Plus opportunities for higher patronage because faster transit delivers the triple benefits of higher speed, higher frequency and higher farebox recovery.
One of the reasons why Melburnians prefer trams over buses is that although neither in mixed traffic is particularly fast, trams are at least straight, with most routes typically only having one or two major bends.
One of the reasons why Melburnians prefer trams over buses is that although neither in mixed traffic is particularly fast, trams are at least straight, with most routes typically only having one or two major bends.
Whereas buses, even on straight corridors, often have indirect sections (eg pulling into station or shopping centre interchanges) that waste valuable vehicle, driver and passenger time.
We wouldn't have this problem if we built stations and shopping centres with their entrances right on main roads.
But we didn't and we do.
A Glen Waverley example
Back in the 1960s the Glen Waverley line was shortened and the station rebuilt to allow for expanded commuter parking west of Springvale Rd. Back then bus routes were very localised and there wasn't a continuous route along Springvale Rd. That was to come later when the 888 route was created, with this, along with 889, becoming through routes between Nunawading and Chelsea. This was so popular that this became one of two corridors chosen for the SmartBus pilot project in 2002. There were further service improvements and a single route number when this became part of the 902 orbital in 2010.
The busiest part of the 902 orbital is between Nunawading and Springvale South where it can carry standing loads. This is particularly so on weekends due to 30 minute gaps between buses despite high demand.
Springvale and Glen Waverley stations feed a lot of passengers to the 902 bus but there is a significant proportion of passengers who make through trips. Whereas the bus does not deviate off Springvale Rd to serve Nunawading and Springvale stations, it needs to for Glen Waverley station due to the station now being away from Springvale Rd as shown below.
The busiest part of the 902 orbital is between Nunawading and Springvale South where it can carry standing loads. This is particularly so on weekends due to 30 minute gaps between buses despite high demand.
Springvale and Glen Waverley stations feed a lot of passengers to the 902 bus but there is a significant proportion of passengers who make through trips. Whereas the bus does not deviate off Springvale Rd to serve Nunawading and Springvale stations, it needs to for Glen Waverley station due to the station now being away from Springvale Rd as shown below.
All this waiting, turning and backtracking adds to bus run times. Let's say it's a (conservative) 5 minutes added per trip. Multiply that by the number of trips on a week and minutes soon turn into hours. For example:
M-F: 137 trips x 5 min = 685 min = 11.4 hours
Sat: 76 trips x 5 min = 380 min = 6.3 hours
Sun: 58 trips x 5 min = 290 min = 4.8 hours
This adds to over 68 bus and driver hours per week, or roughly 3400 hours per year. If you assume $100 - 150 per bus operating hour then the extra annual operating cost is in the $400 - 500k range. And this doesn't include a. the foregone fare revenue lost from those who might use the bus but don't because it's too slow and b. passengers' own time. The latter is especially overlooked even though respect for passengers' time is critical for any effective public transport system.
While unforeseen then, the 1960s decision to shorten the Glen Waverley line and move the station away from Springvale Rd was a mistake that ended up making Glen Waverley's most used bus route slower and less direct than it should have been.
This adds to over 68 bus and driver hours per week, or roughly 3400 hours per year. If you assume $100 - 150 per bus operating hour then the extra annual operating cost is in the $400 - 500k range. And this doesn't include a. the foregone fare revenue lost from those who might use the bus but don't because it's too slow and b. passengers' own time. The latter is especially overlooked even though respect for passengers' time is critical for any effective public transport system.
While unforeseen then, the 1960s decision to shorten the Glen Waverley line and move the station away from Springvale Rd was a mistake that ended up making Glen Waverley's most used bus route slower and less direct than it should have been.
We're not necessarily smarter today
Unfortunately bad design choices with regards to station location continue today, with the rule that stations should be near (and preferably straddle) major cross-streets to maximise their catchment not always being followed. For example the LXRP rebuilt Edithvale station further away from its main intersecting cross road than it should have been. That put the station further from the 902 bus and reduced connectivity to homes and services on Edithvale Rd. Bonbeach is further from the local shops while the walk between trains and buses (particularly 903, Mentone's busiest route) is much longer at the rebuilt Mentone than it used to be. As for the future, Metro-SRL connectivity at proposed Suburban Rail Loop stations like Southland risks being poor so that is one to watch given that poor connectivity could make SRL fail.
Luckily there are good examples that should be more widely known. Interchange arrangements at stations like Ormond and Nunawading combine speed (with buses not pulling off their main route) and good no-cross connectivity from station platforms to bus stops on both sides of the road. Good interchange arrangements also exist elsewhere, with Perth's mid-freeway stations on the Joondalup and Mandurah lines being significantly better for bus connectivity than our equivalent at Williams Landing. The new south side bus interchange at Tarneit should save some worthwhile time for some routes, although the area continues to suffer due to the shopping centre's distance from the station. These all provide learning opportunities that should be applied whenever a station or bus interchange is added or rebuilt.
Unfortunately bad design choices with regards to station location continue today, with the rule that stations should be near (and preferably straddle) major cross-streets to maximise their catchment not always being followed. For example the LXRP rebuilt Edithvale station further away from its main intersecting cross road than it should have been. That put the station further from the 902 bus and reduced connectivity to homes and services on Edithvale Rd. Bonbeach is further from the local shops while the walk between trains and buses (particularly 903, Mentone's busiest route) is much longer at the rebuilt Mentone than it used to be. As for the future, Metro-SRL connectivity at proposed Suburban Rail Loop stations like Southland risks being poor so that is one to watch given that poor connectivity could make SRL fail.
