5 election-winning PT service upgrades

Let's keep this short. Here's 5 cost-effective service upgrades that would make a huge difference to public transport network usability. None are particularly expensive. And implementation can be done as quickly as driver recruitment allows as there's no increase in rolling stock requirements. 

1. 7 day service on all residential area bus routes

Every suburb should have 7 day service from morning to night. This upgrade would give all-week service to about 50 metropolitan bus routes to run Sunday and in some cases Saturdays also. There would also be operating hours extensions where these are short. Major regional cities would get similar upgrades. A staged program could allow implementation within 3 years if 2 routes per month were upgraded (same pace as the MOTC upgrades between 2006 and 2010). 

2. 20 min maximum waits on our metropolitan Metro and V/Line trains 

Right now waits between trains can be 30, 40 or even 60 minutes. Train timetables in 2022 still bear the scars of evening cuts made in 1978 (!) when Melbourne was half its current size. We're a big city yet some of our train timetables are more like that of a backward hick town like Brisbane rather than Sydney (that we like to compare ourselves to) or even Perth (that knows what good service means). 

A staged program would deliver the following service upgrades within the next term: 

a. Maximum evening waits cut from 30 to 20 min on the Sunbury, Craigieburn, Upfield, Mernda, Eltham, Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein, Glen Waverley, Pakenham and Cranbourne Metro lines (those not listed are already done)

b. Sunday morning waits cut from 30-40 min to 20 min on all the above lines plus Sandringham. 

c. Maximum waits cut on the Geelong (from Wyndham Vale in) and Ballarat (from Melton in) from 40-90 to 20 min during the day on weekends and evenings. 

Don't think 20 minute frequencies will inspire the punters enough? Go for every 10 minutes. That's super-cheap on the Ringwood line and still affordable given the benefit on other lines. In most cases you won't even need new infrastructure or rolling stock as peak service is already higher. 

3. Off-peak frequency upgrades and longer hours on key bus routes

Too many buses only leave the depot during peak periods only. This is even on routes that would attract significant usage off-peak in areas like the City of Wyndham. Right now we have routes that run every 10-15 min in the peak but drop to every 40 min off-peak. This upgrade would hire more drivers to deliver a more continuously high service with buses every 20 min off-peak 7 days per week. Evening operating hours could also be lengthened so that the system no longer shuts down at 9pm most nights.

Routes that would benefit are mainly in high bus-using outer suburbs such as around Tarneit and Craigieburn, across the middle north such as Coburg/Preston/Heidelberg and parts of the south-east eg the Box Hill / Monash precinct. No new buses need to be purchased to deliver these upgrades. Many feature in this top 40 list. 

4. Weekend service upgrades on key bus routes

Some bus routes already have good weekday off-peak (and sometimes also Saturday) service but collapse to every 30, 40 or even 60 minutes on weekends. This includes many of our SmartBuses and  popular established area routes in the inner north and inner west (eg 406, 408, 410, 472, 508, 513, 527, 561, 901, 902, 903). This upgrade would boost all these to 20 min maximum waits on weekends with longer operating hours. Again these upgrades are possible by working the existing fleet harder. Many feature in this top 40 list

5. 15 - 20 minute maximum waits for trams 

Trams are normally associated with turn-up-and-go service. However this isn't quite so for all of the day. Sunday mornings and evenings have the longest waits with some routes dropping to only every 30 minutes. Also many popular trams drop down to every 20 minutes too early at night. This upgrade would deliver a maximum wait of 20 min on all tram routes at all times before midnight while extending 15 minute service over much more of the evening. Again this does not affect the peak vehicle requirement. 

Why would any candidate or party wanting to win not back any of these given the benefits for the cost? After all some dearer and less cost-effective initiatives have already been announced. 

Now it's over to them. Here's hoping for some robust and specific pro-service policies from all sides!