It is in response to the bus review DTP is conducting for the area, following funding in a recent state budget. They asked for public input back in April and PTUA responded with a detailed submission.
My personal view is that Geelong is one of the places that least needs a wholesale bus network review. Geelong itself got a major network review in 2015 with routes dramatically straightened and (mostly) upgraded to every 20 minutes off-peak on weekdays. That compares well with routes in metropolitan Melbourne and meshes with trains that run every 20 minutes.
If you want to look at places most in need of an overhauled bus network look at Wodonga, Shepparton and Mildura. Infrastructure Victoria recommended revamped bus networks in these places and more. The government actually started a review for Mildura (when it had an independent MP) but failed to carry through after it was safely returned in the 2022 state election.
Having said that the Geelong area still needs some bus service improvements. Despite generally better weekday frequencies than Melbourne suburbs operating spans are shorter, especially on weekends. Late starts, early finishes and low frequencies stymie travel to places like Queenscliff, especially on weekends when intending visitor numbers are highest. And growing Bannockburn needs much more than its current sparse service.
The PTUA submission tackles all these by recommending higher frequencies and longer hours. It also supports bus priority, improved bus shelters and the retention of the Moorabool Street bus interchange in the Geelong CBD. The latter is a hot topic locally; some retailers want the bus interchange moved due to antisocial behaviour and the sorts of people they say it attracts. A trial of a Night Network type service on the main bus routes is also advocated.
Geelong's train service used to be hourly. It has been every 20 minutes seven days per week since 2024 following successive service upgrades. Line usage has surged, largely due to urban growth in Tarneit and Wyndham Vale with more to come when the new Tarneit West station opens in a few months.
However its peak timetable remains with excessively complex stopping patterns. Also a short-sighted decision was made to retain 40 minute weekday interpeak frequencies for Waurn Ponds despite a 20 minute service now operating on weekends. These oddities undermine the potential role of rail to operate as a spine for fast local travel for some within-Geelong trips.
The key decision taken when planning Geelong's bus network is its base frequency. As noted before this is commonly 20 minutes on weekdays for local bus routes. It's on weekends when gaps widen. Even Geelong's busiest route (Route 1) has a (slightly uneven) 30 minute headway on weekends. This is actually similar to some Melbourne SmartBuses but was instituted when Geelong weekend trains were every 60 minutes. Buses were not significantly upgraded when weekend trains went to 40 and then 20 minutes.
If you are not going to have buses running at turn-up-and-go frequencies and you value connectivity with trains then the other option is a timed transfer network where there is a family of frequencies that evenly mesh with train services. For example if trains are every 15 minutes then buses might be every 15 minutes for main routes, every 30 minutes for middle importance routes and every 60 minutes for local or semi-rural routes.
In Geelong's case the pulse is set by a 20 minute train headway to South Geelong. The menu of acceptable frequencies for buses then becomes 20, 40 and 60 minutes (though 40 won't mesh with 60 for even bus to bus connections). A 20 minute interval with most routes (ie matching train frequencies) is basically what the planners in 2015 went with for weekday services. In contrast the 2014 Brimbank and 2015 Wyndham networks planned at a similar time went with a harmonised hierarchy with main routes every 20 minutes and local routes every 40 minutes. Melbourne uses 40 minute frequencies more than anywhere else in Australia. Its advantage is that it's better than 60 minutes but is not a memorable clockface headway.
The PTUA submission addresses the headway harmonisation problem by ignoring it. Their proposed bus network is based on service every 15 minutes for urban Geelong and Lara routes and every 30 minutes for peripheral routes. Opting for this produces a memory timetable good for local trips but sacrifices even connectivity with trains, especially in cases where buses every 30 minutes meet trains every 40 minutes (or less worse every 20 minutes). It is possibly true that outside main commuting times travel within a city is more significant than trips involving a train connection. However longer tourist type trips where people are travelling to locations like the Bellarine Peninsula may have a significant rail connection component. But PTUA's headway choice does avoid horrid 40 minute bus intervals for outlying areas which might have been its main reasoning.
The submission correctly (in my view) says the structure of network is strong. Thus it does not suggest major overhauls for the core of the network. But it does for some outlying areas with maps provided.
Anyway that's my summary. Have a read and let me know in the comments what you think.
