With cost of living pressures hurting demographics that one might consider 'middle class', equity issues are no longer just a 'poor people thing' that governments (especially Labor) could safely ignore with no electoral consequences. Especially with the collapsing major party primary vote in areas that were previously 'taken for granted' (Labor) or 'not our people' (Liberal).
I'm talking the likes of Dandenong and Broadmeadows where there are neighbourhoods whose buses have not had a single trip added for 30 years or more despite high patronage, strong social needs and the routes being passed over when there was last a serious upgrade program about 15 years ago.
Young Labor has recently cottoned on to this, passing a motion backing train frequency upgrades (especially in Melbourne's north and west) as well as reformed routes and minimum service standards (ie 7 day operation) on buses. It remains to be seen whether the senior party, parliamentary party and most critically the cabinet take heed.
As well as a service existing, it must also be accessible. That means being able to cross the road to get to stops and once you're at a stop being able to board a vehicle (a particular issue with trams).
Service and accessibility themes feature in Transport Equity Week events being held around Australia. Of interest was that the idea for local activity in Melbourne came from a chance meeting with Minister Carroll at a post-election function.
So what are the service-related measures that would further transport equity in Melbourne?
Here's my top five.
1. 7 day buses in high needs areas that currently lack them. The most notable gaps exist in Dandenong but attention is also needed in areas like Glenroy, Thomastown/Lalor, Campbellfield, Croydon/Lilydale, Frankston, Knox and more. That's good for equity as currently the only after 7pm or Sunday transport some neighbourhoods in these areas have are expensive taxis/ubers.
2. Faster roll-out of bus routes in new estates without them. Eg the likes of Mt Atkinson, Mambourin and Thornhill Park. Having even a basic bus service assists with cost of living pressures as it enables more households to get by without a second or third car (which the RACV recently told is is expensive).
3. Completion of missing bus links that would speed access to jobs. Some cross-suburban trips require needless backtracking and thus take too long to be a practical commute despite the short distances involved. Examples include Tarneit - Laverton North, Sunshine - Melbourne Airport, La Trobe University to Swinburne via Chandler Hwy, La Trobe University to Caulfield via Camberwell, Dandenong South to Keysborough and Narre Warren to name just a few.
4. Progressively cutting 40 and then 30 minute waits on trains to deliver 20 minute maximum waits across the network all week. This would particularly benefit those who don't work standard M-F 9-5 jobs (disproportionately the 'working poor' service sector). Especially those who need to be somewhere at a particular time or making connections. Areas with the longest waits for trains are the west, north and outer east. This is incredibly cheap to do and should be a prelude to more widespread all day 10 minute service.
5. Various active transport and accessibility works to improve connectivity to and between transport modes and suburban centres. Could include bus and tram priority measures, roundabout removals, placing bus stops nearer intersections, new pedestrian crossings, etc.
Many of these are cost-effective, whether it's working existing trains or buses harder or doing small works that if replicated would deliver last and very cost-effective connectivity and access gains. And often it's not even a case of choosing between equity and patronage goals - there are high patronage growth potential instances (eg Craigieburn line trains and Dandenong area buses) where boosting service furthers both without needing to compromise.
Have any other thoughts? Please leave them in the comments below.
3 comments:
Speaking of Glenroy I recently found that 513/514 only has 40 minute services on weekends, which doesn't make it a viable option coming off the 58 tram at West Coburg, because if I miss a bus it's another 40 minute wait for the next one, which would make walking at least part of the way faster. It's much easier changing between train and tram at Essendon due to the higher frequencies of both services.
Another missing link in the bus network is Tarneit-Melton. This could easily be addressed by extending route 170 from Tarneit which would provide a north-south link across the outer west, and would relieve congestion on Geelong & Ballarat v/line services, as the only way to make that journey by PT right now involves travelling the convoluded way voa Deer Park.
Long waits in the inner east too.
Good luck heading towards the city on a Sunday night. If you get off a Flinders Street train at Hawthorn to catch a 75 to Coppin St in Richmond, you've got a 26-minute wait regardless of which service you catch, because every single service from 8PM until the last is half an hour apart, both train and tram. Naturally, in the outbound direction, the 75 conveniently meets up with the train. Even if you walk to Hawthorn Bridge in an attempt to gamble on a 48 (also half-hourly) being due, IIRC it leaves about 8 minutes after the 75, and the bridge is at least a 10-minute walk from Hawthorn station. Better run up that long drawn-out hill as fast as Usain Bolt if you want to catch it.
What's that, I could also catch a 70 from Burnley station to cut off half the walk? Nope, the timetable is just as bad, with the added bonus of having no inbound tram stop due to a building on the corner taking years on end to complete (I swear it was under construction even before COVID became a thing, meanwhile VicRoads can plonk a monstrosity of a building in the heart of Ringwood in next to no time, with QIC following suit right outside Eastland). By the time I walk to the next stop past all of those ridiculously-expensive cars, the KFC lighting up the corner of Coppin St is in plain sight (and still another 500 or so metres to go).
On a Sunday night, walking a kilometre from either Burnley or Hawthorn station to half way up Coppin St is the only option without going all the way to Flinders Street and backtracking on the 75, or walking up to Collins St for the 48 and hoping at least one of them is due in less than twenty minutes (FWIW, the 12/109 isn't a viable option either, it's even further away).
Or walking from West Richmond station, but that requires taking a Mernda/Hurstbridge train via the City Loop and wasting even more time, and still having to walk all the way if anything. Or busing it on the 246 from Richmond station and hoping for a quick connection with a 48 or 75 (with their beautiful 22-minute gap on Bridge Rd), but the 246 is also every half an hour on Sunday nights, it isn't that magical walk-up-and-go service it is during weekdays.
Bonus points for nearby Burnley St not having any public transport whatsoever, not that it would be of much use anyway because could only ever be a bus, and by bus I mean hourly or not even running, just like all the other useless north-south routes further east in Boroondara (ignoring the laughable once-a-day each-way 609 at Hawthorn, but definitely including the 285 and 612, both of which go to much larger shopping centres than Victoria Gardens; Westfield Doncaster and Chadstone respectively). On Sundays, Richmond proper, not to be confused with the train station located in the southwestern extremity or even in Melbourne 3000 (up end of the platforms across Punt Rd), may as well be located on the rural fringe, given its transport options.
And that journey is surely worse now with the removal of the island platform at Deer Park as part of the level crossing removal.
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