Just three weeks after the October 4 bus upgrades, with benefits for Caroline Springs, more bus improvements are coming this Sunday, October 25.
These will give some welcome coverage and connectivity gains. I'll also describe some of the strange timetabling choices that boosted frequency at quiet times while retaining infrequent service when it's busier.
These will give some welcome coverage and connectivity gains. I'll also describe some of the strange timetabling choices that boosted frequency at quiet times while retaining infrequent service when it's busier.
140 Rockbank - Tarneit
The biggest change is undoubtedly the extension of the 140A, which since June has run from Rockbank to Mt Atkinson. The 140A was only intended as a temporary route to provide the first regular public transport to the hitherto unserved Mount Atkinson 'island'.
While the 140A connected Mt Atkinson to Rockbank, there's nothing there except a train station. So travel to even a supermarket required a long trip involving changing to another service and sometimes significant backtracking. With there being much more at Tarneit than Rockbank the extended route will be warmly welcomed by the Mt Atkinson community and others. Transport Victoria's item on this extension is here.
Now to the timetabling. Being Melbourne this inevitably involves a lot of history. Because even if timetables change remnants of past practice stubbornly peep through in certain places. Whereas no-one blinks if a Big Build project runs a few billion dollars over, bus timetables are more aggressively budgeted (a $100 000 pa difference may be significant). So DTP bus timetable planning is like trying to paint a wall with a litre less paint than you really need for a consistent finish. (That is unless they have enough for double coat on less visible parts of wall and single coat on more visible areas - but more on that later).
While the 140A connected Mt Atkinson to Rockbank, there's nothing there except a train station. So travel to even a supermarket required a long trip involving changing to another service and sometimes significant backtracking. With there being much more at Tarneit than Rockbank the extended route will be warmly welcomed by the Mt Atkinson community and others. Transport Victoria's item on this extension is here.
Now to the timetabling. Being Melbourne this inevitably involves a lot of history. Because even if timetables change remnants of past practice stubbornly peep through in certain places. Whereas no-one blinks if a Big Build project runs a few billion dollars over, bus timetables are more aggressively budgeted (a $100 000 pa difference may be significant). So DTP bus timetable planning is like trying to paint a wall with a litre less paint than you really need for a consistent finish. (That is unless they have enough for double coat on less visible parts of wall and single coat on more visible areas - but more on that later).
Having said that there have been wins. New growth area bus routes have recently been implemented with a wider span of hours than was the case a few years ago. For example a finish nearer to 11pm than 9pm and earlier starts on weekends. And, especially in Wyndham, they are also more likely to be every 20 minutes off-peak (at least on weekdays) than the previously typical 40 minute frequency.
140A was an example with a weekday 20 minute frequency across most of the day. The longer 140 continues this but adds a 20 minute frequency for most of Saturday. That's an improvement from 5 to 6 days. But the budget didn't quite extend to Sundays. That will remain every 40 minutes even though Sunday bus usage is typically not much less than Saturday's these days.
I raise this as a timetable oddity as this is not the only one to exist in this timetable change. While a new route, the 140's pattern of a 20 minute 6 day frequency with a 40 minute service on Sundays replicates 50+ year old routes in Melbourne's western and northern middle suburbs with similar service levels. Examples include 406, 408, 465, 472 and 527. These possibly reflect Saturday (or at least Saturday morning) being a working day and Sunday being the Sabbath and, from the 1960s to the early 1990s, regarded as being so quiet that it was a prime target for service cuts.
The 2006 Meeting our Transport Challenge upgrades reversed this spiral. It introduced a minimum service standard and Sunday service on numerous bus routes 15 to 20 years ago. These typically involved Sunday service every 40 to 60 minutes, even on main road routes that ran every 15 to 20 min on weekdays and 20 minutes on Saturdays.
The 2026 state budget included funding to remove this Sunday service fall-off on busy routes like the 508. Some new or upgraded routes in the west (eg 153, 154, 182 and 186) already have a Sunday service the same as weekdays and Saturdays (ie every 20 minutes).
In Craigieburn (another growth area that has seen some recent bus upgrades) the pattern is generally every 20 minutes weekdays, every 40 minutes weekends. Cranbourne and Clyde in the south-east is a mix between the two.
However in all cases Sunday frequency is the same as Saturday, unlike the 25 October Route 140 timetable which replicates old scheduling practices on a new route. The latter indicates the strictness of budgeting for service upgrades. Long gaps in a bus timetable can be tolerated for years (if not decades) as there is no budget for (say) $100 - $200k pa fixes whereas large blow-outs on major capital projects is accepted as part of life.
