Committee for Melbourne calls for buses every 10 min

[PaxInfo]

The influential Committee for Melbourne has added its voice to those advocating major bus network reform across Melbourne.

'Course Correction' proposes simpler and direct bus routes every 10 min in this term of government.

Report here: https://melbourne.org.au/news/course-co ... rt-launch/

[Merc1107]

Seeing as there's not even money for the Commonwealth Games, and their Airport train has been delayed again, is that an optimistic expectation to play on the Government, or is there enough dead wood in the network to get that improvement without huge additional cost?

[PaxInfo]

Seeing as there's not even money for the Commonwealth Games, and their Airport train has been delayed again, is that an optimistic expectation to play on the Government, or is there enough dead wood in the network to get that improvement without huge additional cost?

They're being bold but these ideas need to be out there. Governments have readily spent on matters of far less importance that will carry far fewer additional people. The time-lines are what you might call 'stretch targets' and many will be shaking their head saying they're impossible. But people said the same thing about level crossing removals and if there's a serious attempt to do stuff at mass scale then big stuff can happen. Bus reform if done right can carry as many if not more people than the entire Cheltenham - Werribee Suburban Rail Loop.

There is some dead wood in the network but the main game is getting more service kilometres funded. Mainly more drivers and support staff but there will be cases where you'll need more depots and buses too, especially outer areas and some poorly served inner/middle corridors. Putting regular routes very wide apart and relying on flexible routes for the middle bits can be a false economy.

Fixing dead wood is more likely to get you stuff like boosting 3 routes every 40-60 min to 2 every 30-40 min each in certain areas. Springvale / Mulgrave / Dandenong with routes like 802/804/862 & 811/2, 813 & 814/848 are classic examples. You might even be able to get 20 min in some areas. Vastly better than now but you'll likely need more driver hours especially on weekends.

There are some corridors where you could cheaply get to 10 min frequencies with some reform. Most notably Footscray - Highpoint (406/223), Coburg - Heidelberg (903 & 527), Millers Rd (232, 411, 903) & Box Hill - Deakin (201, 281, 768). There's dead wood on some SmartBus routes eg the north-eastern quadrant of 901 that could be redeployed.

Again you've got weekday/weekend issue and there's little escaping that you'll need more investment in service hours. Though a cheaper option could be to go with 10-15 min on weekdays & 20 min on weekends, though there's issues with train harmonisation etc.

Removing 'dead wood' can be politically controversial and historically stuff like MOTC and SmartBus roll-outs that reformed less of the dead wood had a better track record in getting implemented than cheaper but more reformist approaches such as in the bus reviews about 15 years back. Transdev's attempt failed in 2015. But there have been other exceptions that did succeed in 2014-2016 including Brimbank, Wyndham, Cranbourne and Transdev 2014. And more recently Endeavour Hills tidied things up.

[Heihachi_73]

Seeing as there's not even money for the Commonwealth Games, and their Airport train has been delayed again, is that an optimistic expectation to play on the Government, or is there enough dead wood in the network to get that improvement without huge additional cost?

Most of the dead wood regarding buses is heavily concentrated immediately east of Spring Street.

Ignoring duplicative bus routes (actual dead wood), there is also another major form of dead wood, namely dead running.

For example, the last northbound 902 SmartBus for the night terminates at Nunawading, but instead of travelling five minutes up the road to Doncaster depot and stabling with all the other Kinetic SmartBuses, the bus does a U-turn and goes all the way back to the outer south-east (Keysborough or Heatherton, I can't remember), despite the 902's full route actually running straight past Doncaster depot. The 380 is also like that but not by choice; it's forced to use Doncaster depot due to its National/Met heritage; Ventura used to have a handful of SL200s parked at Croydon depot specifically for the 366/367 back when they had the monopoly in the east but they all vanished when Transdev took over (unless the red buses I used to see from the train, mixed with Leyland Tigers in both Ventura and Mt Dandy liveries, were all for the 688-690 which also ran the odd SL200 now and then; that said I used to also see LO812 pie carts in the same depot and those were exclusively used on National routes, including the oddball, automatic(!), blue Ventura one without a desto).

Ventura themselves also have a lot of dead running, especially from the former Invicta/Grenda routes where the timetables and depots are still basically unchanged even when a bus route is closer to their former rival's depot. For example, the 693 is (or was) a Lilydale-based (Invicta) service despite the bus running straight past Henderson Rd (with Knoxfield depot being 500m down said road). Same with the 600-series Rowville routes and FlexiRide despite Stud Park being 1-2 km from the depot, unless of course the depots have since been swapped. That said, even Ventura's classic routes seem to mostly be centred around Knoxfield depot despite being nowhere near there e.g. 201, 735, 736, 740, 742. Not really much they can do though without a depot in the area e.g. around Blackburn/Nunawading/Mitcham.

[Heihachi_73]

Blackburn Rd is also a shocker after dark. It takes almost an hour to get from Burwood One (e.g. 24hr Kmart/Coles) to Ringwood after 8PM as the buses aren't aligned, and then at Blackburn you have to gamble with the trains on one of the worst-served suburban lines in Melbourne (the 901 isn't any better after it drops to half-hourly, but at least it provides an alternative if you didn't miss both - supplementary Ringwood-only trains don't always run depending on the day or time).

Timetables below are from stop 15911 next to BP.

Weekdays:
703 to Blackburn: 1934, 2004, 2029, 2107, 2132, 2234, 2332, 2355
735 to Nunawading: 1933, 2030, 2121
736 to Blackburn: 1946, 2036 Fails minimum standard

Timetable gaps: 1, 12, 18, 15, 1, 6, 31, 14, 11, 62, 58, 23
Blackburn only: 12, 18, 15, 7, 31, 25, 62, 58, 23

Saturdays:
703 to Blackburn: 1936, 2007, 2033, 2131*, 2231*, 2340*, 0040* Fails minimum standard
735 to Nunawading: 1932, 2042, 2142
736 to Blackburn: 1942, 2036 Fails minimum standard

* Night Network services, Saturday nights only because Melbourne and public transport.

Timetable gaps: 4, 6, 25, 26, 3, 6, 49, 11, 49, 69, 60
Mon-Thu public holidays: 4, 6, 25, 26, 3, 6, 60
Blackburn only: 6, 25, 26, 3, 55, 60, 69, 60
Blackburn only, Mon-Thu public holidays: 6, 25, 26, 3 (last bus 2036)

Sundays:
703 to Blackburn: 1945, 2017, 2037 Fails minimum standard
735 to Nunawading: 1932, 2032, 2117
736 to Blackburn: 2033 Fails minimum standard (previous bus at 1926)

Timetable gaps: 13, 32, 15, 1, 4, 40
Blackburn only: 32, 16, 4 (last bus 2037)

Is there a #Fix703Bus campaign like the 800?
https://www.ptua.org.au/2011/05/08/potd-not-a-smartbus/

[Heihachi_73]

Just like clockwork, a bus (and lack thereof) topic shows up on Reddit.
https://old.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comm ... h6/busses/