TT #151: COVID Dysons and altered Cranbourne bus timetables

Two short items today, one temporary and the other ongoing. 

Dysons buses on temporary timetable

More now than when the pandemic hit in 2020, public transport operators have not been immune to the staffing shortages that have hit many industries. This is particularly visible for public transport that needs drivers to run services. If there are not enough drivers some services will not run. 

There are various approaches to this, as follows: 

1. Warn passengers that some services will not run but only tell them at the last minute which ones. PTV warns of this possibility here. Of note is that Metro Trains was unable to run its full timetable in October and December 2021 to expected standards with compensation being payable (to the very limited number of passengers eligible). October 2021 was also a poor month for Yarra Trams. 

2. Provide more warning for passengers by publishing reduced timetables with certain bus runs removed from an otherwise regular timetable. This is basically taking shifts from an existing roster. For example a bus route every 20 minutes that requires three buses could have one removed to provide gaps of 20, 40, 20, 40 minutes as two of the three shifts would continue to run as per the roster. It's operationally easy but it means uneven and irregular times. 

This approach is currently taken by Dysons in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Many of their routes have been on temporary timetables since January 31. Details of them are on their website here. The normal 23 minute headway of routes like 556 instead become an odd repeating pattern of 23 and 46 minutes (approx) gaps due to various shifts being removed. Route 552 has an even bigger difference with its 15 minute service sometimes having 45 minute gaps. All these reduced timetables are effective on weekdays only with weekend services unchanged. This leads to oddities like Route 552 having a better service on Saturday mornings (a regular every 15 min) than all day weekdays (gaps of up to 45 min). 

3. Introduce lower frequency timetables with wider but more even trip spacing. These are again published well ahead of time. 

The easiest approach on routes that operate less frequently on weekends is to simply operate a Saturday or Sunday timetable on a weekday. This has the operational benefit of having a known roster that is known to comply with requirements such as operating hours and meal breaks. The timetable is also known to the public. However on some routes weekend operating hours are much shorter than on weekdays with some buses still finishing at midday Saturday. This would be an unacceptable option to run on a weekday. Also weekend bus times might not connect with weekday trains. 

Another approach is to write whole new timetables. This is a lot of work in itself as not only are there timetables but also the vehicle and driver rostering, the latter of which must meet certain rules with regards to working hours and breaks etc. Such work may need to be revisited if there are changes in the number of available drivers. 

Timetables that are very frequent might be easier to prune back. Where you are reducing from very frequent to merely frequent the need for precise published times is less. Also the pandemic has reduced those travelling during the traditional rush hours, lessening overcrowding risks if peak service was reduced. 

Transdev Melbourne took something like this approach in January 2022 with at least some of its service reductions with routes like 600/922/923 operating Saturday timetables on weekdays. Their successor, Kinetic, has commenced with full timetables. 

Each of these approaches has their problems. 1. permits 'on they fly' changes but introduces uncertainty for passengers. 2. and 3. introduce greater certainty by enabling people to plan in advance. However 2 is operationally easier but is bad for passengers due to the uneven gaps. Whereas 3 provides better evenness but is operationally much harder as a multi-week or month scheduling and rostering process is compressed into a few days if special timetables that are not simply the adoption of weekend timetables are introduced.  

There are also variants in the treatment of modes due to the greater esteem that trains (both Metro and V/Line) have in Melbourne compared to buses. If there was a scenario where there are mass train cancellations it is possible to see a case where quieter lines are replaced by substitute buses operating to the same frequency (but with typically slower run times) as trains. Whereas if buses can't be run it is very rare for these to be replaced by buses driven by other operators. The main recent exception is during the 2017 Transdev fleet management crisis when this did happen. 

New Cranbourne bus timetables

Improved Cranbourne train timetables start later this month. A result of the line's duplication, they include increased peak service frequency. PTV advise that there will be rescheduled buses and coaches to maintain coordination with the changed train timetables. 

Times on 13 bus routes and 2 coach routes in the Cranbourne area will be changed. 

791: Minor time changes only.

792:  Minor time changes only.  

795: A complex and infrequent route. Mostly minor time changes but there is a large change in the trips that run school days only. That may inconvenience some passengers who previously depended on trips that ran on all non-public holiday weekdays. Other passengers may however be better off. The rationale for this change has not been explained. 

796: Minor time changes only.

798: Minor time changes only.

799: Minor time changes only.

881: Service started on 30 January 2022. No subsequent time changes.

890: Minor time changes only. Very low usage on weekends. 

891: Minor time changes only. 

892: Minor time changes only. 

893: Minor time changes only. This is a poor outcome for this route. The existing (and proposed) timetable has a 20 minute frequency on Sunday mornings (which is generous) but the first buses don't reach Dandenong until 8:44am and Cranbourne until 9:23am. Both are unacceptably late for a major route. A opportunity could have been taken to spread Sunday am trips out so that first buses arrive 60 - 90 minute earlier since there is known weekend travel demand earlier than buses start. The omission here reflect the inability of DoT to be aware of service issues for each route and to specify resolution of them in the next timetable change. Such a requirement would lessen the backlog of outstanding issues and lower costs compared to having multiple timetable changes.  

897: Minor time changes only. 

898: Minor time changes only. 

To sum up these are very minor tweaks, often affecting a few trips at a few places here and there. It's good that they are being made to reflect the changed train times. However as can be seen from the City of Casey local area network map, there are many route overlaps and loose ends that need to be resolved to provide a simpler and more useful bus network. 

Index to Timetable Tuesday items here