TT 226: Melbourne train timetables to be heritage listed

Parts of metropolitan train timetables that have not had significant frequency changes for 30 years will be heritage listed, the state government quietly let be known today. 

Heritage protection means that existing gaps between trains will be preserved, with any headway shortening requiring Heritage Victoria approval. It is understood that a line simply being busy would be insufficient grounds for approval, with parallel buses recommended instead for overflow passengers taking advantage of this month's free travel.  

In a note slipped into the little-read private advertisements section of Government Gazette (issued when most lines were running to 30 minute heritage headways) Heritage Victoria Executive Director Dr Ava Long-Waite said that old timetables preserved social, industrial and labour history, notably on Sunday mornings. 

"As the West Footscray to Dandenong line through the Metro Tunnel transitioned to all week turn up and go frequency earlier this year, it was increasingly important to preserve remnants of the rail network where people carefully timed their movements according to when the train came".

"Just like bowing and curtsying in past centuries, presenting oneself at a station just before the train came was a social artform that today's youth would be unable to imagine if it wasn't for the preservation of heritage frequencies on the network".  

Another aspect of this social history was "the timetable". This was a list of train times posted on the wall of a station or in booklet form. These were fast disappearing, especially in the last few months. 

40 minute train frequencies were of particularly high heritage value, now being extinct on every Australian rail system bar Melbourne's. Here they remain prevalent at certain times on the Sandringham, Hurstbridge, Mernda, Upfield, Craigieburn and Ballarat lines. 

Sunbury lost its 40 minute gaps when the the Metro Tunnel started, a move labelled as 'regrettable' by Heritage Council Chair Professor Will Toad. Professor Toad said that such timetables encouraged social connections at stations as bored passengers would sometimes talk to one another, grumbling about missed trains. It also provided rare space for personal reflection, though he conceded that 'young people today' were more likely to be doom-scrolling on their phones. 

However Prof Toad praised the rapid spread of 40 minute service in other parts of the state. Just in the past year or two 40 minute service had been instituted on the Gippsland line to Traralgon, most Latrobe Valley bus routes, the Ballarat line and many connecting bus routes in Ballarat and Melton. Although the Sandringham line was due to go to a 10 minute weekday service later this year, the heritage 40 minute Sunday morning headway would remain. 

Heritage Victoria describes itself as a regulator within the Department of Transport and Planning. Its placement there "allowed a more integrated approach in preserving disappearing heritage including transport timetables", according to Dr Long-Waite.

Continued public experience of them in day-to-day operations, as opposed to just seeing old timetable posters in rarely visited museums was key to implementing the "Living Heritage" theme in our triennial 2026 - 2029 Corporate Plan, she added, describing the decision as a "fantastic win" after a false start in 2024.

Heritage isn't just about old buildings. It's also about experiences. Waiting 40 minutes for a train was as much a heritage experience as visiting Sovereign Hill. "Both should be celebrated", she said from her salary-packaged Tesla. 

A spokesperson from the premier's office denied that heritage listing old timetables would have any effect on services for passengers, saying that "We were never going to change them anyway". 

They pointed to the government's steadfast record of retaining historic headways on most metropolitan train lines, despite fears they may be lost when level crossings were removed and timetables rewritten.

"We can rebuild infrastructure while preserving historic timetables" they proudly said. "We stand in contrast to the Liberals (who hacked heritage headways by halving gaps, especially on weekends) or the Greens Political Party (who advocated 10 minute frequencies in 2022)."  The Belgrave and Lilydale lines, with 30 minute midday heritage headways remaining were cited as examples. 

Protected headways are in the appendix below. A media conference has been scheduled for late this morning to provide additional clarification. It will continue until noon sharp.  


APPENDIX: HERITAGE HEADWAYS TO BE PROTECTED 

Every 40 min
M-F interpeak: Hurstbridge
Sunday am: Mernda, Hurstbridge, Sandringham
Weekends: Ballarat line (and connecting buses)
All week: Gippsland line (and connecting buses)
All week: Most buses in Melbourne's west and north

Every 30 min 
M-F interpeak: Belgrave, Lilydale
Sunday am: Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein, Glen Waverley
Evenings: Mernda, Hurstbridge (to Eltham), Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein, Glen Waverley

Every 20 min
M-F interpeak: Werribee, Williamstown, Craigieburn, Upfield, Mernda, Hurstbridge (to Eltham)

Every 15 min
M-F interpeak: Ringwood, Glen Waverley

(Above reflect historic headways in force for at least 30 and sometimes 50 years)

See other Timetable Tuesday items here

TT 225: Not your every day bus routes

From today Victorians get a month's free public transport. The state government is billing it as a cost of living relief measure that they hope will get people, including those who previously didn't think much about using public transport, out of their cars. 