A small part of Route 140 around Tarneit is shown on the Love the Bus map for the outer west but the exact start date is not indicated. Neither are there yet drop down links to the timetable for it nor the even higher service routes 463 and 464 that started earlier in the month.
It seems that no matter how many creative consultants they splurge money on, Transport Victoria can be its own worst enemy with an entrenched 'set and forget' attitude to content that undersells the network. As opposed to a best-practice culture that continually reviews material and messaging when improvements happen. It's not an isolated case either; buses have accepted credit card payment for months but Transport Victoria's Airport Travel page misleads tourists and others by still claiming that passengers need a Myki card to travel.
The 2026 state budget included funding to remove this Sunday service fall-off on busy routes like the 508. Some new or upgraded routes in the west (eg 153, 154, 182 and 186) already have a Sunday service the same as weekdays and Saturdays (ie every 20 minutes).
In Craigieburn (another growth area that has seen some recent bus upgrades) the pattern is generally every 20 minutes weekdays, every 40 minutes weekends. Cranbourne and Clyde in the south-east is a mix between the two.
However in all cases Sunday frequency is the same as Saturday, unlike the 25 October Route 140 timetable which replicates old scheduling practices on a new route. The latter indicates the strictness of budgeting for service upgrades. Long gaps in a bus timetable can be tolerated for years (if not decades) as there is no budget for (say) $100 - $200k pa fixes whereas large blow-outs on major capital projects is accepted as part of life.
A small part of Route 140 around Tarneit is shown on the Love the Bus map for the outer west but the exact start date is not indicated. Neither are there yet drop down links to the timetable for it nor the even higher service routes 463 and 464 that started earlier in the month.
It seems that no matter how many creative consultants they splurge money on, Transport Victoria can be its own worst enemy with an entrenched 'set and forget' attitude to content that undersells the network. As opposed to a best-practice culture that continually reviews material and messaging when improvements happen. It's not an isolated case either; buses have accepted credit card payment for months but Transport Victoria's Airport Travel page misleads tourists and others by still claiming that passengers need a Myki card to travel.
542 7 day upgrade
One timetable oddity that will get fixed on October 25 concerns Route 542. This route runs from Roxburgh Park to Pascoe Vale via Broadmeadows. The northern half runs 7 days but the southern half was 6 days per week with shorter operating hours.
2026 State Budget funding will extend 7 day service to the full route and improve Sunday frequency from 60 to 40 minutes, matching that on other days of the week.
This improvement will benefit parts of Broadmeadows, Jacana, Glenroy, Oak Park and Pascoe Vale. But, true to form, Transport Victoria has left off mentioning the best parts of this upgrade (ie the 542's new and improved frequency Sunday service) on its website news item.
Craigieburn's amazing new Saturday evening bus timetables
The 23 August rail timetable saw the Upfield and Craigieburn lines lose their 30 minute evening and 40 minute Sunday morning gaps in favour of a a 20 minute maximum wait. Most Craigieburn bus routes will have changed times to preserve connectivity to these more frequent train services.
For example 30 minute evening bus services, which harmonised with the earlier train timetable, will go to either 20 or every 40 minutes to preserve this harmonisation. A summary for a typical Craigieburn route (I've used the 533) is below.
The new timetables are better overall. But they enlarge some existing oddities and have aspects that are not intuitive.
For example there is a general expectation (especially in Melbourne!) that public transport at night is less frequent than during the day, even at busy stations. Box Hill is an extreme case where the weekend evening train frequency collapses from 10 to 30 minutes in a short time around 7pm.
Up to now the typical Craigieburn bus route ran a little more frequently (30 min) on Saturday nights than it did during the day (every 40 min). That is it connected with every second train during the day and every train at night. That oddity did not apply on weekdays due to the 20 minute interpeak bus frequency. The 40 min day/30 min night pattern is odd but you can accept that as the alternative (to harmonise with trains) would have been hourly evening bus services.
The October 25 timetable change deals with weeknights and Saturdays differently. On weeknights the 30 minute average frequency was dealt with by increasing mid-evening service from 30 to 20 minutes but decreasing late evening service from 30 to 40 minutes. It could be described as a 'greatest good for the greatest number' type upgrade with good legibility across the day (apart from the non-clockfaceness of the 40 minute gaps late at night).
