Route 950: Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QEII

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Route 950: Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QEII

Post by Mr OC Benz »

Thanks to a friend for point out to me this media statement on the PTA website. Much of this is already well known but includes a few other points. This is truly high frequency at it's best and it will be interesting to see how it goes when the Superbus starts next Monday.

The 8 buses are in addition to what is already provided on existing 21, 22, 78 and 79 routes, not the total amount of buses required to run the service!
PTA wrote:
New high-frequency bus route for Perth

People wanting to travel between Morley, Perth and Perth and UWA will soon have access to the highest frequency bus route in Perth

Transperth spokesman David Hynes said the 950 would start operating on Monday January 27.

“This new route replaces the existing routes 21 and 22 from Morley to Perth, and the 78 and 79 from Perth to UWA and the QEII Medical Centre,” he said.

“Importantly, the 950 will be far more frequent than the previous bus routes, operating every 3-4 minutes from Morley at peak and every 1-2 minutes from the city to UWA at peak.”

The 950 will operate on the following frequency;
 Monday to Friday peak – every 1 to 4 minutes
 Monday to Friday off peak– every 7 to 8 minutes
 Saturdays during the day – every 10 minutes
 Sundays during the day – every 10 minutes
 Evenings will vary between 15 and 30 minutes.

Mr Hynes said the route would benefit all passengers, particularly university students and people visiting QEII.

“Previously there were a lot of passengers who travelled from the northern corridor into the city and then had to change on to another bus in the CBD to get out to UWA. Because this bus continues through the city, passengers can stay on board the one bus.

“In addition, the new route capitalises on existing bus priority lanes from Morley through to Inglewood and into the CBD,” Mr Hynes said.

The new 950, to be known as the SuperBus, is expected to carry about 15,000 passengers a day once the university semester has started.

Eight new buses will be dedicated to the route and it is intended to cover an additional 500,000 kilometres a year.

The new route will be supported by plans to develop bus priority infrastructure along strategic sections of the route.

“Bus priority infrastructure is critical to making sure that we can operate buses that are reliable for our passengers,” Mr Hynes said.

Passengers seeking more information should visit the Transperth website, http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au or call the InfoLine 13 62 13.

Media contact: Claire Krol 9326 2526
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by laptop15 »

Unfortunately I haven't been able to go out and ride it yet! But how is the 950 going?
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by TP1462 »

I've been on it, tried it out on the public holiday Monday took around 50-60 minutes to do the complete run, also tried it from the esplanade to Wellington street yesterday after getting off 3001, 2006 took 5 minutes to unload at the busport, the number of buses I've seen is too many to note down.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Mr OC Benz »

5 mins to unload? Are you sure it wasn't just waiting at the timing point to depart. Doesn't take any bus 5 minutes to unload any amount of pax.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by TP1462 »

Maybe I was exaggerating a little, took around 2-3 mins to unload it was packed right up
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Herbert »

TP1462 wrote:... after getting off 3001 ...
What time were you on 3001?

Here's 3032 prior to departing Morley on my first 950 on Tuesday:


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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Off The Rails »

Would've seen you Dave, piloting 3032 through the Busport just before/after 11am.

Cheers! :wink:
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by I love the old buses »

Did the 950 in 1511 on Tuesday, wasn't bad. Didn't pick up too many people as there were 3 950's in a row! We were the third bus. Going to be plenty of Double and maybe triple? banking with this new route during peak as they run ever "1-4 minutes"
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by 900 series »

Not even two months in and the 950 has exceeded the 15,000 daily passenger target by 2000 passengers :!: :D
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Mr OC Benz »

Excellent to hear, but I feel there is a limit to how much capacity you can provide, especially with the current operational procedures. It is all very well operating buses at very high intervals, but it is not going to be very practical running buses every minute without there being severe impacts on traffic and reliability, and I am sure there are other ways to improve on this, such as what was outlined about Bus Priority Infrastructure, but also by improving and better managing the buses on the route. All door boarding for Smartrider users for example, or perhaps better designed buses (more doors?) to be able to get people on and off faster, so that the buses can continue to keep moving and still be reliable.

