It's unusual for a Melbourne inner suburban locality to have buses as their only public transport. However one such place is Parkville Gardens. As the crow flies it's vaguely walkable from the 59 tram but in practice unhelpful street layouts, the lack of a pedestrian bridge across Moonee Ponds Creek and (most notably) the severance caused by the Tullamarine Freeway prevent easy access.
Hence the area was one of those relatively close in but inaccessible bits of land reserved to industry (like Fishermans Bend) or institutional land uses like mental asylums.
De-institutionalisation (favoured by the small-government political right to save money and the civil libertarian left on human rights grounds) has led to significant amounts of such land becoming surplus. That in Parkville was used to house athletes during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Then it became regular housing. Housing is the key word. Parkville Gardens has no retail or other services within reasonable walking distance. That explains its low walk score of 43. For comparison Brunswick West, a couple of kilometres north, scores 81. The area around outer suburban Hoppers Crossing Station scores 71. And even the out-of-the-way Garden City area of Port Melbourne is higher with a walk score of 51 (somewhat walkable). Therefore the area is very dependent on motorised transport and facilities in adjoining suburbs.
The fastest way into the city is probably to walk the 1km-odd to Royal Park Station and get the Upfield line train in. Parts are near the 504 bus on Brunswick Rd but walking permeability isn't good. Hence the Route 505 between Moonee Ponds and Melbourne University was introduced about 10 years ago.
Timetable
Route 505's service was initially hourly seven days per week, even in peaks. In 2016 its peak service was upgraded with approximately a 20 minute frequency in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.
Below are its current (31 January 2021) inbound timetables (click for a better view).
Only during some very narrow peak periods is the frequency better than hourly. And the 20 minute frequency in the morning does not exist, with the shortest interval (happening only once) being 30 minutes.
The hourly service requires considerable planning, particularly for short trips that some Parkville Gardens residents will likely need to make due to the area's lack of local services within walking distance. And it's unusually infrequent for an inner suburb routes. Its nearest equivalent is possibly Port Melbourne's Route 236. This features a 40 minute weekday service, though, to be fair, its operating hours are shorter and there is no Sunday service.
Advocacy
Victorian Greens have gone from having quite a strong bus policy before the 2018 election to going quiet on them, such as leaving them out of their signature Green New Deal policy This is despite the political opportunity created by the general neglect of them under the infrastructure strong but service weak Andrews government, buses' utility as economical job creators and their coverage of the two-thirds of Melbourne distant from trains and trams.
More recently The Greens have become parliament's leading (electric) car salespeople, opposing a move by the state Labor government for ecar owners to contribute a tiny bit more to ever so slightly offset the huge public subsidies motorists get via roads, tax breaks and 'free' parking.
At first sight this does not seem encouraging for public transport. In fact it could even be worse if EVs usher in an era of 'guilt free' motoring with lower running costs inducing more driving.
But there remain some small hopes for public transport.
One Greens MP who is still talking about buses is Dr Tim Read MP who represents Brunswick. This is significant here as Parkville Gardens and part of Route 505 is in Brunswick's south-west.
The 505 was mentioned in Dr Read's budget reply.
More details on how it could be improved appeared in his February newsletter.
Also watch the question to the minister delivered here.
Such an upgrade would certainly help local transport access. Though I can't help thinking whether the request could not have been more ambitious, for example a doubling of off-peak frequency to 30 minutes. Still not a fantastic service but it would be a cost-effective service upgrade as the buses needed already exist. All that's needed is some extra fuel and driver hours.
See all Timetable Tuesday items here
4 comments:
Even with an upgraded 505, there may in future be justification for another bus route through the area. A more north-south bus route, say City-Brunswick via the Arden-Macaulay precinct and Parkville Gardens.
So does the route exist primarily to service Parkville Gardens? Moonee Ponds seems a reasonable destination to the northwest, but is Melbourne University the right destination to the southeast? With the existing route you could easily do a 30-minute frequency with a second bus, but is halving the route another option. Or could it be merged with the 546 and through route to the east via the north of Melbourne University (rather than the current 546 circumnavigation of Melbourne University)?
"To save money" is either a misapprehension of or misrepresentation of why people advocate for small government.
Honestly don't know how they can say it is disability friendly. I'm currently looking at buying a property in galada Street because I *think* maybe the pool is the type to help with my disability but my disability also means I can't drive and ndis have given me peanuts as funding for taxis with a goal that I catch more accessible public transport. I don't know how, it doesn't seem to exist anywhere I can afford on a disability pension.
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