Timetable Tuesday #44: Knox and north on the 664

There's few bus riders in Melbourne's outer east who haven't taken the 664 at least once. It's been around for decades, it goes to lots of places and it's more frequent and direct than most other buses in an area known for its spaghetti-style routes and limited timetables.  

Key stops include Chirnside Park, Croydon Station, Bayswater Station and Knox City. Its roughly north-south alignment complements trains which run roughly east-west. 664's catchment is predominently 1960s - 1980s single house/single block suburbia built around the motor car. However it operates past some older areas around stations and smaller shopping strips that predate larger enclosed centres like Knox City and Chirnside Park.  

It serves the state seats of Croydon (David Hodgett MP), Bayswater (Jackson Taylor MP) and Ferntree Gully (Nick Wakeling MP). 

The area map below shows the 664 relative to the network. 

There is a minor overlap with 675 between Mooroolbark and Chirnside Park and another with the 901 on Stud Rd north of Knox City. Demand-responsive Telebus 2 also operates in the northern part of the 664's catchment around Mooroolbark. However it ranks amongst the least used Telebus services, with just 7 boardings per service hour (source: Dept of Transport) as it seems people would rather walk to and catch the more frequent and direct 664. This is despite Manchester Rd looking like no place for pedestrians to cross (due to traffic) or wait (due to lack of passive surveillance).  

Route 664 is one of those routes (like 561) that has got longer over years. In 1972 it was just a short cross-country route from Bayswater to Croydon stations. It closed in 1974 but had returned three years later, reaching south to the (then new) Knox City Shopping Centre by 1978. A northern extension saw a connection to Mooroolbark in 1987. About ten years later it grew to its present extent, serving the expanding Chirnside Park Shopping Centre.  

Not all 664 trips go the same way. There are two deviations, both around Bayswater. Weekday peak trips go via Jersey Rd (basically a business park that would otherwise have no public transport) while weekday interpeak and weekend daytime trips deviate via Glen Park Rd (a generally low income neighbourhood). This is a difficult to serve but populated pocket with most residents in units or townhouses.  

Timetable

On weekdays Route 664 operates roughly every 30 minutes off-peak and 20 minutes peak. The interpeak frequency harmonises with trains at Croydon and Bayswater (both every 30 minutes). Operating hours are the standard 6am to 9pm with some short trips the ends of the day. Apart from some span improvements (when 'minimum standards' came in during the 2000s) the basic weekday service is similar to that in 1987 (when the route was shorter). 

Route 664's weekday boarding per kilometre is around average for a Melbourne bus route - being around 26 passengers per hour. The same is true for its service level. Click timetables below for a better view. 

Saturday's timetable is a little unusual, though you can see the reasoning behind it. It's a two tier service with short and long trips. The long trips operate the full route every 40 minutes with some longer midday gaps. The shorter trips in between operate only from Croydon to Knox City. These also run every 40 minutes. Their spacing provides a service close to every 20 minutes on this section. 

Intervals aren't consistently even the whole time but this frequency harmonises with trains every 20 minutes at both Croydon and Bayswater stations (the Belgrave/Lilydale line being unusual in having a better service on weekends than on weekdays interpeak). 

While Chirnside Park's 40 minute frequency is typical for a Saturday bus route in Melbourne, the 20 minute service on the southern section makes it above average. Its 16 boarding per hour makes its patronage productivity fairly close to average on a Saturday.

What about Sundays? Here service over the entire route is approximately hourly. However there are some uneven intervals with gaps of up to 75 minutes between some trips. The finish does not quite meet the 9pm minimum standard though trips from Chirnside Park have a significantly earlier start than the standard. 

Sunday patronage productivity (but not patronage itself) is higher than Saturdays at 19 boardings per hour. This could be attributed to the much lower service level (every 60 versus every 20 or 40 minutes). However the hourly service would depress demand, with use largely confined to those without transport alternatives.

Conclusion

The 664 is a useful route in Melbourne's outer east. But what would you do with it? Given its overlap with the 901 on Stud Rd and the lack of service on Scoresby Rd, would you straighten it to run via that corridor? Can its deviations be replaced by full-time service on this or other routes? If you have thoughts please leave your comments below.

See other Timetable Tuesday items here