But this is also a good indication of what needs to be introduced elsewhere to get more people onto buses, but only if it can be managed well! I am interested to know what evening/night service patronage is like. Perhaps there is literally a demand for later after midnight services on this route?
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by User 11872 »

Needs light-rail I think. Mass people-moving power with smoother better operation.
Imagine a local govt with the balls to clear those left-lanes on Beaufort St permanently and having a true transport corridor down through the city and on to UWA.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by PoweredByCNG »

It just goes to show that if you simplify and add frequency, people WILL use it!
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by 102 at 1625 »

Yes, I agree. I know many people very well who love their cars and dislike public transport. High-frequency buses address the main reasons why car users do not travel on buses occasionally: they are overwhelmed by complex bus networks (like the differences between a 23, 78, 79, 102 and 107), and they do not wish to plan their lives around timetables.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by TP1462 »

Mr OC Benz wrote:Excellent to hear, but I feel there is a limit to how much capacity you can provide, especially with the current operational procedures. It is all very well operating buses at very high intervals, but it is not going to be very practical running buses every minute without there being severe impacts on traffic and reliability, and I am sure there are other ways to improve on this, such as what was outlined about Bus Priority Infrastructure, but also by improving and better managing the buses on the route. All door boarding for Smartrider users for example, or perhaps better designed buses (more doors?) to be able to get people on and off faster, so that the buses can continue to keep moving and still be reliable.

But this is also a good indication of what needs to be introduced elsewhere to get more people onto buses, but only if it can be managed well! I am interested to know what evening/night service patronage is like. Perhaps there is literally a demand for later after midnight services on this route?
Throw more artics on it which is what path have started doing now, I've seen more artics and less rigids on the service, swan have sent two 1300s onto the same run instead of one bus arriving two will arrive at the same time double banking each other
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Mr OC Benz »

There is only one small (actually one MASSIVE) problem with that. There are not enough articulated buses in the fleet to do this effectively. The articulated fleet makes up less than 8% of the overall fleet, with only about a third being low floor, and also all of them being spread out around various depots to cover busy school and route trips. Ideally in the future it would be good if this could occur though.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by TP1462 »

Well from general observations I've seen more artics on the 950
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Mr OC Benz »

http://www.haveyoursaysubiaco.com.au/qe ... about/faqs

The roundabout at QEII that had been mentioned in the past is supposedly due to start construction at the end of this month and carry on until end of June. This would mean the 950 would no longer need to go around the block to reach the terminus, and will provide more flexibility for the many buses that travel through QEII.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by User 11872 »

Well that'll be a great improvement and should finally rid that location of a lot of woes. Good result too if catching the bus to the hospital.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by perthbus »

The 950 concept was a very ingenious notion by the PTA rolling several services into one and from all accounts it's patronage levels have increased exponentially and surpassed all expectations.

I did a round trip of 950's on Sunday 26/1 on it's first day of operation and the loadings were more than impressive, it's also encouraging to see that the passenegrs have embraced changed.

The topic of artics is an interesting one which I believe the relevant transport planners may have to revisit in the near future.

The current generation of artics are such a formidible and flexible asset to have. They are accessible, air conditioned and with these newer B12 and I'm sure the upcoming Optimus/B350's anything a rigid can do an artic can do with ease, I still maintain the new generation of artic is easier and more manoevourable than a rigid owing to the short front wheel-base. Their ability to transport large volumes or people quickly and efficently cannot be match, in addition to these they are environmentally friendly with from my research the deliveries being Euro VI compliant.

Public transport in Perth is just so easy with generally seemless connections and with the outer suburbs particulary the Northern suburbs booming at an alarming rate more and more people are going to be attracted to it.

There are several corridors in the metro area such:

Undoubtedly the new 950 service even though it's still in it's infancy period
37 service from T3/T4 to Perth and potientally the recently re-routed 40
The Citylink Alexander Dve services
Portions of the Circle route - Murdoch down South St to Freo and vice versa
Mirrabooka Flinders St services
Two Rocks/Yanchep runs
483 and 484 feeder services from Clarkson thru Butler and on to Alkimos
Walter and William St 60 services
Kalamunda-Perth Welshpool Rd services 282 and 283.
Potentially the 881/920/940 and recently renumbered 990 services also, although the 990 loadings are seasonal based.
In addition to this the patronage of some of the Kalamunda contract inner City services is astounding.

All these services, plus I'm sure there are plenty more which I haven't listed that would benefit and could justify articulated vehicles on a 7 day basis.

