One of Melbourne's many neighbourhood bus routes is the unheralded 894. Snaking around the south-east it starts at Hallam station and ends at Narre Warren South. It calls in at Hampton Park shopping centre on the way. It (like the not unrelated 895) has an undistinguished terminus on Ormond Rd, not far from Amberley Park shopping centre. Its map (which does not completely represent how the bus goes all day for reasons given later) is below:
Taking over half an hour in peak, you probably wouldn't do an end-to-end trip on the 894 for the few kilometres to Hallam Station. Although other choices aren't necessarily much better. Both the 892 and 895 turn off before they reach Hallam Station (currently being rebuilt with its level crossing removed) while the area lacks a route to nearby Lynbrook station. 834 and 835 (recently discussed here) are also complex and indirect (although their peak frequency is relatively good).
Portions of Route 894 overlap multiple routes in the area. This is partly a legacy of past planning which has only sometimes reformed underlying routes when new routes (eg 863) have been added. The new 2016 Cranbourne network reformed some routes like 892 and 893 but left 894 alone. 894 does however have some unique coverage especially around Huntingdon & Laura drives. The relationship between 894 and the broader rail and bus network can be seen below.
The Hampton Park area has multiple destinations within a few kilometres. The 894 serves only a few. These include the station at Hallam and shopping centres at Hampton Park and Amberley Park. Key destinations missed include the large shopping and civic centre at Fountain Gate, Cranbourne shopping centre, Lynbrook station (which has benefited from the recent Cranbourne line duplication and peak frequency increase) and Casey Central shopping centre. It is unreasonable (and geometrically difficult) to expect a single bus route to serve them all. However a reappraisal of the 894's role is overdue given recent retail and housing growth in the broader region.
Route 894 is run by Cranbourne Transit. The area has both other Cranbourne Transit routes (eg 891, 892, 893, 895) and routes run by Ventura (eg 834/835, 847, 863). Multiple operators can make bus network reform harder or at least limit options give DoT chariness about swapping routes between bus operators or instituting sharing arrangements (though it was done in 2006 for the 900 SmartBus and more recently the 2014 Brimbank review).
The route is in the state electorate of Narre Warren South, represented by Gary Maas (Labor).
Timetable and service levels
At first glance the 894 looks like your average minimum service standard Melbourne suburban bus route. It runs every 40 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends until about 9pm Monday to Sunday. Peak service is approximately every 30 minutes. Fairly normal so far.
Where 894 gets different is that its 30 minute peak frequency is obtained by running express in the counterpeak direction. Thus the route is effectively bidirectional outside peak but unidirectional in peak. This pattern is ingenious but adds complexity to the service. This includes 'holes' of 3-4 hours when you'd expect that service would run but it doesn't. 894 has shared this trait with the closely related 895 since the routes were created nearly 20 years ago in 2002's upgrades that parsimoniously added bus service across much of outer Melbourne.
Usage
Route 894 attracts about 21 passenger boardings per bus service hour on weekdays. This is very close to average for buses in Melbourne. About a quarter of this usage is associated with schoolchildren, with this number dropping to 16 on non-school days. Weekend usage is much less with 11 and 7 boardings per hour on Saturdays and Sundays respectively. This is possibly because the route does not serve major weekend destinations like Fountain Gate.
History
Route 894 (along with its sister 895 and 892 and 893) started in 2002. This year marked the first stirring from the slumber that had characterised Melbourne bus services for the decade following the savage service cuts of 1990/91. We however had to wait a further four years for the full awakening marked by 2006's 'Meeting our Transport Challenges' plan.
Before 2002 the area was served by high 700-series routes. Routes 792, 793 and 794 served the area from 1987. The first two went to Dandenong while the 794 ran to Fountain Gate. 792 was a Saturday only service from 1987 with the other two operating on weekdays. This network introduced a complexity to local buses that despite the 2002 route and number changes remains with us today 35 years later.
Going back even further, there was just a single route, the 792, between Dandenong and Cranbourne which existed at least as far back as 1971 with a past traceable to 1946. This served areas west of Hallam Rd including the site of the Hampton Park shopping centre. It was Hampton Park's first and original bus route. Interestingly coverage was reduced in 1978 with the route modified to run along more of South Gippsland Hwy. You can see maps of the old 792 and other 1970s - 90s routes here.
Conclusion
Route 894 is one of a complex tangle of bus routes serving the Hampton Park area. It does not run a full timetable at all stops with services not running in counterpeak directions. Patronage is low to middling, not assisted by the number of other routes that sap its usage along with poor directness, weak termini and avoidance of some popular destinations.
Could 894 be improved? What do you think should be done with it? Please share your ideas in the comments below.
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