Building Melbourne's Useful Network Part 82: Transport to Sunshine National Employment and Innovation Cluster

Various plans over the last 60 or more years have tried to define suburban centres of more intensive development. Some have succeeded, some have not. If you go back to the 1954 plan, for example, you’ll see that both Box Hill and Moorabbin were nominated as district centres. However Box Hill succeeded while Moorabbin failed (although its light industrial part succeeded). There has also been intensive development at sites not foreseen in the 1954 plan, including around drive-in shopping centres like Chadstone and Northland and inner suburban precincts like Docklands, Southbank and South Yarra.

Motivations for developing suburban subcentres varies. It could be to relieve pressure on the crowded CBD, allow more jobs nearer where people live or to make optimal use of transport infrastructure with more bidirectional trips. Or, more cynically, it could be to salvage some benefits from previous bad land use planning decisions (eg locating Monash University’s Clayton campus in an unserviced paddock) or benefit local landholders and developers.

Clusters and their transport network needs

About 12 years ago Melbourne@5 million came out. It defined a number of ‘national employment and innovation clusters’. These included precincts around major universities and established suburban centres, though there were a few greenfields ones, like Werribee East, as well.

The term ‘cluster’ is important. They are not centres. With a centre you expect a small area that is reasonably walkable from end to end. Whereas ‘clusters’ are not so dense. Parts can be five or more kilometres from one another. This greatly affects how we should plan and run transport to ensure good access within as well as to it.

Box Hill and Dandenong are established suburban centres. They typically have a train station with a bus interchange close by. Bus routes terminate at the interchange. In all but one case if you wish to travel from slightly south to slightly north of the centre you will need to take two buses. Buses may twist and turn to enter the interchange, be infrequent and be difficult to understand. Even a short 2km trip within a centre precinct could take 30 minutes or more, with walking often faster due to indirect route alignments and low frequency.

Trams in the Melbourne CBD follow a different model. For a start most through-run. Hence trams from the south will pass through the CBD, often terminating a couple of kilometres north at Melbourne University. Similarly trams from the north finish at the south end of the CBD (or even go well beyond). The same applies for trams from the east that finish in western areas like Docklands or Port Melbourne. Although trams aren’t the fastest mode their routes are mostly direct with no deviations into off-line interchanges. And if people want to change then they alight at a corner and change to another tram, that, because of the overlap of routes, is never far away.

NEICs such as Sunshine are several times bigger than the Melbourne CBD in land area. Therefore they need a CBD style of service. You can’t just provide good service at one point, such as just around a station. Instead it needs to be well connected within itself with routes that travel from one end to the other without deviating in the middle. Plus they should extend at least slightly into hinterland areas where more intensive residential development can support the cluster’s employment and other functions.

This means a network of direct and turn-up-and-go routes with easy interchange between them. An acceptable service standard might be every 10 minutes for connections to surrounding centres and every 3 to 5 minutes for short trips within a centre. While a 5 minute service seems high, it is appropriate for a dense area with short trips where waiting would otherwise be an excessive component of total travel time.

The movement and storage of cars is highly energy and space inefficient. At least some journeys need to be on more space efficient active and public transport for NEICs to develop to the density desirable and for them to provide opportunities to all. Improved train and bus networks are key to this. 

Enough with generalities. Today I’ll zero in on Sunshine’s NEIC and its public transport needs. Again I need to emphasise the area’s size. It’s not just the area around Sunshine Station. Major parts of it are not really walkable from it, including the Victoria University campus and (especially) the so-called Sunshine Hospital which is really in St Albans near Ginifer Station. That’s a long and unattractive hike from anywhere in Sunshine proper.

(map from VPA)

Existing Sunshine 10 and 20 minute networks

Sunshine is quite well served with train and bus services operating every 20 minutes. However nothing runs every 10 minutes or better outside peak. The best it gets are a few routes such as the 216, 220, 410 and 903 every 15 minutes on weekdays and as infrequent as hourly on weekends. The 903 SmartBus is the highest profile route but its 30 minute weekend frequency and less useful destinations make its benefits less than they should be. However it is the only route that travels both sides of central Sunshine in a pattern that could be replicated more widely.  

10 things Sunshine’s future network needs

Here are my ten top things Sunshine’s public transport needs if it is to fulfill its potential as a NEIC and make itself accessible to the wider surrounding region. Most are relatively modest service upgrades possible within three years with the political will and funding.

1. Trains every 10 minutes to Watergardens. Current off-peak trains are only every 20 minutes (day), 30 minutes (night) and 40 minutes (Sunday morning). The template for service should be what the Frankston line has had since 31 January, ie a 10 minute daytime Monday – Sunday service and a 20 minute maximum wait early morning and at night. Key beneficiaries of the improved access include Sunshine Hospital and Sunshine CBD. The importance of this upgrade cannot be overestimated; without it waiting time can exceed travel time for many trips. 

