Every passenger bus in Victoria will be fitted with a security screen to protect drivers from the risk of violent assault, following breakthrough talks between the drivers' union, their employers and Public Transport Victoria.
It is expected the full rollout of new security screens on about 2000 existing buses will take about three years and cost an estimated $10 million.
![Victorian bus drivers wanting greater protections protest on the steps of State Parliament on November 15, 2016.](/web/20161221190918im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/p/g/j/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtdmxg.png/1482045200361.jpg)
All new buses that enter service will also have screens fitted.
Costs will be split evenly between bus operators and state authority PTV.
The push to mandate bus driver security screens has come from the Transport Workers Union and industry group the Bus Association following a disturbing increase in violent attacks.
There have been at least 16 documented physical attacks on bus drivers so far this year, ranging from being punched to being spat on.
Some drivers have reported being threatened with being set on fire in recent weeks, following the killing of Brisbane bus driver Manmeet Alisher in Brisbane in October, the union said.
John Berger, the TWU's Victorian branch secretary, said he felt relief for all bus drivers that authorities were acting to install screens, following a three-year union campaign.
"However, no time should be wasted to begin the installation of safety devices as violent assaults on drivers continue to be reported," Mr Berger said.
"I am also appalled that some passengers have in recent weeks even threatened to set Melbourne drivers alight in reference to the sickening murder of Brisbane bus driver Manmeet Alisher on October 28."
The number of reported assaults on Victorian bus drivers has surged in the past six years, Transport Safety Victoria figures show. There have been 102 reported physical attacks, and 33 verbal attacks between 2011 and September this year.
Drivers are contractually obliged to ask passengers to touch on if it is safe to do so, and bus drivers say passenger objections to being asked to pay a fare are the most common spark for violent and aggressive behaviour.
Chris Lowe, chief executive of Bus Association Victoria, said that during talks bus operators had initially offered to pay the full cost of fitting screens to the state's fleet of passenger buses, over the next six years.
But the agreement by PTV to join in funding the screens would halve the period of time needed to complete the rollout.
"It's a great outcome," Mr Lowe said.
"We're finally getting some traction and some empathy from government."
A spokesman for PTV said bus drivers played an important role in ensuring people paid their way on public transport, but any physical or verbal assault on a driver was "completely unacceptable".
"More than half of all metropolitan buses have already been fitted with security screens and we are looking at options to fast track retrofitting the remainder of the fleet," he said.
"PTV has also mandated that all new metropolitan buses must be fitted with the screens."