With around 14-15 new artics per finanical year set for delivery, some might say this is inadequate for the replacement of the current non DDA compliant artics and the expansion Perth is currently seeing and by all accounts will continue to see for many years to come. Is there scope in the contract for some of the order to be converted from rigid chassis' to articulated versions?

From an enthusiasts perspective it'll be interesting to see if the current B12's are re-distributed around the depots or potentially contractors once the B350's start arriving in mass. Look at PATH with movements with sending 2 B12's up the hill to Kalamunda earlier in the year, which I might add still has a reasonable population of Renault artics...at the time some people questioned whether they'd be able to cope with the topography and terrain of the Lesmurdie and surrounding suburbs and from all accounts (including vocal enthusiasts) they glide up and down those hills effortlessly.

The new artics will certainly provide much more needed capacity and I'm sure there are many out there who eagerly await their arrival into the fleet.

Furthermore how close are we going to having some services running 24hrs a day such as the 950?
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by perthbus »

Just to clarify my posting I've been referring to the new Optimus artics as B350RLEA's but they will be badged as B8RLEA's.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by 102 at 1625 »

I completely agree that articulated buses are pleasant to ride on and are great for high-frequency services BUT they should not be used as a substitute for frequent services. The vast majority of passengers would prefer a high-frequency service with rigids to a good-frequency (half-hourly) service with artics. If we can operate a bus every 2 minutes with rigids or every 4 minutes with artics, then go ahead and use artics. But I do not agree that they should be used on corridors like the 490/480 with only hourly services throughout the day even if they are upgraded as mentioned here.
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by Mr OC Benz »

I agree with all the comments that evolve around the 950. It is definitely great that such an initiative has seen promising results within months of being introduced. Many services that have been revamped or introduced have not had increases in patronage so rapidly in such a short period of time.

It is unfortunate that the current quantity of artics in the Perth metro fleet is not enough to be able to allocate to specific routes without compromising their need on specific trips and without any substantial increase in the percentage of the fleet which is articulated, I doubt it will be able to happen as well as it can with some routes in Sydney which are 100% articulated operated, or even routes operated by the 14.5m tri-axle buses which are often dedicated to selected routes too based on demand. I can see that some effort has been made in Perth, especially since the B12 artics have arrived with the incentive to not feel so "restrictive" like they were with the older ones which weren't wheelchair accessible. 170/6/7/9 services, 400/8s and 920s for example plus the occasional Alexander Dr service or route 60. But due to the lack of artics and hence the low guarantee of artics on particular routes, services aren't able to be timetabled as such to account for using an artic, which has meant that there are select routes which may have a really high frequency peak service where every second bus may be almost empty due to traffic conditions and bunching while another one has a full load.

I think that there is merit for 7 day full time articulated bus services on selected routes, there are also those where it would be ideal, but not achievable. E.g. Route 37 as far as I'm aware for any trips leaving Kings Park aren't able to use artics due to the roundabout at the end of Fraser Ave which can cause issues when there is heavy traffic. A rigid can't even squeeze into the middle to turn, let alone an artic. There are a few other routes with similar circumstances.

102 at 1625 raises a good point about high capacity (articulated) vs high frequency (rigid) bus services. In Europe, quite a few cities timetable the frequency of the services evolving around the type of bus that will be used on the service (rather than the timetable being set, and the buses fitting around to meet that schedule). So quite often you find with selected routes which may only operate every 20 minutes, these will only ever be operated by articulated (or double deckers sometimes as the case in Berlin) buses whereas you will find with other routes, the frequency may be every 10 or 15 minutes and it always will be operated by a rigid bus.

Unfortunately due to the differing cultural attitude to PT usage in Australia, this is not so effective as one of the big cons that people associate with public transport use is travel time (which includes the time you have to wait for a bus or how you have to plan your day's activities around a timetable). There is still an acceptable frequency level that I think people will wait. E.g. Many people would not be too bothered to have to wait an average of 5 mins (or a maximum of 10 mins) for a bus to show up. If this level can be achieved using rigid buses, then it could well be more efficient enough to justify the use of articulated buses at this frequency in the future. You can only increase the frequency of a bus service to an extent, it is even more limited without proper bus priority infrastructure to support it. So rather than have buses running every 2-3 mins and constantly bunching up, an articulated bus running every 5 mins which can still maintain the capacity of two rigid buses could be worthwhile. It may even be more efficient because there are less drivers (and less buses) required to operate the service.

