Building Melbourne's Useful Network Part 91: Fixing the 824 corridor (Moorabbin - Keysborough)

Today we'll look at what I'll call the '824 corridor' in Melbourne's south and south east. What we know as the Route 824, from Moorabbin to Keysborough, has been on its current alignment for the better part of 30 years. 

Pretty much the only thing that's changed since is its timetable when it gained 7 day service and extended hours about 15 years ago. These were part of a 'minimum standards' program rolled out to over 100 bus routes. 

Other structural issues with bus timetables were not always changed then. For example a busy route may run every 15 or 20 minutes Monday to Saturday but Sunday service was left at every 40 to 60 minutes despite usage justifying an improvement (such as on routes like the 408 to Highpoint). Or frequencies might not have been adjusted to harmonise trains with chronic non-connections remaining to this day (particularly in the northern suburbs). 

Oddities that date from when shorter routes were merged and one area having historically higher frequencies than another have also persisted for decades. For example Moorabbin Transit routes were typically every 20 or 30 minutes while Grenda routes around Springvale/Dandenong were more often hourly, even during peak times. The 824 reflects this with the Moorabbin end operating every 20 minutes but the Keysborough end having only a 40 minute frequency as only every second bus extends there. This is despite Noble Park/Keysborough having more favourable demographics for buses than Moorabbin. You can see this illustrated in the timetable fragment below. 

 

The map below shows the 824's alignment. It could be described as being in two parts. There is a direct west-east Moorabbin to Clayton portion and a diagonal Clayton to Keysborough portion. 

The Moorabbin - Clayton half is mostly continuously residential with a TAFE and some light industrial. It could not be made straighter than it is.  It has mostly unique coverage with little overlap from other routes. Its 20 minute weekday frequency meshes with every second train at Moorabbin and Clayton. 

The Clayton to Westall part, through the 'poets streets', is mostly residential. Then there's some dense housing near Westall Station. It then becomes a mix of housing and light industrial down the pedestrian-hostile Westall Rd which presents a formidable barrier. Despite its frequency having by now dropped to 40 minutes, the 824 is still the most frequent local bus in the Springvale South area. It also has a lot of unique residential catchment in the south-west part of Keysborough. However access to it is not helped by impermeable street layouts. Finallly the 824 overlaps two other routes (that are even less frequent than it, namely the 812 and the 813) via Kingsclere Av to Parkmore Shopping Centre.

There is no logical reason why the 824 need be a single route. They perform different functions east and west of Clayton. It is likely that the turnover of passengers at Clayton would be quite high, with few passengers travelling through. There is a possibility that if routes were split they could be freed to serve more popular destinations. 

The remainder of this post will discuss these opportunities, starting from west to east. 

The Brighton end

If you were a car driver heading west along South Road you would be able to remain seated until you risk falling into the bay at Brighton Beach. Whereas bus passengers are artificially required to change at Moorabbin from the 824 to either the 811 or 812. And, because the 824 is every 20 minutes and the other two combined are every 30 minutes, waits will be uneven and in some cases long. 

Then there are issues with the bus network in Brighton itself. It has too many (four!) bus routes that parallel the train while there are too few good services that feed it from the east. Those routes that run north-south collectively operate at excessive frequency and for excessive hours for their low usage. The local council once tried a feeder shuttle bus to relieve parking pressures at local stations. With service either every hour (823) or every half-hour (811/812) regular bus routes are currently inadequate to perform the train feeder function. It has been demonstrated that you start to get people using buses as train feeders only when bus frequency gets to every 20 minutes or better. Local routes rarely do this and when several overlap they form a complex mess with people having to check multiple timetables. 

A way to simplify the local network could be to extend Route 824 westward to Brighton to replace the Route 811/812. This would deliver a frequency increase and a simple South Rd route operating both sides of Moorabbin. 811/812 could start at Southland to go to Dandenong as present. The area east of Moorabbin could potentially be served by the 627 extended to Southland instead of Moorabbin. The map below presents the idea (click for clearer view). 

Are there shortcomings? As with almost any bus reform there will be. For instance Brighton people no longer have a one seat ride to Southland. However the current 811/812 is infrequent and indirect. Also, since this network was designed the Frankston line has improved from every 20 to every 15 to every 10 minutes. Last but not least Southland now has a station. Therefore a bus/train connection at Moorabbin would be a good substitute option especially if 824's weekend frequency was improved (20 minutes suggested but even 30 minutes would mesh with trains at 2 out of 3 stations). 

There would be a small increase in service kilometres (due to the increase from 30 to 20 minutes for the 824's extra portion). However it may be possible to claw some of that back by pruning the timetable for routes such as the 603. Its frequency of every 20 minutes until 1am, for example, is excessive for its current usage especially given how close it is to the train near Brighton Beach. Routes 600/922/923 could also be reformed and simplified since this also has low usage around the Brighton area. 

Clayton / Monash precinct

I mentioned before that few would travel between both halves of the 824. However just north of Clayton Station is a major hospital precinct. Then to the north-east is the area's major employer at Monash University which nevertheless has poor bus access to some surrounding areas. 

The concept here is to split the 824 into two routes at Clayton. But instead of terminating there both would run to Monash University Clayton as shown on the map below. The western portion (which I've kept as 824 but could revert to a 600-series number) would be little different except for the Monash extension. That would greatly improve access to the campus from Clarinda and areas further west near South Rd. This should be a strong route with good patronage. 

The eastern portion could be a whole new route between Monash, Westall and Keysborough. I've labelled it 817 on the map below. It would fill a major transport gap in the area with many short but currently difficult connections now possible. These include connecting the high-rise (but poorly served) M-City development to Westall Station and providing a much easier Monash University connection for areas like Springvale South and Keysborough. Service on this route could be every 20 minutes (7 days) given the strong trip generators in the northern end and the high patronage propensity on the southern end. It could build on local Keysborough network upgrades discussed last week in Useful Network 90. 

As with almost any realignment things need to be done to other routes to avoid coverage losses. Rerouting the southern part of 824 means that areas south of Westall Station need a service. A possibility could be to reroute the 704 and extend it to Springvale. This would improve connections to local shopping since the existing 824 skips Springvale. 

Centre Rd also needs a route to Clayton to replace the moved 704. This could be done by extending the 814 to Clayton, as discussed in Useful Network 48. The portion of Springvale South that would no longer have the 814 could have service provided by either a rerouted 811 and/or the extended 704 mentioned above. Unlike the current 814 both of these replacement routes would operate 7 days per week, improving service in a pocket of Springvale South that needs it. 

The above is not a cost-neutral upgrade. The additional service to Monash University and the increased frequency suggested for the 817 will need buses. However it is unquestionably a good place to deploy buses given the improved connections to jobs in the Monash Precinct and the good patronage performance of existing bus routes in the area. 

Conclusion

The current Route 824 looks like two routes tacked onto one another. They miss key education, health, job and transport hubs by a few kilometres. The revisions suggested here could greatly improve access through a large part of Brighton, Moorabbin, Clarinda, Clayton, Springvale and Keysborough to these important services. 

If you have any thoughts or alternative ideas please post them in the comments below. 

See more Building Melbourne's Useful Network items here