Tasmania is doing a similar thing until July while SA and NSW (both with Labor premiers more popular than Victoria) have held off. NT has been fare free for a while, Qld almost so with their 50 cent fares while WA introduced a fare cap of $2.80 for 3 hours on January 1. Meanwhile the federal government is halving fuel excise for three months. 

The usefulness of measures like these depend on whether people have a usable public transport service nearby. Most Melburnians don't have a train or tram in walking distance but, suburban fringe coverage gaps aside, do have a bus.

Whether the bus runs when people need to travel is another matter. Especially because while trains and trams all operate long hours each day the same cannot be said for  buses. Intervals between trips can vary from a few minutes to several hours. And, notwithstanding some recent seven day upgrades, almost 80 bus routes in Melbourne remain without 7 (and in some cases 6) day service.

A good case does exist for some of those 80-odd routes not to run 7 days. A few are commuter peak only or university shuttle services that serve areas that have full-time service on other routes. Others are suburban fringe type shopper services with very low usage. 

But there would be maybe 50 residential area bus routes that don't run 7 days simply because they missed out on the 2006 Meeting our Transport Challenges program that provided minimum service standards on buses across Melbourne. High patronage potential examples serving busy weekend destinations include routes like 281, 404, 414, 468, 503, 506, 549, 802, 804, 814, 844, 885 etc. 

Apart from the 802 in Dandenong, notable residential area routes only running 5 days include 237, 511, 531, 675, 680, 757, 758, 787, 823 and more. Also non-inclusion on the list is no guarantee that service is particularly useful. As an example routes like 384 in Kinglake and 479 in Sunbury run on weekends but with only a handful of trips. Less severely there are around 50 bus routes that run 7 days but over hours shorter than minimum service standards that require service until at least 9pm. 

Unresolved quirks often make buses confusing to use. Some have been inherited from bus timetables neglected for decades (such as some routes operating Saturday mornings only, reflecting pre-1980s shop trading or early 1990s cuts) while others (like 513's non-running that condemns busy sections of Bell St to just one bus every 40 minutes on weekends) have been very recent creations.

Slow progress on standardising public holiday arrangements has led to anomalies remaining. Two routes (681 and 682) run 7 days but not public holidays while other routes run 6 days but do run most public holidays. That contrasts with 407, 414, 415, 490, 526, 536, 538, 548, 549, 550, 559, 671, 672, 677 that run Saturdays but not public holidays. However to the government's credit the 503 and 506, which previously did not run public holidays, have recently become routes that now do. 

7 day bus gaps

The distribution of buses without 7 day service is uneven across Melbourne. There are concentrations in high patronage potential areas such as Greater Dandenong and inner to middle western and northern suburbs. The north was meant to get a bus network reform to tidy many loose ends but the government backed out after doing a lot of work on it. Other notable areas with sparse 7 day bus coverage include the outer east around Knox/Croydon and around Frankston. 

Route by route descriptions

Some brief comments on routes without every day service are below:

