This time last year I said 2021 delivered more than expected on the service side of public transport. Not only did we get plans (eg Victoria's Bus Plan) but also action that fixed long-standing problems and improved the passenger experience.
Notable 2021 achievements include 1. Caulfield group City Loop simplification, 2. 20 min maximum waits for Werribee, Williamstown and Frankston trains, 3. Maximum daytime wait on tram network cut from 20 to 15 min by boosting Route 82 weekday frequency, 4. simplified Night Network including 24 hour weekend operation on some regular bus routes, 5. Transdev (now Kinetic) service redistribution that boosted weekend service on key routes and 6. Ballarat line train frequency increases, especially on weekdays, including a regular 20 min interpeak service for Melton.
These measures were what you might call 'low hanging fruit'. Things that ideally would be regular business for a transport planning agency to address but here seem to be rare special projects done by exception and incredibly hard to fund.
Because of that they were highly significant compared to the recent past but unambitious compared to elsewhere. For example our 2021 Metro rail timetable upgrades, said to be the biggest in a decade, added 450 extra trips. This is less than one-third the 1500 extra trips that Sydney added in its 2017 train timetable alone that converted many 30 minute waits to 15 minute waits (going through to as late as midnight).
2021's timetable changes were extremely good quality. They cut maximum waits to 15 or 20 minutes on some important parts of the network across all modes. Implementation on more routes would have been desirable but even so continuation at 2021's pace would have been almost transformative after a decade. If you think that's slow recall that our 7pm - midnight Saturday Metro train service levels were basically set in 1978 with no substantial gains on most lines since. Did 2022 continue the previous year's pace or did we slack off a bit? Keep reading to find out as we go through the months.
These measures were what you might call 'low hanging fruit'. Things that ideally would be regular business for a transport planning agency to address but here seem to be rare special projects done by exception and incredibly hard to fund.
Because of that they were highly significant compared to the recent past but unambitious compared to elsewhere. For example our 2021 Metro rail timetable upgrades, said to be the biggest in a decade, added 450 extra trips. This is less than one-third the 1500 extra trips that Sydney added in its 2017 train timetable alone that converted many 30 minute waits to 15 minute waits (going through to as late as midnight).
2021's timetable changes were extremely good quality. They cut maximum waits to 15 or 20 minutes on some important parts of the network across all modes. Implementation on more routes would have been desirable but even so continuation at 2021's pace would have been almost transformative after a decade. If you think that's slow recall that our 7pm - midnight Saturday Metro train service levels were basically set in 1978 with no substantial gains on most lines since. Did 2022 continue the previous year's pace or did we slack off a bit? Keep reading to find out as we go through the months.
February 2022 saw two significant changes in the outer south and south-east. A revised Pakenham / Cranbourne timetable added peak trips. Most notably for Cranbourne following line duplication. Marketing talked about a 10 minute peak frequency, though this was more an average than a maximum wait as intervals vary including a 15 minute gap around the peak-of-the-peak in the morning. This change also added more trains between Westall and Dandenong with more services stopping at Malvern. Buses in Cranbourne had minor tweaks to times to reflect the new train timetable, though the opportunity was not taken to fix longer term issues like service kilometre neutral earlier Sunday starts on Route 893.
Later that month saw bus reform on the Mornington Peninsula, following on from the much-needed Route 788 upgrade the previous year. The changes improved coverage by extending the 781 south, added a 7 day express Frankston - Rosebud bus (887) and pruned the appallingly complex 787, with its eastern portion replaced by a new FlexiRide. The result is a simpler network for midday travellers but not much at other times. This is because operating hours remain very short with local routes shutting down around 4pm (or earlier) and weekend service either non-existent or sparse. This is really penny-pinching gone mad as the added cost of running the existing fleet over more hours of the week wouldn't have been much.
Staff availability continued to be an issue due to pandemic effects in February 2022. Dysons introduced a limited service timetable for many of its routes in Melbourne's north-east. I wrote about that here.
I gave Healesville's buses a serve for their complexity a few years ago here. There was a lot of inconsistency with routes having different termini as well as poor frequencies, especially on weekends. News came in March 2022 that DoT was reviewing local bus services with a view to introducing changes later in the year. I thought the DoT proposals made a lot of sense, though the local bus operator spoke out against starting Route 684 at Lilydale in local media. Were they sticking up for their community or undermining the government's reform effort? I'll let you be the judge. Hopefully we'll see progress on Healesville buses in 2023.
Occupying many peoples' time in March 2022 were the EES hearings for the Suburban Rail Loop. Major issues from a transport connectivity viewpoint includes ease of interchange between the SRL and other transport modes including Metro trains, trams and buses. It was especially desirable that there be direct and sheltered physical connectivity without going through fare gates. Highlights from the hearings here. I discussed SRL intermodal connectivity here and lodged a submission.