In contrast the Saturday timetable was done differently. There was no 20 minute service to build down from. And a cut from 30 to 40 minutes (with no offsetting period of 20 minute service as was done on weekdays) was presumably thought too severe, even if it would harmonise with the new 20 minute evening train frequency.
So they opened the cheque book and funded an upgrade of Saturday evening service from every 30 to every 20 minutes until last buses (up to almost midnight). Every 20 minutes at this time is very frequent for a Melbourne bus, especially a local route. It even beats key train lines (such as Ringwood) and the SmartBus orbitals which remain with 30 minute Saturday evening frequencies. And the 20 minute Saturday evening service was not just implemented on busier bus routes like the 533 that run every 20 minutes interpeak on weekdays, but also lesser served routes like the 525 which runs a 40 minute weekday midday service.
There is a certain appeal to having a homebound evening timetable that meets every train arrival with a bus. However having a 20 minute evening frequency while Saturday and even weekday intervals remain at 40 minutes sounds odd.
And there may be some opportunity costs of this generosity if service is austere at other times. An example is weekends during the day where, unlike Wyndham with widespread 7 day 20 minute frequencies, not a single bus route in Craigieburn runs better than every 40 minutes. Redistributing service from Saturday evenings to weekends during the day on the busier routes (eg 529 and 533) might be somewhat controversial but may have a higher benefit overall. Possibly something to consider for the next timetable change after loading statistics become available.
For example there is a general expectation (especially in Melbourne!) that public transport at night is less frequent than during the day, even at busy stations. Box Hill is an extreme case where the weekend evening train frequency collapses from 10 to 30 minutes in a short time around 7pm.
Up to now the typical Craigieburn bus route ran a little more frequently (30 min) on Saturday nights than it did during the day (every 40 min). That is it connected with every second train during the day and every train at night. That oddity did not apply on weekdays due to the 20 minute interpeak bus frequency. The 40 min day/30 min night pattern is odd but you can accept that as the alternative (to harmonise with trains) would have been hourly evening bus services.
The October 25 timetable change deals with weeknights and Saturdays differently. On weeknights the 30 minute average frequency was dealt with by increasing mid-evening service from 30 to 20 minutes but decreasing late evening service from 30 to 40 minutes. It could be described as a 'greatest good for the greatest number' type upgrade with good legibility across the day (apart from the non-clockfaceness of the 40 minute gaps late at night).
In contrast the Saturday timetable was done differently. There was no 20 minute service to build down from. And a cut from 30 to 40 minutes (with no offsetting period of 20 minute service as was done on weekdays) was presumably thought too severe, even if it would harmonise with the new 20 minute evening train frequency.
So they opened the cheque book and funded an upgrade of Saturday evening service from every 30 to every 20 minutes until last buses (up to almost midnight). Every 20 minutes at this time is very frequent for a Melbourne bus, especially a local route. It even beats key train lines (such as Ringwood) and the SmartBus orbitals which remain with 30 minute Saturday evening frequencies. And the 20 minute Saturday evening service was not just implemented on busier bus routes like the 533 that run every 20 minutes interpeak on weekdays, but also lesser served routes like the 525 which runs a 40 minute weekday midday service.
And there may be some opportunity costs of this generosity if service is austere at other times. An example is weekends during the day where, unlike Wyndham with widespread 7 day 20 minute frequencies, not a single bus route in Craigieburn runs better than every 40 minutes. Redistributing service from Saturday evenings to weekends during the day on the busier routes (eg 529 and 533) might be somewhat controversial but may have a higher benefit overall. Possibly something to consider for the next timetable change after loading statistics become available.
Other areas
Buses in other parts of Melbourne operated by CDC will have some minor timetable changes. These include routes in the west, north and south-east.
It looks like some 6 day routes are getting a service on those public holidays that have a Saturday timetable. This can be seen on the pdf timetable where times are listed individually for each public holidays with holiday footnotes. Examples of 6 day routes that gain public holiday service include 407, 414 and 415.
Route 538 has public holidays listed in the timetable but the old template still (which omits footnotes). The Transport Victoria news item confirms 538 operation on public holidays. But there is a risk that not attending to this causes timetables at stops to correctly show the new times but not accurately show public holiday arrangements.
Summary
Some good bus service extensions, especially in Melbourne's north and west, will start this Sunday. These will be welcomed with new travel opportunities enabled. But some unusual choices have been made as to the times and routes that get 20 minute service and those that don't. Also, with less than a week to go, Transport Victoria has not communicated the upgrades as well as it could, marketing campaigns and consultants notwithstanding.
See Timetable Tuesday items here
