South Yarra · Prahran · Windsor
Taxis and airport transfers on Chapel Street
ME CABS covers the full length of Chapel Street — South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor — with pre-booked pickups, late-night rides home, airport transfers and maxi taxis for groups. Book ahead for a set pickup time and a fixed fare agreed before you travel, so you're not standing on the kerb at 2am hoping something turns up.
South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor. Book ahead, know the fare, and don't think about how you're getting home.
Your car, at your time.
Fixed fare agreed before you travel.
When the street needs a car
Chapel Street’s demand is lopsided. So is this page.
Fri & Sat, 11pm–4am
Book the ride home before you go out.
The peak. Bars, clubs and restaurants emptying across two kilometres at once.
Sun–Thu, after 11pm
The weeknight case is the stronger one.
Quieter, but public transport thins out sharply. Fewer options, and no fallback.
Weekday mornings
Fixed fare, flight tracked.
Airport runs from South Yarra and Prahran apartments, and early pickups around Toorak Road.
Market mornings
A boot beats a tram.
Prahran Market shoppers with bags, boxes and a trolley.
Any time
MPTP accepted, return booked in advance.
The Alfred on Commercial Road, and appointments through the Prahran clinics.
Event nights
Set the pickup time for when it actually finishes.
Chapel Off Chapel, the Astor, Palace Cinema at Como, and Revolver's long weekend sessions.
The transport problem
The strip empties at 2am. The network doesn’t.
This is the argument, and it works because every line of it is checkable. None of it is dramatic — it is just what happens on Chapel Street after the last service goes.
The all-night network runs two nights a week
Melbourne's Night Network runs all-night trains and trams on Friday and Saturday nights only. Overnight trains run roughly hourly, and just six tram routes operate through the night — 19, 67, 75, 86, 96 and 109.
Chapel Street's own tram is not one of them
Route 78 runs the length of Chapel Street, from North Richmond through South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor to Balaclava. It is not a Night Network route, so even on a Friday the street itself has no tram once the regular network stops.
The stations help, if you live on that line
South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor stations sit on the Sandringham line, which Night Network does cover on those two nights — at roughly hourly intervals. That is a long wait at 2.40am, and it only helps if the train goes where you live.
Sunday to Thursday there is nothing
No all-night service at all. Once the last tram and the last train go, the strip is on its own — which is why the weeknight case for a booked car is stronger than the weekend one, not weaker.
Route numbers and Night Network coverage are current as at August 2026 and are re-checked annually. We publish the shape of the problem, not a timetable — check ptv.vic.gov.au for times.
Parking is the other half of the problem.
- Clearways operate on Chapel Street at peak times, and on-street parking through the precinct is metered, time-limited and actively enforced by the City of Stonnington.
- Parking difficulty is one of the most consistent complaints made about the precinct, by visitors and traders alike.
- Circling for a space on a Friday night is time you would rather spend at the table you booked.
And then there is the obvious one. Chapel Street is a drinking strip. Victoria's limit is 0.05 for a full licence and zero for learner and probationary drivers — so if you drove in, someone in your group was nominated for the night before you left the house.
Before you go out
Book it before you go out. Future you will be extremely pleased with present you.
The street, end to end
Two kilometres, three suburbs, and four different pickup problems.
South Yarra end
Toorak Road to Commercial Road
The upmarket stretch. High-end fashion, the Como Centre on the Toorak Road corner with its thirty-plus stores, Palace Cinema and a boutique hotel, the Jam Factory, apartment towers and rooftop dining. Corporate pickups, hotel guests and dinner bookings.
Pickup note. The Toorak Road and Chapel Street intersection is one of the busiest in the inner south. We nominate a side street rather than the corner — it is faster for everyone.
Prahran
Commercial Road to High Street
The busiest and most mixed stretch. Pran Central, big-format retail and independents, plus the side streets that actually matter — Greville Street for record shops and small bars, Chapel Off Chapel in a converted church running cabaret, theatre, comedy and dance, and Revolver Upstairs, the band room and club whose weekend sessions run famously long. Prahran Market sits just off Chapel on Commercial Road.
Pickup note. The Commercial Road end is where late-night crowds are thickest. A named cross-street beats “outside the club” every time.
Windsor
High Street south
The quieter, scruffier, better-liked end. Vintage stores, the Art Deco Astor Theatre screening arthouse and cult classics, the Chapel Street Bazaar, and a dense run of bars and restaurants. Sessions finish later here, and more spread out, than at the South Yarra end.
Pickup note. Astor sessions release a large crowd at once, often near midnight. Worth booking the pickup before the film starts.
Chapel Street North
Richmond, north of the river
Often forgotten, and frequently confused with the southern strip. We name it explicitly so anyone searching from the Richmond end knows we cover it — and so a car is never sent to the wrong end of the same street name.
Pickup note. Tell us Richmond when you book, not just Chapel Street. It is the single most useful word you can give the driver.
Tell us the cross-street, not the venue. On a two-kilometre strip it is the difference between two minutes and twenty.
Set your pickup point
Which end of the street are you on?
Picking up on South Yarra. We’ll confirm the exact cross-street with you when you book — it is faster than a venue name every time.
Book from South YarraWhat we do here
Five reasons the street calls us.
The late-night ride home
Book before you go out, set the time, and the car is allocated to you. No app roulette at 2am, no surge, and no standing on Chapel Street with a flat phone battery. Booking ahead is the whole point — it is what turns a hope into an arrangement.
Groups and maxi taxis
Six or seven people out together, one vehicle, one fare. Cheaper per head than splitting across cars, and nobody gets separated at the end of the night — which is the part that actually matters. Maxis are limited in number, so weekend nights want booking ahead.
