Collingwood · Abbotsford · Fitzroy edge
Taxis and airport transfers in Collingwood
ME CABS covers Collingwood and Abbotsford — Smith Street, Gertrude Street, Johnston Street, Wellington Street and the warehouse blocks between them. Pre-booked pickups, late-night rides home, airport transfers, accessible vehicles and maxi taxis, with a fixed fare agreed before you travel. Both train stations that serve Collingwood are across the border in Abbotsford and neither is wheelchair accessible, so for some trips a car isn't the convenient option — it's the only one.
Smith Street, Gertrude Street, Johnston Street and everything between. Book ahead, know the fare, get home.
Both stations are in Abbotsford. Neither has a lift.
We come to your door instead.
When the suburb needs a car
Collingwood’s demand runs late, and runs all week.
Fri & Sat, 11pm–3am
Pre-book the ride home. The 86 runs too — see below.
The peak. Bars and music venues across three streets emptying together.
Sun–Thu, after 11pm
The strongest weeknight case we have.
The real gap. No all-night service at all on these nights, and Collingwood's bars don't only trade on weekends.
Weekday mornings
Fixed fare, flight tracked.
Airport runs from Collingwood and Abbotsford apartments and warehouse conversions.
Business hours
Cabcharge accepted.
Creative agencies, studios and startups through the warehouse blocks.
Any time
Our strongest claim here.
Accessibility trips. Both local stations are up a steep ramp with no lift.
Gig nights
Set the pickup for when it actually finishes.
Live music venues release crowds at once, often after midnight.
The transport problem
The 86 is a good tram. It goes where it goes.
Collingwood is better served at night than most inner suburbs, and a page that pretends otherwise loses a local reader in one line. So here is the honest version — which is still a strong argument, because every line of it is checkable.
What actually works: the 86, two nights a week
Tram route 86 runs the length of Smith Street and turns into Gertrude Street, and it is one of only six Melbourne tram routes on the Night Network — running through the night on Fridays and Saturdays. On those two nights the Smith Street corridor is genuinely covered.
Sunday to Thursday there is no all-night service
Once the last tram and the last train go, the strip is on its own. Collingwood's bars and band rooms trade all week, and five nights out of seven the network does not.
The 86 goes where the 86 goes
Bundoora to Docklands via the CBD. Brilliant if you live on that line. If you're heading to Carlton, Richmond, Brunswick, St Kilda or anywhere south of the river, it's a change in the middle of the night, or nothing.
Neither station is in Collingwood
Collingwood station is on Stanton Street, Abbotsford. Victoria Park station is on Little Turner Street, Abbotsford. Both are on the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines, and both are a walk east from the Smith Street action.
Neither station is wheelchair accessible
Both are elevated structures reached by a steep ramp, with no lift. That is not a minor inconvenience — it means the rail network does not serve this suburb for anyone who cannot manage the ramp. There is a whole section on it below.
Route numbers, Night Network coverage and station accessibility are current as at September 2026 and are re-checked annually. We publish the shape of the problem, not a timetable — check ptv.vic.gov.au for times.
Parking, and the car you didn’t bring.
- City of Yarra permit zones dominate the residential streets, metered parking covers the main strips, and enforcement is active.
- The side streets off Smith and Johnston are narrow, one-way in places, and full by early evening.
- Clearways operate on the main roads at peak. Hoddle Street at peak is its own category of problem.
And it's a drinking precinct. 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.
Sunday to Thursday, nothing runs all night
That’s the night to book ahead. Set the time now and walk out to a car that’s already yours.
The streets, end to end
Three streets, the blocks between them, and the edge where the stations actually are.
Smith Street
The spine · Collingwood / Fitzroy border
The main strip, running the border between Collingwood and Fitzroy with the 86 down the middle of it. Bars, record stores, restaurants and shopfronts the whole way — Happy Valley for art and design books, and Above Board, a cocktail bar upstairs that seats sixteen, so it empties in ones and twos rather than in a wave.
Pickup note. A named cross-street beats a venue name. Smith Street is long, busy and has a tram line down the centre — the driver needs a side street, not a shopfront.
Gertrude Street
West from Smith, into Fitzroy
Where the 86 turns west. Tighter, more restaurant-led, and it shares a crowd with Smith Street on weekend nights. Named explicitly so anyone searching from the Fitzroy end knows we cover it.
