According to the VLine timetables there are several buses daily from Horsham, the largest centre in Western Victoria, to Melbourne.
A couple run right through; the others require a change to train at Ararat or Ballarat.
ALL of these services are advertised as "Accessible".
There are 2 train services a week, neither of which is accessible.
If a person requires medical attention in the capital city or large regional centre like Ballarat or Geelong, then they are far better off with a door to door car or mini-bus transfer service. Such services exist in both South Australia and Victoria and are subsidised so the cost to the patient is minimal and certainly less than the bus or train fare. If a day return can be organised then the cost of a hotel is removed as well.
There are many solutions to the array of scenarios arising in providing a public transport service, including the most expensive, rail.
First of all...people with a disability are not 'patients'.
I cite the Overland, even in it's existing configuration as the best surface transport...bar NONE, even if it is the most expensive for people living with a disability who wish to travel, for business or pleasure between Melbourne and Adelaide or points in between. In particular, the accessible toilets of the Overland is the prime reason I say this. Pax are not required to leave the train in transit to access facilities, whereas with bus travel this is absolutely necessary.
Secondly, the longest bus trip in western Victoria on all buses which have disability access is about 4 hours, not the 10+ hours of the bus alternative.
People whether disabled or able-bodied probably should not be accessing PT if they are travelling as a patient, depending of course on their degree of incapacity.
Trains are an expensive form of public transport and that's the way it is. However their ability to induce travel by being a worthwhile alternative to driving, or worse...remaining shut in at home because of the lack of private transport is second to none because of the reasons I've been writing about and in Victoria, their speed, comfort, frequency, economy and the ability to travel without the necessity to drive.
Increasingly in Victoria, this is the way things are and the ongoing construction of V'Locity rail cars and the continually growing numbers of pax to fill them is still, after 10 years, on its upward trajectory.
http://regionalrailrevival.vic.gov.au/
Mike.