Here's a small win for the year. Back in March 2022 I wrote about the complex and loopy 834 and 835 circular bus routes. These had different route numbers in different directions and if you stayed on long enough you'd end up where you started. Later that year these routes were split to form two conventional linear routes, one north and one south of the railway, greatly simplifying the service. It represents a good (but too rare!) example of exploiting opportunities to reform buses where changes was needed anyway (due to capital works). The new Department of Transport and Planning really needs to work harder in concert with infrastructure delivery agencies to explore and exploit such opportunities.
The biggest service news for the year was the April 2022 upgrade for Craigieburn bus routes. There were some network reforms for improved coverage but the most important move was the upgrade of four local routes from every 40 to every 20 minutes on weekdays. The last time we saw a frequency increase of this magnitude on so many routes was probably the new Cranbourne network of 2016. Craigieburn's improvements were well justified; the area contains diverse and densely populated neighbourhoods with some of Melbourne's most productive bus routes on a boardings per kilometre basis (529 & 533). Weekends got some handy operating hours extensions, though frequencies remained at 40 minutes.
Past recent Victorian state budgets have been strong on transport infrastructure but parsimonious towards service. The 2021 budget nudged the service tap a little. May 2022's state budget opened it a little more. Notable initiatives included funding for (a) more train drivers and staff for unspecified upgrades, (b) transport accessibility upgrades, (c) outer suburban and regional bus network expansions including in Gisborne, Diggers Rest, Donnybrook, Narre Warren, Torquay, Kilmore and a FlexiRide for Greensborough and (d) established area upgrades benefiting Box Hill, Deakin University, Monash Clayton, Chadstone and Southland.
The latter are particularly significant as they involve upgrades on popular major corridor routes that needed it. Routes involved include 201 (Box Hill - Deakin shuttle), 903 (routed via Deakin), 733 (increased frequency between Box Hill and Clayton) and 767 (increased frequency). Discussed in more detail here.
The main network reform components include a welcome consolidation of Box Hill - Deakin shuttles (rather than having two infrequent routes 201 & 768) and improving connectivity to Deakin from the south via Route 903 (with potential implications for Route 766). With any luck we will see these upgrades start in the first half of 2023. Other opportunities involving these routes include extending Route 733 south to Southland and tidying up buses in Bentleigh East to give the upgraded 767 a clear run down East Boundary Rd (in conjunction with 627, 701 and 822 reform). They would be a worthwhile second stage that would better connect a lot of people with the beginnings of an SRL SmartBus type service.
As for train drivers and staff, we don't know exactly what service upgrades we'll get from those mentioned. However due to our peak heavy timetable with low off-peak frequencies (especially at night and on Sunday mornings) you do not need to add very many services to make a big difference. And it seems to me that a phased approach would be preferable to doing nothing until when Metro Tunnel starts. I discuss the relatively low costs of getting to 20 minute maximum waits on our trains here.
You don't always need a full bus network review to remove the worst features of Melbourne's complex network. And waiting for a review could cause network simplifications needed now to be pushed off into the undefined never-never. Route 513 was essentially two routes with the one number with a large divergence and then a coming together again between Rosanna and Eltham. June 2022 saw news that they would become two routes - 513 and 514. That got done the following month. It should however only be considered an intermediate step; having two route numbers on a large part of Bell St is unnecessary and there is significant overlap with other routes along the quieter eastern portions of both routes. June also saw a blog post referring to possible cuts in tram frequencies (especially early evenings). These services had been added in 2018 to relieve crowding during Metro tunnel construction work.
I gave Healesville's buses a serve for their complexity a few years ago here. There was a lot of inconsistency with routes having different termini as well as poor frequencies, especially on weekends. News came in March 2022 that DoT was reviewing local bus services with a view to introducing changes later in the year. I thought the DoT proposals made a lot of sense, though the local bus operator spoke out against starting Route 684 at Lilydale in local media. Were they sticking up for their community or undermining the government's reform effort? I'll let you be the judge. Hopefully we'll see progress on Healesville buses in 2023.
Occupying many peoples' time in March 2022 were the EES hearings for the Suburban Rail Loop. Major issues from a transport connectivity viewpoint includes ease of interchange between the SRL and other transport modes including Metro trains, trams and buses. It was especially desirable that there be direct and sheltered physical connectivity without going through fare gates. Highlights from the hearings here. I discussed SRL intermodal connectivity here and lodged a submission.