Pickup note. Tell us the corner — Gertrude and Smith, Gertrude and Napier — rather than the restaurant. The street is short enough that the right corner is the whole job.
Johnston Street
East–west across the suburb
Home of Collingwood Yards at 35 Johnston Street — the creative precinct holding studios, galleries and independent tenants, plus Hope St Radio, the Runner Up rooftop bar, a bakery, a record store and a bookshop. Accessible entries, lifts and accessible toilets throughout, with an accessible parking bay at the 35C Johnston Street entrance.
Pickup note. Collingwood Yards is the single best-defined pickup point in the suburb. Use the Johnston Street entrance by name.
The warehouse blocks
Easey, Gipps, Budd, Keele, Wellington
The part of Collingwood that doesn't look like a high street. Easey's on Easey Street puts burgers in train carriages five storeys above the ground; Backwoods Gallery and the Sense of Self bathhouse are on the same street. Stomping Ground's brewery and beer hall and Le Bon Ton are on Gipps Street, Aunty Peg's roastery is on Wellington, Lamington Drive gallery on Budd, and Cibi on Keele.
Pickup note. These streets are narrow and poorly lit at night. Nominating a corner in advance is worth more here than anywhere else in the suburb.
Abbotsford edge
East to the river
Where both stations actually are, along with Victoria Park — home ground of the Collingwood Football Club from 1892 to 1999, and the reason Victoria Park station was originally called Collingwood before it was renamed in 1909. Quieter, more residential, and close to the Yarra.
Pickup note. Give us the street and the suburb — Abbotsford, not Collingwood — so the car is never sent to the wrong side of Hoddle Street.
Give us the cross-street, not the bar. Smith Street's long and there's a tram down the middle of it.
Set your pickup point
Which part of Collingwood are you in?
Picking up around Smith Street. We’ll confirm the exact cross-street with you when you book — it is faster than a venue name every time.
Book from Smith StreetWhat we do here
Five reasons the suburb calls us.
The late-night ride home
Book before you go out, set the time, and the car is allocated to you. Particularly worth it Sunday to Thursday, when nothing runs all night, and any night you're not going where the 86 goes. Booking ahead is what turns a hope into an arrangement.
Accessible transport
Both local stations are inaccessible. We aren't. Wheelchair accessible vehicles, booked ahead, door to door — and we plan the drop-off point with you, because Collingwood's warehouse conversions and narrow side streets aren't all straightforward.
Groups and maxi taxis
Six or seven of you, one vehicle, one fare, one pickup point. Cheaper per head than splitting across cars, and nobody gets left on Smith Street sorting out a second ride. Maxis are limited in number, so weekend nights want booking ahead.
Airport transfers
Melbourne Airport and Avalon, door to door from any Collingwood or Abbotsford address. Fixed fare, flight tracked, driver waiting — and no dragging a suitcase up a steep station ramp. Allow around 25 to 40 minutes to Tullamarine outside peak, longer on a weekday morning.
Gigs, galleries and nights out
Live music venues, galleries and the Yards all release crowds at once, usually late. Set the pickup for fifteen minutes after the room empties and walk out to a waiting car instead of into a queue.
Accessible transport & MPTP
Both local stations are inaccessible. We aren’t.
The fact that makes the case
Neither train station serving Collingwood is wheelchair accessible.
Collingwood station (Stanton Street, Abbotsford) and Victoria Park station (Little Turner Street, Abbotsford) are both elevated structures reached by a steep ramp, with no lift. Both are on the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines.
For a wheelchair user, a parent with a pram, someone with a walking frame or anyone who simply can't manage a steep ramp, the rail network does not serve this suburb. Not “is inconvenient” — does not serve it.
- 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.
- We plan the drop-off point with you. Collingwood's heritage shopfronts, split levels, stepped entries and narrow lanes make a specific address genuinely harder here than in a newer precinct. Collingwood Yards, by contrast, has accessible entries, lifts, accessible toilets and a dedicated accessible bay at 35C Johnston Street — so we use it as a meeting point when it suits.
Why ME CABS
We don’t surge. 1am on Smith Street costs what it costs.
Why trust us
- A fixed fare agreed before you travel — no meter running while the car sits behind a tram on Smith Street.
- Registered commercial passenger vehicles and accredited drivers, every trip.