2.  Ballarat Rd MegaBus/future light rail between Sunshine and the CBD. Ballarat Rd is home to two VU campuses and will be near the proposed new Footscray Hospital. It has several bus routes along it but none have the high frequency and profile needed. Also the corridor’s main routes like the 220 and 410 don’t consistently run along it. The MegaBus would deliver a single simple route with an all day 5 – 10 minute frequency between Sunshine, Ballarat Rd, Footscray, Docklands and the CBD. It would have high quality stops and bus priority. Quiet electric buses could run along it within two years with potential for light rail within ten years. More here. 

3.  SmartBus to Highpoint. Rerouting the 903 orbital to run via Highpoint would provide a high quality link from Sunshine to Highpoint and Essendon via Braybrook, better connecting local activity centres. The cost of doing this is negligible but there would need to be some local bus reforms. More here.

4.   Fast airport bus.  Airport rail is proposed but won’t start until 2029. We could start a high quality limited stops fast bus much sooner. This establishes travel patterns early and increases the attractiveness of Sunshine as a destination for business. Plus it would slash airport travel times for a large slice of western Melbourne including the fast growing Wyndham, Melton and Geelong areas with connections from upgraded train services. More here.

5.   Geelong and Wyndham Vale rail service upgrade. Current waiting times can blow out to as much as 40 minutes at night and on weekends. The first upgrade should add trips so that waits never exceed 20 minutes at least as far as Wyndham Vale. The next stage could further boost Wyndham Vale’s frequency to every 10 minutes.   

6.   Melton rail service upgrade. The 31 January 2021 timetable added many trips. However there remain some long gaps and weekend service is not as good as it should be. An upgrade could boost weekend and evening service so that maximum waits at Melton are capped at 20 minutes. This would be a precursor to Melton electrification, with Melton eventually getting a full 10 minute service.   

7. Local bus network reform and simplification with 10 or 20 minute maximum waits. Initiatives such as the Highpoint SmartBus and the Ballarat Rd MegaBus could provide the catalyst for reform to other local bus routes, although some could be done earlier. Some would have very low costs. Potential upgrades include:

·         Route 216 upgrade to every 10 min weekday, 20 min night and weekends. 

·         Route 410 reroute off Ballarat Rd to operate consistently operate via Churchill Av (currently 410 follows an inconsistent route with an hourly deviation). Operate a consistent 15 min peak/20 min off-peak 7 day service with longer hours.

·         Route 428/429 consolidate to operate as a single simplified route 428 every 20 minutes 7 days per week. Service could commence north of station to improve main street access. More here. 

·         Route 408 upgrade with longer hours and Sunday upgrade to every 20 minutes. Would improve access to Sunshine Hospital. Potential western extension along Furlong Rd to Brimbank SC for improved hospital access in conjunction with other network changes. 

·         Route 418, 423 and 424 upgrade with longer hours and boosted frequency to every 20 minutes. Would improve access to St Albans and Sunshine Hospital area.  Also longer hours and higher weekend frequency for Route 425. 

·         Route 426 upgrade to every 20 minutes to Caroline Springs Town Centre. This would provide a simpler Ballarat Rd service connecting with trains at Albion. Potential  to merge with Route 410 to provide east-west route through Sunshine.

·         New Watergardens – Sunshine route via Sunshine Av. Formed by extending Route 419 to Sunshine with Route 406 extended west to St Albans to serve Main St East. Would operate every 20 min or better 7 days and better connect Sunshine with close in areas to the north.

·         Extended hours on Route 420 to midnight. Peak frequency increased to 10-15 minutes.

·         Longer operating hours on Route 400 between Derrimut and Sunshine.

·         A new Sunshine – St Albans bus route via St Albans Rd for improved local access as the precinct develops. Potential to operate near Sunshine Hospital and via Victoria University St Albans. This could be one of the St Albans local routes (eg 425) extended south. 

·         Improved industrial area coverage to Laverton North via a new route, potentially to Tarneit via Dohertys Rd. This could help create a job ready network for improved access to local employment. 

8.   Sunshine Station rebuilding and revamp.  Although the station is relatively new, local walking and biking connectivity in the area remains poor, especially across the rail corridor near Sunshine Station. The south side has huge potential if connectivity was better. An ambitious concept suggested by some could be to move the station about 150m to the north-west to bring it closer to the major activity centre at Hampshire Rd and have the buses between where the tracks diverge.  Multiple entrances and connecting walkways, at both ends of the platform, are essential to maximise walking catchment (something Melbourne is notoriously bad at doing even for major stations like Frankston and South Yarra). 

9. Albion Station upgrade. Currently it’s a dump. A southern entrance and connection onto Foundary Rd could make it a second station for Sunshine CBD. Bus stops would also be improved for better waiting conditions for those using connecting Ballarat Rd buses.  

10.  Various walking and cycling access improvements. To improve access along and across roads. 

11. (added later) Bendigo trains to stop at Sunshine. Again a major boost to NEIC access.

 Conclusion

This has been my wish list for better transport in Sunshine NEIC. Most are relatively short term, or at least can be if there was the same will to introduce bus upgrades as implement larger more infrastructure-based projects. Have I left any off or are there some that you think are unnecessary? If so please leave your comments below.  

Sunshine NEIC is in the seat of Footscray (Katie Hall MP) and St Albans (Natalie Suleyman MP). Both are regarded as safe Labor seats. 

See other Building Melbourne's Useful Network items here