Fishermans Bend has long been a public transport 'black hole'. It lacks trains or trams, unlike most other places the same distance from the CBD. Bus services are limited outside peak times. And, discounting the occasional 606, they all come from one direction - the CBD. The West Gate Punt doesn't accept myki fares and departs from a location remote for walkers. All this means that reaching Fishermans Bend from most directions by public transport is a chore that most people avoid.
Location and network geometry are not on Fishermans Bend's side. That's significant as they can be tough masters. They can also be hard to overcome without serious investment, eg a second Metro Tunnel connecting the west.
New Quay at Docklands is similarly afflicted. It's luckier than Fishermans Bend in that it has trams. However, like Fishermans Bend's buses they aren't on the way to anywhere with backtracking and stub routes. New Quay has not been a success for retail businesses. At best they attract local custom with the area out of sight/out of mind for others due to its poor accessibility.
Will Fishermans Bend fare any better? I find short-term optimism difficult, especially given the current surplus of office space in the far more accessible CBD. Even if you lived at Footscray even a job location like Caulfield would be more accessible, especially after the Metro Tunnel opens. SNAMUTS maps don't show Fishermans Bend but even the more accessible Port Melbourne rates a poor performer on multiple measures.
Fishermans Bend is accessible to car drivers with east-west freeway links already in place. But if you are to get public transport users there from most directions it will be under sufferance.
Fishermans Bend needs a magnet or hook to get people in, the equivalent of anchor tenants like (the fast-disappearing) Myer at shopping centres. Destinations that are so prestigious, specialised or scarce that people will put themselves out to go there. Like a Melbourne University campus, for instance.
Though that won't stop people grumbling about the commute. With current public transport being so limited, they'd probably have to bribe people to go there (by driving) with 'free' or cheap parking. The induced car-dependence brings problems like poor sustainability, congestion, noise and inefficient land use that limits the ability to create attractive places for people.
The government has stepped in with improved buses to Fishermans Bend on Routes 235 and 237. Peak services were boosted a few years ago. These were badly needed. Pre-pandemic one witnessed crush-loaded buses at Southern Cross Station at peak times (though they were largely empty on Queen St).
Later budgets flagged further improvements. A July 2022 release said that both Routes 235 and 237 would be improved to operate every 10 minutes off-peak on weekdays from October 31. This is a doubling or tripling of current 20 - 30 minute frequencies. This service level is sufficient to be regarded as a 'turn up and go' service with more than 900 trips being added per week.
The new timetables
Fishermans Bend is all about weekdays. It is not expected that anyone will be there on weekends. This is reflected in the weekday-only skew of the bus upgrades, as flagged here.
Route 235
Route 235's weekday service offer is a bus every 10 minutes between about 6am and 9pm. There are no significant peak and off-peak variations in frequency but there are to run times. The main departure from this is that a few am and pm trips start or finish at Southern Cross Station rather than going the full route to Queen Victoria Markets.
While you'd expect less usage at 8:30pm to be less than at 5:30pm, no attempt has been made to align service levels to demand. Nor even to spread trips to improve operating hours to say 10pm or later. Hence the 235 is an "it's either there or it's not" type of service.
Route 235 has a limited weekend service with shorter hours than the 2006 minimum service standards. On Saturdays it runs every 40 min from 8am to 8pm with no service outside those times. Sunday service is hourly from about 8am to 6pm.
While you'd expect less usage at 8:30pm to be less than at 5:30pm, no attempt has been made to align service levels to demand. Nor even to spread trips to improve operating hours to say 10pm or later. Hence the 235 is an "it's either there or it's not" type of service.
Route 235 has a limited weekend service with shorter hours than the 2006 minimum service standards. On Saturdays it runs every 40 min from 8am to 8pm with no service outside those times. Sunday service is hourly from about 8am to 6pm.
Route 237
The weekday timetable follows the same basic specification of the 235. That is a consistent service every 10 minutes from about 6am that drops dead just before 9pm. Again some am and pm peak trips terminate at Southern Cross, creating some 20 min gaps at Queen Vic Markets.
The weekday timetable follows the same basic specification of the 235. That is a consistent service every 10 minutes from about 6am that drops dead just before 9pm. Again some am and pm peak trips terminate at Southern Cross, creating some 20 min gaps at Queen Vic Markets.