Airport transfers
Melbourne Airport and Avalon, door to door from any South Yarra, Prahran or Windsor address. Fixed fare, flight number tracked, and terminal-specific pickup instructions sent before you land. Allow around 30 to 45 minutes to Tullamarine outside peak, and longer on a weekday morning.
The Alfred and medical appointments
The Alfred sits on Commercial Road at the Prahran end of Chapel Street, with clinics and specialists through the surrounding blocks. We run hospital and appointment transport daily, we accept MPTP, and we can book the return before you go in.
Market mornings and the shopping run
Prahran Market has traded since 1864 — Australia's oldest continuously running food market — moving to its purpose-built Commercial Road home in 1891. That, plus a thousand shops along the strip. Bags, boxes and a boot, rather than a tram with your hands full.
Accessible transport & MPTP
Chapel Street is harder than most. We’d rather say so.
- Wheelchair accessible vehicles must be booked in advance. They are limited in number and we hold them for the bookings that need them.
- Multi Purpose Taxi Program members receive 50% off the total fare, up to a $60 subsidy per trip. Tell us you are an MPTP member when you book.
- Chapel Street's older shopfronts, split levels and stepped entries make accessible travel to a specific address genuinely harder here than in a newer precinct. We would rather say that plainly and plan the drop-off point with you in advance than publish a generic accessibility line.
Why ME CABS
We don’t surge. 1am on Chapel Street costs what it costs.
Why trust us
- A fixed fare agreed before you travel — no meter running while the car sits in Friday-night traffic on Chapel Street.
- Registered commercial passenger vehicles and accredited drivers, every trip.
- We pre-book. Your car is allocated to your time, rather than thrown into a pool and hoped for.
- Cabcharge accepted, and MPTP recognised.
Why not rideshare
- Surge pricing lands hardest at exactly the moment you need a ride — 1am on a Saturday, on the busiest strip in the inner south.
- The pickup pin drifts. On a two-kilometre street with crowds outside every second venue, “your driver is nearby” is not the same as your driver finding you.
- No accessible vehicle on demand, and no MPTP.
Why not drive
- Clearways, meters, time limits and active enforcement. Parking is the precinct's most-complained-about problem.
- 0.05, and zero for probationary drivers. Someone loses their night before it starts.
- Leaving the car overnight means coming back for it, and paying for the privilege.
Why not public transport
- Chapel Street's own tram — route 78 — does not run through the night, even on a Friday.
- Night Network trains run roughly hourly, and only on Friday and Saturday.
- Sunday to Thursday, once the last service goes, there is nothing.
Agreed? Set the time and the fare now, and stop thinking about it.
Getting there
Five kilometres from the CBD, and further than it sounds at 2am.
From the CBD
About 5 km. Ten to twenty minutes depending on traffic and which end of the street you want.
Trains
South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor stations, all on the Sandringham line.
Trams
Route 78 runs the length of Chapel Street itself. Separate routes serve Toorak Road, Commercial Road and High Street, so each cross-street has its own service.
Melbourne Airport
Roughly 30 to 45 minutes outside peak. Longer on a weekday morning — build in the buffer.
Avalon Airport
Roughly an hour, traffic dependent.
Council area
City of Stonnington.
Price a route from Chapel Street
Can I get a taxi on Chapel Street late at night?
Yes, and the reliable way is to pre-book. Set your pickup time before you go out and the car is allocated to you, rather than hoping something is free when the venues empty.
Does public transport run all night on Chapel Street?
Not on the street itself. Melbourne's Night Network runs all-night trains and six tram routes on Friday and Saturday nights only — 19, 67, 75, 86, 96 and 109 — and Chapel Street's route 78 is not one of them. Overnight trains through South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor run roughly hourly, and Sunday to Thursday there is no all-night service at all.
Do you surge price on Friday and Saturday nights?
No. The fare is agreed before you travel and does not change because the street is busy.
Can you take a group of six or seven?
Yes — book a maxi. One vehicle, one fare, and nobody separated at the end of the night. Book ahead on weekends, because maxis are limited in number.
Where's the best place to be picked up on Chapel Street?
A named cross-street rather than a venue. Chapel Street runs about two kilometres with crowds outside dozens of venues, so a cross-street gets the driver to you far faster. We will confirm the spot with you when you book.
Do you go to Melbourne Airport from South Yarra or Prahran?
Yes, door to door, with a fixed fare and your flight tracked. Allow around 30 to 45 minutes outside peak, and longer on a weekday morning.
Can you take me to The Alfred?
Yes. The Alfred is on Commercial Road at the Prahran end of Chapel Street. We run hospital and appointment transport daily, accept MPTP, and can book your return before you go in.
Do you have wheelchair accessible vehicles?
Yes, booked in advance. Call 1300 012 018 and we will plan the pickup and drop-off points with you too — Chapel Street's older shopfronts are not all straightforward.
What does it cost?
The fare is agreed before you travel, so you know it before you book rather than watching a meter. Put your pickup and drop-off into the fare estimator for an exact figure, or call 1300 012 018 and we will quote it.
Also useful
Melbourne Airport
Tullamarine transfers, fixed fare, flight tracked, terminal instructions before you land.
Avalon Airport
The other airport — about an hour from the strip.
Maxi taxi
People movers for groups of five to seven, and everyone home in one car.
Accessible transport
Wheelchair-accessible vehicles, booked ahead. MPTP accepted.
Fare estimator
Price any route from a Chapel Street address before you book it.
Areas we serve
Toorak, Armadale, St Kilda, Richmond, Southbank and the rest of the inner south.
Ready when you are
Book it now, and stop thinking about the ride home.
South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor and Chapel Street North. A fixed fare agreed before you travel, a car allocated to your time, and no surge — whatever the street is doing.
Tell us the cross-street, not the venue