Timetable Tuesday #62: Frankston's loopy 770 and 771

Certain pockets of Melbourne have concentrations of confusing bus routes. Reservoir is one. Another is Frankston. A local bus review was done about ten years ago but only minor things got implemented. We may have been closer to some larger reforms but it got knocked on the head ('deferred' might have been the official term) at the last minute.

In the case of new bus networks a deferral is as good as a cancellation, government assurances notwithstanding. If there's a chance of getting a small network improvement through you should grab the opportunity as it may be a decade or more before the chance comes again.

Bus network reform quickened during Terry Mulder's four years as minister. Good things were done but more remained undone. It basically stalled under the infrastructure-focused Jacinta Allan. And the pace has yet to increase under current "the jury's out" minister Melissa Horne. The result is that ten years on the 770 and 771 continue how they've always run. Why is this bad? Keep reading!

Both 770 and 771 provide the main service from Frankston to the Karingal area. That’s important because while a frequent service (789/90/91) operates along Cranbourne Rd, there is poor walking access north of it due to hilly topography and pedestrian-hostile impermeable street layouts.

Consequently an internal bus network for Karingal, as provided by routes 770 and 771, is essential. The 770 and 771 are closely related routes. In fact some trips, such as to Karingal Shopping Centre, require you to get the 770 in one direction and 771 on the return trip. The map below shows them both along with the 777 (covered previously).

Both routes have large loops. Route 770 has a loop at its end with Karingal Shopping Centre about midway along the loop. Route 771 has a loop part-way along it, then a section of two-way running from Karingal Shopping Centre then a small loop at its end near its Langwarrin terminus. Also shown on the map is a 770 variant. This is an occasional service covering the Orwil St area very different from the regular Route 770.

You can see how it relates to the broader Frankston network from the map below. Interestingly it does not show the deviation crossing Frank St.

Patronage

Route 770 gets above average usage for a Melbourne bus route with 29 boardings per bus service hour. Its usage is relatively constant throughout the week, with similar Saturday to weekday usage and Sunday dropping slightly to 25 boardings per service hour. Strong weekend patronage is quite common in coastal areas such as Frankston. Older, often working class, middle northern and outer eastern suburbs often have much less weekend trading and bus patronage, particularly on Sundays.

Route 771 is a bit quieter with 22 boardings per service hour on weekdays, dropping to 16 on weekends. This is probably because the route is longer, extending into low density parts of Langwarrin where car ownership is higher and bus usage is less.  

Timetable

Both routes operate at close to minimum standards, that is 7 days per week until approximately 9pm. The main exception where service falls short is 770’s early last departure from Frankston on weekends (8:23pm).  

Headways are uneven. On weekdays Route 770 operates every 30 to 40 min during peak periods and around 50 to 60 minutes off-peak. Weekends are a flat hourly service. Two off-peak trips operate between Frankston and Orwil St – there is very little in common between that and the other Route 770 services except for the route number. 

Route 771 has a more consistent timetable. This includes a 40 minute frequency on weekdays and hourly on evenings and weekends. Even though it is the quieter route its last trips are later at night than 770’s last trips, with the difference greatest on weekends. 

Despite having roughly similar service levels, no attempt appears to have been made to evenly stagger departures from Frankston to provide a doubled combined frequency for those near both routes, even during peak times. The story is similar on weekends where, instead of offset by an even 30 minutes, the departures are offset by 20 and 40 minutes. This may have made sense when Frankston trains were every 20 minutes on weekends but does not now that trains run every 10 minutes. 

Conclusion

What would you do with 770 and 771? Would you swap them over in the Karingal area so that both routes are simple bidirectional services? Is there scope for better connectivity with the frequent Cranbourne Rd services? And should their timetables be tidied up to provide more even frequencies and offsetting to maximise effective frequencies for those near both routes? Please share your thoughts in the comment below.

PS: An index to all Timetable Tuesday items is here.

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