Timetable Tuesday #126: Route 415 across Hobsons Bay

Williamstown and Altona have had times of being separate from one another and being together. Council amalgamation brought them together under Hobsons Bay Council. The recently announced electoral boundary redistribution that proposes to abolish Altona will also bring them under the one MP. Another unifying connection is the 415 bus that is today’s topic. 

Both are established suburbs (very established in the case of Williamstown). But they are separated by a large stretch of low-lying vacant or industrial land. Kororoit Creek Rd is the only direct road between the two suburbs. Walkers in Altona are not expected to leave the suburb with it being hemmed in either by busy roundabouts to the east and pathless bridges to the west. To the east Kororoit Creek Rd becomes Ferguson St, with it getting a grade separation at North Wiliamstown despite just three trains per hour each way lowering the boom gates even in peaks. 

Williamstown, noted for its maritime and naval history, started out working class but is now west-of-Melbourne’s prime suburb with a mix of large homes and small cottages lining its older streets. 

Altona has more modest homes, with cream brick 60s builds common. Its dress circle is along the bay, especially at the Seaholme end. Conversely its cheaper real estate is towards the Westona end, north of the railway near where the 415 bus runs. It has few local jobs so its locals work in either the industrial area to the north or in the CBD. Although Altona does have a somewhat older population skew. 

Laverton, to the west, is somewhat cut off from Altona like Williamstown is to the east. This is due to the road grid being either sparse or interrupted and the obstacles created by the railway and freeway. Most of Laverton live north of the railway while the nearest large retail is at Altona Meadows, south of both the railway and freeway. Its 100 square metre cement or brick cottages is more modest than Altona and its ethnically diverse population has a pronounced low income skew. Local shopping options here are decidedly lacking with most of Laverton’s buses (like the 400 or 414) going a long long way before they reach substantial shopping centres. School education options are also limited compared to both Point Cook to the west and Altona North to the east. 

The route

Where does the 415 fit into all this? It is the only east-west bus that joins Williamstown, Altona and Laverton. The train does too but that requires a change at Newport. In addition the bus passes closer than the train to shops at Williamstown. This makes it a useful alternative for some people. Hence the 415 is basically a local coverage shopper type route with the potential for other trips, such as to schools. 

You can see this on the map below. 

Also notable are the 415’s various backtrackings, particularly in its middle Altona section. From east to west these are to serve Altona station (and to get closer to most shops), serve an incomplete portion of Grieve Pde that contains some housing for which the 414 provides unique coverage, and finally Port Phillip Retirement Village west of Maidstone St to which only some trips deviate. 

The Port Phillip deviation was added in 2008 but not without incident. NIMBY residents who didn't want buses in 'their' residential street complained, including leaving their cars out to block the bus. It was an emotive issue at the time with parents who claimed that buses in their street was unsafe for children (despite their own  high-fronted SUVs more likely to hit a child) up against the seniors who appreciated the improved bus access that the modified Route 415 brought.

There was significant toing and froing involving the transport minister Lynne Kosky, who was also the local MP. Route 415 buses have continued to operate in the street but only for some trips in a sort of compromise arrangement that made the network more confusing. Things seem to have calmed down since.
  

However a broader question one might ask was whether a retirement village should have been built on the site at all given its inaccessible location that could not be served by bus unless you added an expensive to provide dedicated route or deviated an existing route off a main road (as done with the 415) and in the process slowing travel for through passengers (who would likely be the majority).  

Also notable is one trip that starts at Aircraft rather than Laverton just after 8am weekdays. Hence the 415 is a ‘mop up’ type route that provides coverage that other more direct routes like 411/412 and 903 miss (network map below).

Timetable

The 415 has gone a long time since a large timetable upgrade. It, like the 414, missed out on the minimum standards bus upgrades that happened from 2006. On weekdays it runs every 40 minutes between roughly 6am and 8am. Saturday service is about two hours shorter with buses every 80 minutes. This tallies with the route’s run time which is just under 40 minutes. This enables the Saturday service to be run with one bus. There is no Sunday or public holiday service. Some earlier and later short trips operate between Laverton and Maidstone St (only). I assume that these are to minimise dead running as the bus operator’s depot is in the Westona area. 

History

Route 415 can trace its history to before WWII. The incarnation nearest to today's started in 1945. It was cut back to Altona with the 414 at one time extending south of the Werribee line in the 1970s to serve Altona Meadows. However later 414 was cut back to Laverton with 415 getting re-extended to Laverton.  

Patronage

Route 415 is less used than the average Melbourne bus route. Passenger boardings in late 2018 were 16 passenger boardings per service hour on weekdays and 11 on Saturdays. Parts overlap the catchments of other routes, and, in the Altona area, parallel rather than feed the railway. The area's street layout make it difficult to run productive bus routes without either substantial coverage gaps, backtracking or inefficient overlaps. Hence the 415 is the sort of neighbourhood route that you'd may make a few tweaks to but would not expect it to do much 'heavy lifting' with regards public transport patronage. 

Conclusion

I haven't discussed route changes that could make the 415 bus more useful. Do you have any ideas? Or should timetable improvements be top priority. Comments are appreciated and can be left below. 

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