government.

[16] SmartBus routes operate from 5:00am to midnight from Monday to Saturday and from 6:00am to 9:00pm on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day.

However, since then, most of these buses have been displaced onto non-SmartBus routes and replaced by Gemilang Coachworks and Volgren bodied and Scania K320UBs painted in the orange PTV livery.

[29] Buses dedicated to SmartBus operations, regardless of livery, feature PIDS inside of the bus, which shows the next stop.

All SmartBus bus stops feature totems, with some including real time PIDs embedded into them.

Additionally, major bus stops may include shelters, bins, and real time passenger information displays.

The location of buses is tracked using GPS satellite receivers fitted to the bus, which relay this information to the network control centre.