Building Melbourne's Useful Network Part 79: A Rowville TrainLink

It takes almost an eternity to get from most of residential Rowville to anywhere else by public transport.  That includes to surrounding areas where there's lots of jobs such as in the Monash precinct. And as soon as you get a few hundred metres away from Stud Road connections to trains for longer distance travel are equally weak. Yes, the new FlexiRide works, but it's only local, only weekday and is not scale-able with high operating costs per passenger. 

There is no more disreputable person in state politics than one who promises (or raises expectations on) public transport upgrades (especially rail) in Rowville. There's been many examples over the years. In each past case the plan has been quietly left to die and nothing much happens (background here). At best it's been a bait-and-switch trick (though sometimes the project being switched to has merit in itself). 

The only significant boost to Rowille's public transport in most peoples' living memory occurred about 12-15 years ago under the Bracks-Brumby government. The 900 SmartBus substituted for something two rail promises ago. And a little later the infrequent 665 Stud Rd bus between Ringwood and Dandenong got upgraded to be part of the 901 SmartBus. Neither route penetrates the largest residential areas and even access to Stud Park Shopping Centre is poor, being via an alley ending near a busy roundabout. Below shows the walk between the 900 bus and the local bus interchange at Stud Park. 

Existing services

If you're one of the lucky few near its stops, the 900 SmartBus is great for getting to the Monash Clayton campus. The same can be said for the 901 to Ringwood, Knox City and Dandenong if you're near Stud Rd. 

But there's problems for other trips. The 900 skirts the southern part of the Monash precinct. There's many jobs in its northern part it doesn' t serve. 

Also the 900's nearest train station is Huntingdale. That is three of eastern Melbourne's mile blocks west of Glen Waverley. Glen Waverley is the terminus of a quieter line whereas Huntingdale being an intermediate station on Melbourne's busiest line. Hence morning passengers are guaranteed a seat on the former but not the latter. And, where there's a choice, encouraging Glen Waverley line usage is good for load balancing across the network and relieving the under-pressure Dandenong line. 

As it happens there are already buses from the Knox area to Glen Waverley. It's just they are not all that good. 30 to 60 minute frequencies are typical and there can be confusing variations. 

I discussed a Knox City to Glen Waverley upgrade, involving an upgraded Route 737, here.  Because the 737 roughly follows the proposed Suburban Rail Loop between Monash Clayton and Glen Waverley, I've suggested it as a candidate for a SRL SmartBus at least as far as Knox City. 

What about further south, like Stud Park? That has the Route 754. It's complex with three route variations. The main version runs all day. AM express trips operate via Ferntree Gully Rd. PM express trips run via High Street Road.   

Services operate half-hourly weekday off-peak and hourly weekends. Peak service on the full-time route is roughly every 20 minutes with some 40 minute gaps. Express trips are roughly every 40 minutes. Travel time is 20 - 26 minutes on the express trips (am peak) versus up to 40 minutes for the regular route. There's four express trips each way over approximately a 90 minute window. This is quite restrictive for those who wish to start early or late or 'spread the peak' to socially distance or take advantage of cheaper off-peak fares about to be offered. 

A full time limited stops/express service

How can we improve connectivity from Rowville to a range of destinations with revised bus routes? There's several approaches. 

The one I settled on involves a simplified Route 754. I don't call it that though it uses the exact same route alignment as the express 754 takes in the morning. The difference is that it would run all day at increased frequency and operating hours. It has a small number of intermediate stops in locations that are remote from good service but have jobs and residents nearby. But to offset any time penalties buses run through the residential area to Ferntree Gully Station. Thus it feeds trains on two lines unlike the current 754. 

The concept is mapped below (click for a better view). 

Rowville is too big to be served by one main bus route. It is also not particularly dense and does not have great demographics for high all day public transport usage (partly due to a history of poor service and high car ownership). Hence I've got the TrainLink service as a two-route corridor from Glen Waverley with the routes splitting in the residential area before combining again before Ferntree Gully Station. One route is a modified 691 (which already runs in the area) while the other is a new route that I've called 692 (which existed in a somewhat similar form in the 1980s). The timetables for both routes are evenly spaced and timed to meet every train at Glen Waverley. Hence trips on each route meet every second train.

