Free festive public transport for Victoria

A quarter of a million free public transport vouchers will be handed out to Victorians in coming days to encourage more people to visit the Melbourne CBD.

In addition to free travel days on Christmas and New Year's Eve, 250,000 vouchers will be offered from December 16 through Public Transport Victoria's website.

In order to get the free passes, valid throughout December and January, travellers will have to apply for a voucher which will be emailed for printing or for downloading to a smartphone.

Passengers will be asked to show them to staff when entering or exiting public transport.

The vouchers will be broken into five event categories - Christmas events, galleries and attractions, dining, performing arts and shopping - with 50,000 passes allocated to each category.

The government said the scheme was to "promote a safe return to Melbourne's CBD".

Trains, trams and buses across the state will be made free for all between 3am on December 25 and 3am on December 26, as well as from 6pm on December 31 until 6am on January 1.

"Victorians will no doubt be keen this festive season to celebrate their hard-won freedom, so we're making sure they have travel options to do just that," Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll said.

Mr Carroll said metropolitan public transport fares will rise by 2.3 per cent from January 1, after the government froze fares last year.

This will amount to a 20 cent increase to the daily cost of zone one and two metropolitan tickets.

The state opposition was critical of the voucher program's conditions and said it had been calling for free travel through December and January for more than a month.

"Instead of a restrictive and limited voucher program, the government should be offering unlimited free travel into the Melbourne CBD in December and January to ensure it's a Christmas present that all Victorians can enjoy," deputy Victorian Liberal leader David Southwick said.