Here's a small win for the year. Back in March 2022 I wrote about the complex and loopy 834 and 835 circular bus routes. These had different route numbers in different directions and if you stayed on long enough you'd end up where you started. Later that year these routes were split to form two conventional linear routes, one north and one south of the railway, greatly simplifying the service. It represents a good (but too rare!) example of exploiting opportunities to reform buses where changes was needed anyway (due to capital works). The new Department of Transport and Planning really needs to work harder in concert with infrastructure delivery agencies to explore and exploit such opportunities.
The biggest service news for the year was the April 2022 upgrade for Craigieburn bus routes. There were some network reforms for improved coverage but the most important move was the upgrade of four local routes from every 40 to every 20 minutes on weekdays. The last time we saw a frequency increase of this magnitude on so many routes was probably the new Cranbourne network of 2016. Craigieburn's improvements were well justified; the area contains diverse and densely populated neighbourhoods with some of Melbourne's most productive bus routes on a boardings per kilometre basis (529 & 533). Weekends got some handy operating hours extensions, though frequencies remained at 40 minutes.
Past recent Victorian state budgets have been strong on transport infrastructure but parsimonious towards service. The 2021 budget nudged the service tap a little. May 2022's state budget opened it a little more. Notable initiatives included funding for (a) more train drivers and staff for unspecified upgrades, (b) transport accessibility upgrades, (c) outer suburban and regional bus network expansions including in Gisborne, Diggers Rest, Donnybrook, Narre Warren, Torquay, Kilmore and a FlexiRide for Greensborough and (d) established area upgrades benefiting Box Hill, Deakin University, Monash Clayton, Chadstone and Southland.
The latter are particularly significant as they involve upgrades on popular major corridor routes that needed it. Routes involved include 201 (Box Hill - Deakin shuttle), 903 (routed via Deakin), 733 (increased frequency between Box Hill and Clayton) and 767 (increased frequency). Discussed in more detail here.
The main network reform components include a welcome consolidation of Box Hill - Deakin shuttles (rather than having two infrequent routes 201 & 768) and improving connectivity to Deakin from the south via Route 903 (with potential implications for Route 766). With any luck we will see these upgrades start in the first half of 2023. Other opportunities involving these routes include extending Route 733 south to Southland and tidying up buses in Bentleigh East to give the upgraded 767 a clear run down East Boundary Rd (in conjunction with 627, 701 and 822 reform). They would be a worthwhile second stage that would better connect a lot of people with the beginnings of an SRL SmartBus type service.
As for train drivers and staff, we don't know exactly what service upgrades we'll get from those mentioned. However due to our peak heavy timetable with low off-peak frequencies (especially at night and on Sunday mornings) you do not need to add very many services to make a big difference. And it seems to me that a phased approach would be preferable to doing nothing until when Metro Tunnel starts. I discuss the relatively low costs of getting to 20 minute maximum waits on our trains here.
You don't always need a full bus network review to remove the worst features of Melbourne's complex network. And waiting for a review could cause network simplifications needed now to be pushed off into the undefined never-never. Route 513 was essentially two routes with the one number with a large divergence and then a coming together again between Rosanna and Eltham. June 2022 saw news that they would become two routes - 513 and 514. That got done the following month. It should however only be considered an intermediate step; having two route numbers on a large part of Bell St is unnecessary and there is significant overlap with other routes along the quieter eastern portions of both routes. June also saw a blog post referring to possible cuts in tram frequencies (especially early evenings). These services had been added in 2018 to relieve crowding during Metro tunnel construction work.
In August 2022 I wrote about the possibilities of adding up to 7 more stations on the Metro train network. These could improve network connectivity in middle suburban areas where the current network requires significant backtracking and/or SmartBus routes cross a train line but lack a station to connect to. One of those 7 (Keilor East) will become a reality after the Minister advocated for and eventually got it approved as part of construction of Melbourne Airport Rail.
September 2022 saw a welcome announcement about Victoria's next round of bus network reform following the process flagged in 2021's Bus Plan. Areas chosen for reform include Mildura, much of northern Melbourne and much of north-east Melbourne. All up it would be at least 1/4 of the metropolitan population. I regarded these as good choices as all have many complex, overlapping and confusing bus routes unreformed for years. A survey asked the public preferences on matters like walking distances versus frequency of a reformed network. This would likely give (or validate) the direction taken by DoT's Bus Reform Team.
The choice of such large areas for the metropolitan parts of bus reform makes the agenda ambitious. Possibly even too ambitious. Key unknowns include implementation funding and the sequencing of work given (i) the huge size of each of the metropolitan review areas and (ii) past limited DoT capacity to do very much at once. Just as sportspeople do warm up exercises maybe DoT should too rather than expect to reach top speed from a standing start without developed and tested 'mass production' processes.
