That should include allowing members of the public to ride on school buses in Victoria's regional and remote communities, Bus Association Victoria has told a parliamentary inquiry.

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The group is pressing for a pilot program to be run in Castlemaine to prove the concept could work safely.

Hardly any parents or children below school age currently ride buses, the group has told the Victorian inquiry, which is examining whether bus networks reinforce disadvantage in rural and regional areas.

Those people do technically have the ability to apply for a seat on school buses because of "onerous" hurdles getting approval, BAV executive director Chris Lowe told the inquiry.

"Providing wider access to spare seats on existing school bus services and using school buses when it is not required for the contracted service has been discussed in Victoria for more than 20 years," he wrote.

Opening up the school bus network would have clear benefits, Mr Lowe said.

For a start, it would allow more people to travel to work in regional areas, potentially easing unemployment and preventing isolation.

"School buses presently travel 31.1 million kilometres a year, more than double the 14.3 million kilometres travelled by regional route bus services," Mr Lowe said.

Below: The BAV says opening buses to non-school students could expand the network by this much (slide the white bar on the screen to view pictures).

The benefits would be even greater if rules were changed to allow school buses to pick up passengers outside of their school runs, he added.

"The present Victorian rural school bus network sees government funded but privately owned buses used for two to three hours in the morning and afternoon on each school day.

"Outside of these hours, the school buses often sit idle."

Discussions about allowing non-school children onto the network had often fallen down over concerns about the potential for abuse on buses, a perceived lack of money for upkeep if more people are using them and with "silo" thinking about regulations, Mr Lowe said.

But many buses throughout the network do not run at capacity, including in areas where there are few or no public transport options.

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Other states and countries had systems in place to manage safety and charge fares to non-school children, the BAV said.

It recommended the Department of Transport fund a rollout of GPS and CCTV technology to school buses.

Buses would use existing fare systems and non-school students would sit in specially allocated seats. Parents or other adults might also volunteer to act as supervisors.

The BAV hopes to run a 12-month pilot study in Castlemaine using technology discussed in its inquiry submission, but those plans have not been locked in.

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