TT #170: 828 Berwick to the Bay

Running a broad sweep across Melbourne’s south and south-east, Bus 828 is a long route that few would ride end to end. It runs from the swank City of Bayside in the west via bustling Southland, jobs and shopping near Moorabbin Airport, very white Dingley Village (emphasis on the latter), multicultural Keysborough, diverse Dandenong, down at heel Doveton, car-choked Fountain Gate and rustic main street Berwick to terminate at its station just to the south. 

Route 828 intersects radial rail at Hampton, Cheltenham, Dandenong and Berwick. It sees heavy use for people making local trips, sometimes involving connections at one of these stations. It serves Southland Shopping Centre bus interchange but not the new railway station there.

The route is mostly direct except for some indirectness between Hampton and Southland where it runs more like a neighbourhood coverage style route. 

Service levels

Route 828 operates to ‘minimum standards’ for local bus routes in Melbourne. That is service between 6am-9pm weekdays, 8am-9pm Saturdays and 9am-9pm Sundays. Weekday service is mostly every 20 minutes with some 40 minute gaps in the early morning and at night. Saturday service is every 40 minutes day, 60 minutes night. A 60 minute service previously operated during the day but services were upgraded a few years ago. Sunday service remains at hourly intervals. Overall weekend service (in particular) is low for a route of 828’s network importance. 

The Southland - Dandenong portion of Route 828 appear on the Principal Public Transport Network. These mostly main roads are set out in planning documents to inform denser, and presumably more transit oriented, land uses. Some PPTN corridors have frequent SmartBuses operating until midnight while others only get a lower neighbourhood style frequency and span of hours. 

Funding to address this was limited and for years we had no bus plan. Last year we did get a bus plan and some following service upgrades, including some on PPTN routes. The plan itself however doesn't mention the PPTN indicating a continued disconnect between land use planning and transport service provision. Hence it's common in Melbourne to get the development but not much transit, including in areas served by the 828.     

History

Route 828 is the consolidated result of several less frequent largely overlapping routes including 826, 827 and 828. The 826 was the longest of this group, operating from Hampton to Pakenham. The 827 went via Hallam Gardens Estate. 

Over the last 30 years the history of the 826/827/828 group of routes is the direct opposite of what happened to the route 600/922/923 group. Whereas the latter started off simple (just the route 600) and got complex as it was split into three infrequent routes, what is now just the 828 corridor was three routes (826/827/828), became two routes (827/828) and finally the simple and mostly direct 828.

If you go back further the corridor was simpler before it got more complex. Out of the three routes mentioned the 826 can trace its history back the longest. This goes back to the country route 238 that started running from Cheltenham to Dandenong in 1933. That got extended to Southland when that opened in 1968, becoming 826 in the 1971 renumbering. By that time there was also a 827 from Dandenong to Cheltenham Station only. The Highett/Hampton area at that time had many short routes numbered in the high 630s and 640s while southern Doveton had the short 844 from Dandenong plus a group of longer routes on Princes Hwy. 

The 827 had disappeared by 1978 with that year's network map only showing the 826 between Southland and Dandenong. The 641 ran from Southland to Hampton in a manner similar to today's 828 alignment. By that time southern Doveton had gained another route in the 842, extending east along Frawley Rd before heading south to the Hallam Hotel. 

The 1980s saw many Melbourne bus operators merge and combine routes. Passengers could travel more places on the one bus but frequencies in older suburbs were often reduced. This was most notable in the south where many Brighton and Hampton area bus routes ran to the growing Southland centre and then on to Dandenong and sometimes beyond. 

This through-running across the Frankston line was far less common in the eastern suburbs because bus routes north of the Ringwood line were government (MMTB) while those south were private (mostly Ventura). Except for the three orbital SmartBuses these divisions largely remain today as does the split between operators.  

The full extent of the 826, 827 and 828 can be seen on the 1992 map. They took identical routes from Hampton to east of Fountain Gate. That provided an improved service through Doveton, including a Fountain Gate connection, replacing the 842 which was abolished. 827 and 828 terminated at Berwick with 826 continuing on to Pakenham. 828 turned off the highway into William Rd to provide north Berwick residential coverage.

2006 saw further change. The weekday-only 826 to Pakenham was replaced with a dedicated route 926 from Fountain Gate. Pakenham also gained some short local routes providing new coverage. An ATRF research paper by Currie and Bell discusses the Pakenham upgrades, finding benefits in these and other bus upgrades. 

827 and 828 remained as Hampton to Berwick routes with Berwick station sometimes also served. Later that year evening and weekend service was improved with longer hours and Sunday service. Each route operated every two hours on weekends to provide a combined hourly frequency. 

827 and 828 services remained complex with not all trips operating to Berwick Station. Route 828 ran at uneven intervals, spaced at 20 and 40 minutes with an hourly Route 827 filling the gap. Also there remained short 828 trips between Hampton and Southland to provide a 30 minute frequency on Saturday morning. This  heightened service is a remnant of a bygone Saturday morning shopping rush that extended shopping hours and the big centres killed off. Nevertheless it remains a feature of many bus timetables in pre-1980s suburbs even in 2022.  

Route 827 and 828 had an odd pattern with more 828 than 827 trips especially on weekdays. But with the 826 gone the routes were 80% the same. A subsequent simplification in 2010 saw every trip made an 828 with consistent serving of Berwick station. The most recent change a few years ago saw the 30 minute Saturday morning frequency between Hampton and Southland replaced with a 40 minute morning and afternoon service over the entire route. Sunday service however remains hourly. 

Patronage

Route 828 enjoys somewhat above average patronage productivity for buses in Melbourne. In late 2018 this was 28 or 29 boardings per kilometre on all days of the week. This flat pattern is likely due to the low weekend service levels mentioned above.

Opportunities and conclusion

Route 828 is mostly a simple and direct alignment. The biggest opportunities for it to do better is through improved service frequency, notably on weekends. An increase to every 20 minutes would greatly improve connectivity to numerous shopping areas including at Hampton, Highett, Cheltenham, Southland, DFO Moorabbin, Keysborough, Dandenong, Doveton, Fountain Gate and Berwick. Earlier starts and later finishes would also assist some work trips.

Parts of Route 828 have been talked about as a SmartBus corridor. It would certainly fill a network need as a direct connection between some of the south-east's strongest destinations. In this archived 2010 advocacy paper BusVic advocated a Sandringham - Southland - Dandenong - Princes Hwy (Fountain Gate?) SmartBus encompassing most of the 828.

The direct connection from Sandringham to Southland is, if anything, more important today with a new station at Southland and the proposed Suburban Rail Loop starting there. It could well be included in a reformed Route 828 provided that the Hampton - Southland portion was merged into another route. 

What are your thoughts on the 828 and its future? Please share them in the comments below. 

Index to other Timetable Tuesday items