201 Deakin University shuttle. Overlapped by other routes that do run 7 days.
236 Albert Park/Port Melbourne coverage route.
237 Fishermans Bend route serving densifying area.
273 Doncaster East feeder route with a kink.
281 Key route to Box Hill Hospital with high patronage potential. 
301 La Trobe University shuttle overlapped by 7 day 561. 
303 Commuter peak express service in Manningham area.
309 Commuter peak express service in Manningham area. 
318 Commuter peak express service in Manningham area. 
343 A route compensating for infrequent Hurstbridge trains. 
350 La Trobe University bus from CBD. 
389 Mernda residential coverage route going opposite way to 388. 
404 Direct Footscray - Moonee Ponds link with high patronage potential. 
407 Coverage route for Avondale Hts also serving Highpoint. 
414 Old Geelong Rd route serving Brooklyn and Laverton. High social needs catchment. 
415 Williamstown - Laverton route with some unique catchment.
417 Laverton industrial route.
431 Kingsville residential route. Significant catchment remote from train. 
468 Short but potentially important Highpoint - Essendon connector. High patronage potential. 
482 Industrial route near Melbourne Airport. 
483 A fast freeway connection from Moonee Ponds to Sunbury. 
490 Gowanbrae's flexible route bus to Airport West.
503 Popular east - west route on Albion St Brunswick. High residential catchment. 
506 Melbourne's busiest bus without 7 day service. Also Brunswick area. 
509 Shopper style service on Hope St Brunswick. 
511 Mandalay Estate - Craigieburn bus. Very limited service. 
512 Coburg area east-west bus.
513 Major route on Bell St. Overlapping 514 every 40 min runs on weekends. 
526 Coburg - Newlands Estate route. 
531 Sydney Rd bus serving Campbellfield. High social needs catchment. 
536 Popular Glenroy - Gowrie bus funded to go 7 days. 
538 Campbellfield - Broadmeadows feeder. Very high social needs catchment. 
542 Southern Broadmeadows - Oak Park section lacks 7 day service. 
548 Potentially handy cross-suburban link hampered by limited service and weak termini. 
549 Bellfield and Heidelberg West connection to Northland. High social needs catchment. 
550 Northland - LaTrobe University route. 
551 Heidelberg - LaTrobe University route. 
558 Melbourne's most confusing bus route serving north-west Reservoir. 
559 Circular feeder route to shops and trains at Thomastown/Lalor. 
601 Monash University shuttle. Overlaps 7 day 630 and 900. 
609 Limited service and weak termini but high patronage potential Chandler Hwy route. 
671 Croydon North area feeder.
672 Croydon North area feeder.
675 Mooroolbark - Chirnside Park route. 
677 Lilydale area feeder. 
680 Lilydale - Mooroolbark area feeder. 
681 Rowville - Knox area circular route. Already 7 days - just needs public holidays. 
682 Opposite direction to 681. Already 7 days - just needs public holidays. 
689 Montrose - Croydon feeder. 
694 Quiet and largely duplicative Sherbrooke Forest route.  
695F Unusual Fountain Gate variation of 695.
696 Quiet shopper route in Dandenongs. 
697 Belgrave South feeder.
699 Confusing Upwey feeder.
705 Industrial route in Braeside area. 
706 Occasional shopper bus with some unique Aspendale coverage. 
740 Peak service in Mitcham/Vermont South area. 
745 Four variations with one trip per variation in Knox area. 
757 Scoresby/Knox area shopper route. Limited service. 
758 Scoresby/Knox area shopper route. Limited service. 

772 Frankston South feeder route. 
773 Frankston South feeder route. 
774 Frankston South feeder route. Limited unique coverage.
776 Frankston / Pearcedale route. 
777 Karingal shopper route. 
778 Industrial route but potential east-west connection to Carrum Downs shopping centre. 

783 Frankston - Hastings route that partly overlaps seven day 782. 
786 Mornington Peninsula local route. 
787 Mornington Peninsula local route. 
795 Cranbourne/Western Port route. 
802 Popular Chadstone/Monash/Mulgrave/Dandenong North/Dandenong route. 
804 Popular Chadstone/Monash/Mulgrave/Dandenong North/Dandenong route. 

814 Popular Springvale/Dandenong area route. High social needs. 
823 Southland/Nepean Hwy route. High patronage potential if extended to Elsternwick. 

838 Emerald - Fountain Gate rural shopper style route. 
840 Gembrook - Pakenham rural fringe shopper style route. 
842 Endeavour Hills - Fountain Gate shopper style route. 
844 Doveton - Dandenong feeder. Very high social needs catchment. 
857 Part industrial/part residential route serving Patterson Lakes.
885 Popular Glen Waverley - Mulgrave - Springvale feeder. 

These descriptions should be helpful in determining which routes most justify 7 day service. 

Conclusion 

There's a lot more to do with regards to public transport that's available all days of the year. Operating hours extensions would make buses much more of an option for those who might wish to switch to public transport in these high fuel price times but find existing timetables don't meet their travel needs.  

Many of the routes that could benefit from an upgrade are relatively short. Those with high patronage potential or high social needs catchments would be particularly good 'bang for buck' to upgrade. Especially as the buses to operate them already exist idle in depots. 

See other Timetable Tuesday items here

Free public transport as a response to the fuel crisis?

A great video from Express Transit on the pros and cons of making public transport free in Melbourne and alternatives that could have a bigger impact. It's only 3 minutes so watch it!   

The first example was a Box Hill to Glen Waverley trip. That's currently much slower by public transport than driving. So much so that it's an unattractive option even if free. The Suburban Rail Loop would fix that but that's at least a decade away. 

I have suggested precursor SRL SmartBus routes be introduced much sooner. They will never be as fast as SRL station to station but would still deliver substantial improvements in connectivity, especially for the majority of people not right at a train station. Also when the SRL opens the precursor routes would be useful retaining as feeders (possibly with more stops added) as the stations are widely spaced.