- We pre-book. Your car is allocated to your time, not thrown into a pool and hoped for.
- Cabcharge accepted, and MPTP recognised.
Why not rideshare
- Surge lands hardest at exactly the moment you need a ride — 1am Saturday, three streets emptying at once.
- The pin drifts. Smith Street is long, busy and tram-divided; “your driver is nearby” and “your driver has found you” are different sentences.
- No accessible vehicle on demand, and no MPTP.
Why not drive
- Permit zones, meters, narrow one-way side streets and active enforcement.
- 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
- The 86 is excellent on Friday and Saturday — if you're going where it goes.
- Sunday to Thursday there's no all-night service at all.
- Both stations are across the border in Abbotsford, and neither has a lift.
Agreed? Set the time and the fare now, and stop thinking about it.
Getting there
Three kilometres from the CBD, and a steep ramp from the train.
From the CBD
About 3 km. Ten to fifteen minutes outside peak.
Trains
Collingwood (Stanton St, Abbotsford) and Victoria Park (Little Turner St, Abbotsford), both on the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines. Neither is wheelchair accessible.
Trams
Route 86 runs the length of Smith Street and turns west into Gertrude Street. It's a Night Network route, running through the night on Fridays and Saturdays.
Buses
Routes 200, 207 and 966 stop at Johnston and Smith Streets, about five minutes' walk from Collingwood Yards.
Melbourne Airport
Roughly 25 to 40 minutes outside peak. Longer on a weekday morning — build the buffer in.
Avalon Airport
Roughly an hour, traffic dependent.
Council area
City of Yarra.
Price a route from Collingwood
Can I get a taxi in Collingwood 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's free when three streets empty at once.
Does public transport run all night in Collingwood?
Partly. Tram route 86 runs the length of Smith Street and into Gertrude Street, and it's one of six Night Network tram routes running through the night on Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday to Thursday there's no all-night service, and the 86 only helps if you're heading along its route.
Where is Collingwood station?
On Stanton Street — in Abbotsford, not Collingwood. Victoria Park station is also in Abbotsford, on Little Turner Street. Both serve the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines, and neither is wheelchair accessible: both are elevated with a steep ramp and no lift.
Is Collingwood station wheelchair accessible?
No. Neither Collingwood station nor Victoria Park station has a lift — both are elevated and reached by a steep ramp. ME CABS runs wheelchair accessible vehicles door to door instead, booked in advance, with MPTP accepted.
Do you have wheelchair accessible vehicles?
Yes, booked in advance. It matters more here than in most suburbs, because neither local station is accessible. Call 1300 012 018 and we'll plan the pickup and drop-off points too — Collingwood's older shopfronts and narrow lanes aren't all straightforward.
Do you surge price on Friday and Saturday nights?
No. The fare is agreed before you travel and doesn't change because the street is busy.
Can you take a group of six or seven?
Yes — book a maxi. One vehicle, one fare, one pickup point. Book ahead on weekends; maxis are limited.
Where's the best place to be picked up in Collingwood?
A named cross-street rather than a venue, and for Johnston Street the Collingwood Yards entrance at 35 Johnston Street is the clearest point in the suburb. We'll suggest one when you book.
Do you go to Melbourne Airport from Collingwood?
Yes, door to door, with a fixed fare and your flight tracked. Allow around 25 to 40 minutes outside peak, longer on a weekday morning.
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
Accessible transport
Wheelchair-accessible vehicles, booked ahead. MPTP accepted. The page this suburb needs most.
Melbourne Airport
Tullamarine transfers, fixed fare, flight tracked, terminal instructions before you land.
Avalon Airport
The other airport — about an hour from Smith Street.
Maxi taxi
People movers for groups of five to seven, and everyone home in one car.
Fare estimator
Price any route from a Collingwood or Abbotsford address before you book it.
Fitzroy
Next door — Brunswick Street, and the other side of Smith Street.
Richmond
South across Victoria Parade — Bridge Road, Swan Street and the MCG.
Areas we serve
Brunswick, Carlton, the CBD and the rest of the inner north.
Ready when you are
Book it now, and stop thinking about the ride home.
Smith Street, Gertrude Street, Johnston Street, the warehouse blocks and Abbotsford. A fixed fare agreed before you travel, a car allocated to your time, and no surge — whatever the street is doing.
Give us the cross-street, not the bar