If you live in one of the high-rises on Lorimer St then bad luck - you'll get a great weekday service but your 237 bus still won't run on weekends or public holidays.
Those extra buses on Queen St
Queen St already gets a lot of buses. Routes like 200/207, 216, 220, 232, 234, 250/251 and 605 run about 30 buses per hour weekdays interpeak. That's not including 235 and 237 which contribute a further 5 buses per hour. These upgrades boost that number from 5 to 12.
Is that added service intensity necessary? After all existing usage of 235 and 237 is strong between Fishermans Bend and Southern Cross but weak between Southern Cross and Queen Victoria Market. Surely there are other places that would benefit more from higher bus frequency than Queen St?
My guess is that interests like Melbourne University would most prefer a direct bus between their campuses. That could more or less come about if buses like 235 and 237 were extended further to the stronger terminus of Parkville Station when the Metro Tunnel opens.
My guess is that interests like Melbourne University would most prefer a direct bus between their campuses. That could more or less come about if buses like 235 and 237 were extended further to the stronger terminus of Parkville Station when the Metro Tunnel opens.
A reappraisal of this part of the CBD bus network is needed, especially if buses are poorly used. There's likely many other potential options where they could be redeployed for bigger benefit. Especially if combined with other opportunities eg simpler stops and inclusion in the Rapid Running trial .
Conclusion
The 235 / 237 bus service upgrade will greatly improve weekday access to Fishermans Bend from Southern Cross Station, especially if accompanied by adequate promotion, information and potentially distinctive buses and stops to reflect the high frequency. DoT/PTV has a lacklustre recent record at this, with the new Route 202 between Victoria Park and Melbourne University not getting the sort of promotion that previously introduced shuttles like 401 and 601 had.
I think there is scope to appeal to a wider user base if both routes had somewhat longer operating hours and a basic weekend service. That should be possible with the same number of trips as proposed by reducing the span of the 10 minute frequency (to say 7am - 7pm).
Short of the 'gold standard' Metro Two, scope for improved Fishermans Bend connectivity from other directions could include an upgrade to the 606 bus from the south, a new bus over the West Gate connecting to trains at Newport Station and an all-day West Gate Punt service. Tram connections from Docklands have also been proposed but seem as distant as ever given the lack of a culture of incremental network extensions with our trams. This is even in dense areas or where a short extension would join 'loose ends' of the network.
Index to Timetable Tuesday items
I think there is scope to appeal to a wider user base if both routes had somewhat longer operating hours and a basic weekend service. That should be possible with the same number of trips as proposed by reducing the span of the 10 minute frequency (to say 7am - 7pm).
Short of the 'gold standard' Metro Two, scope for improved Fishermans Bend connectivity from other directions could include an upgrade to the 606 bus from the south, a new bus over the West Gate connecting to trains at Newport Station and an all-day West Gate Punt service. Tram connections from Docklands have also been proposed but seem as distant as ever given the lack of a culture of incremental network extensions with our trams. This is even in dense areas or where a short extension would join 'loose ends' of the network.
Index to Timetable Tuesday items
1 comment:
I always like frequency improvements, and the 235 and 237 definitely needed them. I fear it won't solve a big problem for a lot of Fishermans Bend commuters though; namely, that in the morning peak, the buses (regardless of their frequency) have to struggle through other traffic to get to Lorimer Street. This may have improved since the pandemic began, with lower volumes everywhere, but it was certainly bad in 2018 when I worked briefly on Turner Street. My trip from Southern Cross to the Hall Street bus stop took anything between 7 and 40 minutes, with the difference in times entirely due to how much other traffic was jammed into the network.
One 109-tonne B-double turning right from Wurundjeri Way onto Lorimer Street will take the entire right-turn green phase of the signals (which lasts around 11 seconds). Cars pouring onto Batmans Hill Drive from Collins Street can delay buses for several minutes because the short stretch of street simply fills with vehicles. Once, my bus was even delayed east of Batmans Hill Drive by a Commercial Passenger Vehicles fleet car (i.e. driven by a public servant), which was illegally parked opposite the end of a tram stop.
Eliminating crush-loading will make the journey far more pleasant (and indeed make it possible at all for some unlucky folks trying to get home in the evenings). But bus priority needs to be worked out and it's not simple.
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