Luckily there are good examples that should be more widely known. Interchange arrangements at stations like Ormond and Nunawading combine speed (with buses not pulling off their main route) and good no-cross connectivity from station platforms to bus stops on both sides of the road. Good interchange arrangements also exist elsewhere, with Perth's mid-freeway stations on the Joondalup and Mandurah lines being significantly better for bus connectivity than our equivalent at Williams Landing. The new south side bus interchange at Tarneit should save some worthwhile time for some routes, although the area continues to suffer due to the shopping centre's distance from the station. These all provide learning opportunities that should be applied whenever a station or bus interchange is added or rebuilt.
Opportunities elsewhere
The Glen Waverley example above dealt with only one bus route at one interchange. Some interchanges, like Box Hill, Chadstone Shopping Centre and Monash University, are bigger with more bus movements per day. Even if only 2 minutes per trip average can be shaved off then the operational savings could be millions of dollars per year. This could be ploughed back into improved hours or frequency, allowing further service, connectivity and fare revenue gains.
Melbourne has the habit of ignoring cheap connectivity upgrades while also proposing mega-projects to fix them. Even though fixing connectivity without the mega-projects could be done sooner and with better value for money.
For example many of the speed advantages of the proposed Caulfield - Rowville 'trackless tram' would be realised (for a fraction of the cost) if we kept the 900 bus on Princes Hwy and didn't deviate it into Chadstone and arguably Oakleigh station. Local travel for the latter could instead be handled through improved 7 day service on routes like 800, 802, 804, 862 and 903 along with other cost-effective local bus reform.
Melbourne has the habit of ignoring cheap connectivity upgrades while also proposing mega-projects to fix them. Even though fixing connectivity without the mega-projects could be done sooner and with better value for money.
For example many of the speed advantages of the proposed Caulfield - Rowville 'trackless tram' would be realised (for a fraction of the cost) if we kept the 900 bus on Princes Hwy and didn't deviate it into Chadstone and arguably Oakleigh station. Local travel for the latter could instead be handled through improved 7 day service on routes like 800, 802, 804, 862 and 903 along with other cost-effective local bus reform.
To summarise, time is money. The benefits to both network operations and passengers are immense if we were better at monitoring bus slow points and made road and interchange reforms accordingly. And made fast direct connectivity the top priority when it comes to station location and design.
4 comments:
Totally fair point. And then there are routes that have to do almost a circumnavigation of Southland to continue their journey north once they leave the interchange.
Yes, skip Glen Waverley station on the 902 (as per the 901 at Mitcham and Nunawading), with the exception of short runs which terminate there.
On a similar note, the old 888/889 used to run via Forest Hill Chase, but when it became the 902 the deviation was removed, with the 703 gaining the Forest Hill deviation permanently.
Another stupid deviation is in the city. Heading outbound up Lonsdale St, where the buses already have to contend with endless traffic and even parked cars (!!!!!) replacing bus lanes by dusk (the government still thinks the city is a ghost town at 6PM and/or that the buses themselves have finished at 6PM), the bus (eventually) gets to Parliament station, and then instead of going straight through to Albert St with next to no traffic and not pointlessly duplicating trams, it turns left and immediately gets stuck at the lights at the corner of Spring St/Victoria Pde for three minutes (as it almost always misses a cycle due to twenty cars being in front of it), and then copping almost every single red light every 200m down the hill until Hoddle St. By then, nearly twenty minutes have passed since it left King St, with the bus taking no less than half an hour to get from King St to Doncaster Park & Ride (assuming the 907), where it then has to contend with three more sets of snails' pace traffic lights (one at the Eastern Freeway off-ramp, a second set immediately after so it can get to the P&R stop, and then the same set again when leaving P&R).
TL;DR version of the above: Get the DART/City buses off Victoria Pde where they do nothing but duplicate tram routes, run them direct via the much quieter Albert St, and get the cars out of the Lonsdale St bus lanes until midnight.
And even when the buses are given priority at traffic signals it's not always used well.
I've taken the 903 a couple of times recently northbound from Sunshine, and even though there is a dedicated bus lane on Anderson Rd up to Ballarat Rd, then a priority signal to allow the bus to get into the left lane on the continuation north on McIntyre Rd, if the bus just misses its turn in the sequence it has to wait a full cycle at what is a complex intersection. Surely the bus can be given the 5-10 seconds it needs to proceed at any point in the cycle.
Today, I arrived at the Pines Shopping Centre on the 905 so I could change to the 901 to get back home. Although there was a 901 bus there when I arrived, it left before I could make the change. It was 12 minutes to the next one.
After 6 minutes a 273 bus to Nunawading arrived, not a smart bus and it takes a huge divert off of, and back onto Springvale Road before it arrives at the station. It also terminates on the opposite side of Springvale Road, meaning a longer walk under the road to the platform.
I took it to see if was still possible to catch up with the 901 that I had missed.
As we arrived at the corner of Springvale and Maroondah, the 901 arrived the same time that I did. It was going east as I was heading south. By the time I got to the platform at Nunawading, I still had a 4 minute wait for the next train.
I got to Ringwood, and got to the same bus two minutes before it was due to leave.
Why, the 901 diverts backwards in and loops back around out of Blackburn Station, adds a huge timing point, does another loop around Ringwood Station and adds another timing point. Looping around Ringwood alone adds 6 sets of lights.
Why do we persist in calling them Smart Buses?
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