Lyn Hampton (not her real name) doesn't need a study to tell her Mildura has a "transport isolation" problem.

Living with a disability and unable to drive, Ms Hampton spends up to 13 hours travelling from her home in north-west Melbourne to see her son in Mildura, using a mix of trains, buses and taxis.

"The train would allow me to take my daughter with me, so she could meet her brother without me having to bring along my partner with him driving," she said.

Ms Hampton, 20, is one of dozens of residents pleased to see a new study has identified a passenger train between Mildura and Melbourne as a top priority for the region.

It has been 29 years since the Kennett government ended passenger train services to the city of more than 30,000, Victoria's sixth-largest.

The draft North West Victorian Regional Transport Study, released for public comment last week, has made reintroducing the train one of eight top priorities to help end north-west Victoria's transport poverty.

However, it also noted more work was needed to quantify how many people would use a train between Mildura and Melbourne.

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But Ms Hampton said the demand was high enough.

V/Line operates more than 50 coach services a week to or from Mildura, via either Donald and Ballarat, or Swan Hill and Bendigo.

Servicing is completed every two weeks, based on the kilometres that a coach travels, and alternative transport is arranged where services are not accessible.

Study findings unsurprising

The study also recommended reviews and changes to the local bus networks within Mildura, something resident and father-of-four Jeremy Dickson said was long overdue.

Mr Dickson recently moved to south Mildura near Sixteenth Street, and said he was "genuinely shocked" not to have a bus route within a 15-minute walk of his house.

"My kids can't just jump on a bus and go into town to go to the shops or go see a movie — I regard that as ridiculous."

A report in 2021 by the Institute for Sensible Transport noted it had been more than 20 years since there was a review of Mildura's bus services.

Mr Dickson said it was a baffling problem that could easily be fixed by readjusting routes to better service recently developed areas.

"You've got a town like Mildura that wants to be seen as progressive, modern, the place to move to," he said.

"And yet it's falling well behind in looking after its new people and growth areas."

A state government spokesperson said in a statement to the ABC: "Mildura's bus network is for keeping the community connected and providing access to services such as healthcare, education and employment.

The Mildura bus network contains 10 distinct route patterns – seven which service Mildura and towns in Victoria, Routes 100 to 602, and three which connect towns in NSW with Mildura, Routes 950 to 956. 

These patterns are serviced by 20 separate bus routes – buses have different route numbers for each direction they run.