So you will have cases where existing services such as the 60 (which now run every 5 mins or less during part of the peak and every 15 mins off peak) could justify running every 10 minutes all day with articulated buses. Likewise with Alexander Dr and Flinders St-Mirrabooka, although I think to maintain capacity, you would need to run at at least every 5 minutes with artics during peak periods and every 10 mins off peak.

The CircleRoute is an interesting one. There are numerous double banks that are operated as as a result of one bus not being able to provide the capacity needed for a particular trip. This only occurs on some sections of the route at different times of the day. There is quite often a lot of dead running associated with some of these double banks too as they can end up being out of a bus operator's normal operating area. Many of these full Circles could be operated by artics while maintaining the same frequency and reducing the need to provide double banks at particular sections of the trip.

There are routes such as the 483/484 mentioned by perthbus. While these could justify running at a higher frequency, because of the nature of the service and the intention to connect with every train (which runs every 15 mins currently), running a bus more frequently would not provide as many benefits (most users of the service are to connect with the train and there wouldn't be enough to justify trips that don't connect with the train). Articulated buses could be the answer here (or an increase in train frequency - which is needed at times of the day anyway).

Some could say the same should apply for the new 990 service, however the nature of the service results in passengers being attracted along many points of the route. Also the current timetabling of the service means that the short journey (terminating at Glendalough) services will always connect with a train while the full length trips don't connect, but continue on to the City anyway. So in that respect it is easier to manage running a connecting bus service that is running more frequently than the train, because there is a catchment of passengers at more locations than just Glendalough train station.

As has been mentioned above, there are other reasons why artics may or may not be justified on some trips, or due to physical constraints. For example Route 37. It runs at quite a high frequency and if there weren't limitations on some roads, could justify running artics at a 10 minute frequency all day (current peak period service is every 5 minutes, off peak every 10 minutes). For these routes, in the future they will obviously have to run more frequently using rigid buses to cater for the capacity.

For another viewpoint, the 40 service to the Airport may only operate every 30 minutes, but I can see better justification for prioritising higher capacity over frequency on this route. Naturally, the overall capacity of a bus will be slightly less anyway because many passengers would be carrying luggage. In a rigid bus, this can drastically reduce capacity, especially with Low Entry buses with steps (people are reluctant to stand on steps that far back, particularly with luggage, but can also be reluctant to leave their luggage in the luggage area and move up or to sit down). Articulated buses in length comparison may not provide as many seats as a rigid bus, but they can provide the capacity needed with a mixture of seating and standing. The Airport is not that far from the City, so some seating could be sacrificed anyway.

There are other ways where the efficiency and reliability of a bus service can be improved on, aside from tinkering with bus frequencies and capacity. Bus priority infrastructure, better internal layout of buses (including additional door(s) to reduce dwell times at bus stops thus providing a quicker journey time) and specific buses suitable for specific routes, but this then becomes a problem operationally where the flexibility of a fleet of buses is reduced due to their requirements to be on specific routes. But I guess the negatives need to be weighed up with what benefits could potentially be achieved. Such ideas that could work (or not work) on the 950 or any other route in the future.

I am interested to see what night time patronage is on the 950 service. It could well be the key to encourage the introduction of later services including services after midnight and running through into the morning. It is also mentioned that Morley-Shenton Park is part of a strategic corridor outlined in the Public Transport Plan for Perth in 2031. It would be interesting to see whether the 950 could extend to Shenton Park to fulfil this. It would certainly increase the amount of non-CBD centric trips and improve the patronage of the service throughout most of a trip rather than at a couple of busy points such as the CBD and UWA. Having a bus that is carrying good loads the entire journey (rather than just a small section) could better justify increases in frequency.

I apologise for such a long post... If you have read through the entire lot, thanks and congratulations! I will jump back into the cave now! :oops: :|
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by laptop15 »

Excellent write up gents! Warms my heart with such positive news about our wonderful public transport network!
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by User 11872 »

lol lappy you happy chappy
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Re: 950 'SuperBus' - Morley - Beaufort St - Perth - UWA - QE

Post by laptop15 »

Well about some things yes haha
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