The choice of such large areas for the metropolitan parts of bus reform makes the agenda ambitious. Possibly even too ambitious. Key unknowns include implementation funding and the sequencing of work given (i) the huge size of each of the metropolitan review areas and (ii) past limited DoT capacity to do very much at once. Just as sportspeople do warm up exercises maybe DoT should too rather than expect to reach top speed from a standing start without developed and tested 'mass production' processes.
My impression is that the work is best divided into multiple packages of 2 to 6 interdependent routes with one package per review area implemented every few months. It would also be desirable for there to be less formal processes that could deliver faster roll-outs of simpler reforms (eg timetable upgrades) on routes that are popular or serve high-needs catchments such as Greater Dandenong. These could be along the lines of those delivered in 2021 on Transdev routes like 279 and 907. One such smaller scale example was the announced reform of parts of routes 514 and 517 in conjunction with Greensborough's FlexiRide. The 2006 - 2010 MOTC 'minimum standards' upgrades, involving upgrades 4 or 5 bus routes per month, represents good precedent for this with a more operationally convenient gradual workflow.
Melbourne has few individual turn-up-and-go bus routes operating every 10 minutes or better. Leaving aside the 202, 301, 401 & 601 university shuttles there's just two, the 246 and 402. October 2022 saw two more frequent routes commenced. These are the 235 and 237 linking the CBD with Fishermans Bend. Each runs every 10 minutes. Key limitations include poor reliability due to CBD area congestion, inefficient overlaps with other Queen St routes, no or limited weekend service and limited promotion and information at key interchange points like Southern Cross Station. However it does provide a no-frills frequent service to a redevelopement area beyond trains and trams pending future tram and rail extensions.
Tarneit FlexiRide also started around then. This provides coverage of fast-growing Tarneit North. A good touch is that unlike areas like Knox, Rosebud and Lilydale, operating days and hours are better than most other FlexiRides being more like regular fixed routes. These types of services provide coverage but availability, reliability and speed can be issues during peak times.
November 2022 was dominated by the Victorian state election. I spent a lot of time on this including making lists of upgrades for each seats and examining Labor's record in government. Most of the public transport campaign talk was a bidding war on who could cut fares the most. However service matters got some attention. Labor promised worthwhile V/Line weekend service upgrades while the Coalition went for (also good) bus service upgrades across the state. Labor was returned with a higher lower house majority. However its primary vote fell, especially in parts of Melbourne's west, north and south-east with diverse working-class populations. My summary here.
Melbourne has few individual turn-up-and-go bus routes operating every 10 minutes or better. Leaving aside the 202, 301, 401 & 601 university shuttles there's just two, the 246 and 402. October 2022 saw two more frequent routes commenced. These are the 235 and 237 linking the CBD with Fishermans Bend. Each runs every 10 minutes. Key limitations include poor reliability due to CBD area congestion, inefficient overlaps with other Queen St routes, no or limited weekend service and limited promotion and information at key interchange points like Southern Cross Station. However it does provide a no-frills frequent service to a redevelopement area beyond trains and trams pending future tram and rail extensions.
Tarneit FlexiRide also started around then. This provides coverage of fast-growing Tarneit North. A good touch is that unlike areas like Knox, Rosebud and Lilydale, operating days and hours are better than most other FlexiRides being more like regular fixed routes. These types of services provide coverage but availability, reliability and speed can be issues during peak times.
November 2022 was dominated by the Victorian state election. I spent a lot of time on this including making lists of upgrades for each seats and examining Labor's record in government. Most of the public transport campaign talk was a bidding war on who could cut fares the most. However service matters got some attention. Labor promised worthwhile V/Line weekend service upgrades while the Coalition went for (also good) bus service upgrades across the state. Labor was returned with a higher lower house majority. However its primary vote fell, especially in parts of Melbourne's west, north and south-east with diverse working-class populations. My summary here.
Various parts of the state government apparatus sometimes look at bus services. The Victorian Auditor-General had long planned a performance audit on buses but kept putting it off before deleting it from their work plan. However December 2022 saw an Infrastructure Victoria paper on getting the most from Melbourne's buses which I reviewed here. One result of IV's paper was significant media attention on Melbourne's bus services, some of which I featured in.
Despite hopes raised by the substantial achievements of 2021 and 2022 being an election year, the last twelve months was quieter in terms of services implemented. This was not for the lack of cost-effective opportunities including more frequent off-peak trains and 7 day service on popular bus routes in high needs areas without it. Modest improvements along these lines could be worth considering for 2023-2024 ahead of larger changes such as those arising from the Metro Tunnel and major northern bus reviews. It's budgets not plans that drive upgrades and to this effect the 2023 and 2024 state budgets will be very important.
Best wishes to all readers for a safe and successful 2023.
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