Timetable Tuesday #146: January 30 2022 bus route and timetable changes

Just a quick one this week. 

When PTV put up timetables on their website they normally have a date range. Normally, if no changes are on the horizon the finish date will be the 31st of December (either this year or next). But if there are changes planned then you'll see an earlier date. This is a good clue that there might be something in the works. 

Initially you might only see the current version of the timetable online. But as you get nearer the commencement date you will see two - the current effective until its last day and the new version taking over from the next day. It can vary but both versions are available about 4 or 5 weeks before the commencement date. 

When it's just a timetable change you can see both version is you look up the pdf timetables. Where a route change (which can be quite minor) is involved then you will see the new timetable under a separate route entry starting on the revision date. 

Those curious can use the search function to good effect to find all revised routes starting on a particular date. A search on '30/1/2022' indicated revisions for routes 626, 663, 670, 677 and 679. Note that this only captures route changes, not timetable changes within an unchanged route. And it depends on whether the date has been entered at all.

For at least a couple of months we've had warning that things are afoot in the Lilydale area. And not just the small changes associated with the recent replacement of TeleBus with FlexiRide. There's also some changes starting on 30 January 2022. 

What are they? As it turns out the answer is 'not much'.

The biggest appears to be a deviation on the 626 to serve McKinnon Secondary College's east campus. Regardless of its merit, it's an example of how the bus network tends towards complexity over time.

You need look no further than the 626's progenitor - the (old) 627 as it was about 20 years ago. This was like a bent and twisted hairpin with origin not far from destination. It too had got that way from simpler routes, as you can learn here. The 627 stayed like it was for too long until it got split into two simpler routes with better operating hours in 2010. These were the 625 and 626. 

So now with the 626 McKinnon Secondary deviation the cycle repeats, with no signs of a needed tidy up of Bentleigh East's still complex bus network, likely involving reforms to 701, 767, 822 and even the new 627. 

What about the other routes? These are all in the Lilydale area. A Yarra Valley bus network review was mooted in the 2021 state budget. However whatever is happening on January 30 isn't it. There only seem to be minor timetable changes of a few minutes here and there. These involve routes like 663, 679,  680, 684  and 685. Maybe also more. 

Something they've gone backward on is the presentation of the pdf timetables for Route 670. As part of the new expanded Night Network, this has 24 hour service on weekends. This is of benefit both to people coming home late at night and those with early starts on Saturday and Sunday. 

Unfortunately they have changed the presentation of the new pdf timetables to make travel harder for the latter group of travellers. In many cases the service is under-sold and people may not know it even exists.

Here's why. The new timetables move after midnight trips from the day they are on to the previous day. As an example, if you were to just look at the Sunday timetable you would look at the time for the first bus and see that there's nothing before 8am. That's typical for buses in Melbourne and you'd think nothing of it. Yet it sells the service short because the 670 actually has 24 hour weekend service. So if you needed to catch a 5, 6 or 7 am Sunday morning service then you could.

The problem is that PTV hides those trips on the Saturday evening timetable (which few will look at). Whereas the pdf Sunday timetables up to 29 January do show these Sunday trips on the Sunday timetable.

A split needs to be done sometime during the night. Before that split the trips show up on the Saturday timetable. After the split they are on the Sunday timetable. You could argue it should be midnight to reflect the calendar date. Or a bit later like 3 or 4 am between the two 'Night Network' peaks (that is around 2 am outbound and maybe 6 or 7 am inbound).

But having it as late as 8am, when the passenger mix travelling likely has little interest in Night Network and wouldn't think to look their trip up on the previous night's timetable is poor and hides the service available. 

This appears a minor presentation issue but is one more thing that contributes towards bus services in Melbourne being complex and underused. Overseeing this is the Victorian Department of Transport whose collective outlook towards buses does not reflect the minister's genuine desire to do much better with them. Examples include a record of either ignoring buses (eg leaving them out of new station brochures) or downplaying real achievements (like reforming the Night Network) by insufficiently promoting benefits like enhanced Sunday morning travel.  

That's it for today. The 30 January timetables appear minor tweaks, at least in the Lilydale area. However other areas will have more significant service and timetable changes in early 2022, such as Clyde North's new bus and Cranbourne peak rail upgrade. 

More Timetable Tuesday items here