Their continuation via a direct alignment to Glen Waverley (at all times) replaces the complex and varying Route 754. Also Route 691 would no longer operate to Waverley Gardens. This is not considered a great loss for reasons explained here. 

691/692 would be all stops services between Ferntree Gully and Stud Park. However it would only stop a few times between there and Glen Waverley. This reflects the need for a good travel speed. The small number of stops (identified as white dots on the map) would bring much upgraded services to areas considered to warrant it due to a significant catchment of jobs or residents. 

A special design feature is a same-stop interchange between the 691/692 Trainlink and the 693 bus on Ferntree Gully Rd. This route services jobs in the Monash precinct further north than are serviced by the 900 on Wellington Rd. Ideally Route 693's service level should be boosted to allow easy interchange with referring to timetables or carefully planning travel. Ways to do this economically are given later. 

What happens to the existing all stops Route 754? It stays pretty much the same. Except that instead of going east to Stud Park it goes south to Waverley Gardens. Those who still need to make a 754 - Stud Park trip could still be catered for with a stop near where the route intersects with the 691/692 on Ferntree Gully Road. 

This network will need more buses and driver hours than runs in the area today. For maximum cost-effectiveness it should be done in conjunction with reform to Routes 681 / 682 as well as the Rowville FlexiRide. If you wanted a 'bare bones' option then running 691 and 692 at only an hourly frequency would provide a combined 30 min to Glen Waverley, ie similar to what the 754 does currently off-peak. While even that would overall be better than what currently runs (especially which regard to operating hours and legibility) it wouldn't seriously shift large numbers from driving to buses.  

Other measures

The abovementioned changes should be relatively simple in that it doesn't require a huge bus network restructure involving numerous routes. Apart from the 691, the main services you'd reappraise are the 681 and 682 as well as the new FlexiRide. 

However it is expandable. I mentioned the 693 before. Currently a large part is overlapped by the 753. If the 753 was deleted or dramatically shortened scope may exist to boost 693's frequency for little cost. However where 753 has unique coverage you may wish to replace it with a route extended from somewhere else. A example is Watsons Rd in Glen Waverley that could be served by extending the 848 from Brandon Park to Glen Waverley. Also the Boronia end of the 753 could be replaced by a 690 extended to Knox City, which would connect thousands to the area's main shopping centre.

Many of Melbourne's eastern suburbs are politically marginal. And a redistribution is looming that will see major changes to most seats. Frequency improvements on the Ringwood and Glen Waverley train lines (eg to 10 min off-peak, 20 min night) might be the sort of thing that will increasingly get spoken about before the next election as relatively economical 'local wins' to implement or promise. After all Frankston trains will get this exact level of service in two days and it's quieter than Ringwood.  If this is done then the 691/692 TrainLink corridor should follow suit with a 10 minute daytime/20 minute night frequency.  

The Glen Waverley - Rowville - Ferntree Gully Trainlink bus itself would benefit several seats including Mt Waverley (Matt Fregon MP - marginal Labor), Mulgrave (Daniel Andrews - Labor), Rowville (Kim Wells MP - Liberal) and Ferntree Gully (Nick Wakeling - Liberal). 

Conclusion

Due to Rowville's lack of rail infrastructure buses need to be good, especially with regards to frequency and travel time. There are some parallels with Doncaster/Manningham though Rowville has a lower proportion of CBD workers. Hence we need to think more about those who work locally, including in the Monash precinct. The 691/692 TrainLink should make a worthwhile contribution to such connectivity, especially if it is introduced along with bus priority measures (to make it more BRT like) and considered in conjunction with other network reform such as locally around Rowville/Lysterfield and that which enables upgrades to important intersecting routes such as the 693. 

If TrainLink is done then maybe people might forget about the April 2018 Caulfield - Rowville tram promise on which the government has been suspiciously silent.  TrainLink has the benefit of delivering enhanced service along a new corridor to new destinations. That's something the tram would not do as much of since it would basically replace the 900 SmartBus.  

Thoughts can be left below. Maybe there's too many or too few stops on the express portion? Could another alignment be chosen? Or is heavy rail really the only real solution, such as a former PTUA policy to extend the Glen Waverley line or an alternative from Huntingdale via Monash?

See other Building Melbourne's Useful Network items here