Cost of living relief and a political stunt are dominating the first full day of campaigning for the Victorian state election.
Labor leader Daniel Andrews announced regional train fares would be brought into line with metro fares from March 2023 if the government was re-elected.
Fares across the state's entire train network would be capped at $9.20 a day for passengers at a cost of $203 million, according to treasury calculations.
Currently V/Line passengers are charged based on distance, meaning it can cost up to $69 a day to travel between Melbourne and Bendigo or $46 between Melbourne and Ballarat.
"This is parity - absolute equity," Mr Andrews told reporters on Wednesday in the regional city of Ballarat.
The $1 billion proposal includes $600 million to buy 23 new VLocity trains and a promise to run 200 extra services each weekend on major regional lines, costing about $207m.
Transport Minister Ben Carroll said the government was working towards moving the entire state on to Melbourne's Myki ticketing system in March.
The coalition previously pledged to cap the price of public transport fares in Melbourne at $2 a day at a cost of $1.3b over four years, according to the independent Parliamentary Budget Office.
But Department of Transport analysis found it would cost double that.
Liberal Leader Matthew Guy dismissed the advice as it was requested by the government.
Mr Andrews defended the use of public servants to cost an opposition policy.
"You guys are all asking us to match this so we want to know a bit about it," he said.
In Parkdale to announce household water prices would be frozen for five years under a coalition government, Mr Guy said the PBO advice for the policy would be released before the election.
The Labor campaign bus hit the road on Wednesday, bearing the slogan "doing what matters" and ferrying journalists and photographers to events.
Mr Andrews was on board with wife Catherine and advisors.
The coalition is not running a media campaign bus this election but has parked a 1970s-style ambulance near state parliament, emblazoned with the word "ambulance" as well as "Ditch Dan" decals.
"No beds in here. Where are those 4000 (ICU) beds Daniel Andrews promised us," Liberal frontbencher David Southwick said.
Ambulance union secretary Danny Hill questioned if the stunt was legal, with state laws banning use of the word "ambulance" on any vehicle not owned or operated by an ambulance service without written consent.
Mr Guy said he wouldn't be lectured by the union movement or Labor on political advertising, claiming a fake fire engine was used eight years ago.
"They did this in 2014 in the seat I'm in now," he said.
The coalition's focus earlier in the day was on health, with a pledge to build new hospitals in the city's southeast and northeast if elected.
Health has dominated the lead-up to the election campaign after the system was stretched by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labor has rolled out the first of its attack ads, linking Mr Guy's promise to deliver "real solutions" to language used by former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison.
