Extending from St Kilda to Glen Waverley via Chadstone Shopping Centre, Route 623 is a key bus route across Melbourne's south and south-east. While its western half parallels the 67 tram, the 623 more directly serves some major destinations the 67 doesn't including St Kilda and Chadstone Shopping Centre. Much of 623's catchment has undergone densification, particularly around Glen Waverley and Carnegie, and is unrecognisable from 20 years ago.
The PTV-generated route map is below. Key roads served include Glen Eira Rd in the west and Waverley Rd in the east. The route is mostly fairly simple except for backtracking via Mt Waverley Station.
The annotated network maps below show the 623 relative to other routes and lines. Key issues and oddities are also highlighted.
While it intersects with the Sandringham line at Ripponlea station, it lacks good Frankston line connectivity. Access to the trains at Glen Huntly requires crossing of Glen Huntly Rd and sometimes Neerim Rd. A new Glenhuntly station is being built as part of grade separation works but, like the existing station, it will have only a single entrance on the south side of Glen Huntly Rd.
Moving east there is significant overlap with other routes in the Carnegie area. Firstly there is 624 on parts of Neerim Rd. Then there is 900 and a portion of 822 on Dandenong Rd. The 900 is a SmartBus route added in 2006. As was common with the inefficient route-based planning of the time, the 900 was run over the top of existing routes (like parts of the 623 and 624) without full consideration of network benefits that a wider network reform could deliver.
Route 623 serves several electorates including Albert Park (Martin Foley Labor), Caulfield (David Southwick Liberal), Oakleigh (Steve Dimopoulos Labor) and Mt Waverley (Matt Fregon Labor). Some boundaries will change for this year's state election. For more information see my 7 part seat by seat 2022 state election special. Route 623 is mentioned here as a prospect for an electorally significant service upgrade.
Service levels
Route 623 operates at typical frequencies for a Melbourne bus route. Weekday frequency is every 30 minutes (including in peak) while weekend service is every 60 minutes. It has run 7 days until 9pm since Meeting our Transport Challenges 'minimum service' upgrades about 15 years ago. With one or two minor exceptions weekday peak service is also every 30 minutes.
In the early 1980s Route 623 was a 5 1/2 day route operating about every 30 minutes on weekdays and Saturday mornings. Hourly Saturday afternoon service was added in the late 1980s (around when trading hours were liberalised). Early 1990s cuts saw the Saturday morning service cut to hourly. This is where its timetable sat until the operating hours upgrades more than a decade later which saw hourly service added over more of the day 7 days per week.
When bus operators were smaller there was a greater tendency to add extra services for local events and late night shopping. This tendency has become less significant as more bus routes gained weekend and early evening trips as part of regular operations. However for some time after it gained service to 9pm Route 623 had extra even later trips put on to get people home from the annual St Kilda Festival.
Patronage
The average Melbourne bus route picks up just over 20 passengers per live service hour. Route 623 is nearly double that (37 to 41 boardings/hour depending on the day of the week). Usage is quite flat across the whole week with Sundays actually being its most productive day. This characteristic reflects its role as being a major feeder to Chadstone that gets a lot of use despite its hourly weekend frequency.
Route 623 is an example of a route that is underserviced relative to its patronage. Adding service, especially on weekends, would likely boost patronage further. More on how high productivity can wreck a bus route (or at least have it perform well below potential) is here. It is quite possible that 623's usage and potential network role is so strong that it deserves to be a twenty minuter seven days per week. There may be scope to reduce costs if such upgrades occur in concert with amalgamation with part of Route 624 around Murrumbeena/Carnegie and network reforms around Caulfield as discussed here.
History
Parts of what is now the 623 can trace its past back to the 1920s. By the early 1950s there was a service from Port Melbourne to Murrumbeena (noting that by then Port Melbourne had become quite industrial, attracting people commuting to jobs by bus). There was a degree of chopping and changing in the 1950s and 1960s but in recent decades the route has been relatively stable. This can be verified by looking at various network maps from 1971.
For a long time the 623 was just the standard Monday to Saturday daytime affair but 7 day service and hours until 9pm was added about 15 years ago. Despite being hourly the added weekend trips have been massively successful due to the route serving key weekend entertainment and shopping centres including St Kilda, Chadstone and Glen Waverley.
Route 623's stability and relative simplicity is in contrast with other routes run by Driver Bus Lines (notably 624 & 627) that got chopped, changed and generally made more complicated in the 1980s and 90s. Half the madness ended nearly 12 years ago when the 627 was split to become the simple 625 and 626. However despite its patronage potential to support the Metro Tunnel and fill a north-south mobility gap in Melbourne's east the complicated, infrequent and unreformed 624 with its alternating deviations reminds us of work still needed to make buses more useful in this densifying area.
Route 623 (along with 612, 624, 625 and 626) transferred to CDC after Driver Bus Lines sold its route bus operations.
Conclusion
Route 623 already has high usage but is there scope for it to perform better and be made simpler? Should it be routed via Caulfield Station to feed trains including those serving the Metro Tunnel and later Melbourne Airport? Does it need more trips on a less duplicative alignment to better reflect its potential role as a major route? And is the Mt Waverley backtracking needed especially if 733 is upgraded to become an SRL SmartBus? What do you think? Comments are invited and can be left below.
4 comments:
Good post: suggest dump Glen Waverley diversion and do a Glenhuntly one instead. Probably cost the same, but Frankston line a more useful connection
I often use it to go somewhere but hardly ever use it coming back. The 30 minute frequency is good enough for planning an outing but timing a return connection with such low frequency just doesn't work for me.
Although connecting it to Caulfield Station would be good for some, like Shelford & Caulfield Grammar kids, it would be a loss for the Glen Eira College students.
Maybe the mount Waverley bit could be dropped however I think the bus line is perfectly fine the way it it. I only say around Glen Huntly better connection to the station once level crossing removal work and the new station is finished. ID say at least if you leave it where it is put in a sign directing people to it that's one thing you don't actually see it at stations which you should signs indicating bus routes especially when you got certain stations with have but as I have a side like Caulfield 624 is on both sides.
Another which isn't too far away on a separate topic is Oakleigh station I'm only saying this station as it's close but to the people that know it I know all the passwords that you will know that 90% of them are one side then you just have a few on the other side and can be confusing and a simple sign would be very useful but they don't ever think of something like that.
The MW diversion isn't pretty on a map, but works well for the shopping centre and station's micro-catchment along Waverley Rd between Huntingdale and Blackburn Rd. 623 could definitely do with 30 min frequencies on Sat/Sun daytimes as well as sorting out an odd frequency pattern between 730- 9am weekdays (prob as a result of school bus issues). It's my local bus and gets me to Chaddy, Holmesglen and the station reasonably reliably. Skyrail at Carnegie has really helped sort out late-running - the level crossing delays made it an absolute crap-shoot to catch esp at peaks.
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