Funding to boost the Route 800 bus in the recent 2024 Victorian State Budget means that Dandenong will have one less bus that doesn't operate 7 days. This is great news for a community that needs it, especially those areas where the 800 is the only reasonably walkable public transport. But there's more to do.
Why Brimbank has all 7 day buses but Dandenong does not
While I worked hard for the #Fix800Bus campaign, the case almost wrote itself, with bus services in Greater Dandenong lagging the demographically matching City of Brimbank (which includes suburbs like Sunshine and St Albans).
Brimbank has Melbourne's second lowest median household income. Dandenong Melbourne's lowest.
Brimbank has 6.7% households without cars. Greater Dandenong 8.1%.
Brimbank has 48% of its people born overseas. Greater Dandenong 64%.
Brimbank has 195 000 people. Greater Dandenong 175 000 people.
Brimbank got all its bus routes upgraded to run 7 days in 2014. Greater Dandenong is still waiting, with 7 bus routes lacking 7 day service (800 for now, 802, 804, 814, 844, 857, 885).
To summarise, Brimbank has slightly fewer bus routes than Greater Dandenong but all run 7 days. The former also has higher frequencies, notably on Saturdays.
Both Brimbank and Dandenong unfairly missed out on the 2006-2010 MOTC 7 day upgrades, But Brimbank largely got this resolved via its reformed bus network in 2014 (under the previous Coalition government). This change reduced the number of bus routes in some parts of Brimbank but retained coverage and made sure all of them ran 7 days. The trade-off was worth it with the simplified Brimbank network being a patronage success.
The 800 upgrade is a great start for Greater Dandenong but more is needed to get the remaining routes upgraded since its suburbs feature prominently on the list of those most service short-changed and stand out when you compare by major interchange. We can particularly draw inspiration from Brimbank, safe in the knowledge that what worked there will work in Greater Dandenong due to matching demographics and social needs.
Next 7 day priorities for Greater Dandenong buses
With the 800 funded we can now think about what could come next for 7 day buses in Greater Dandenong. Criteria could include the difference it would make and whether it could, like the Brimbank bus simplification, be done cheaply.
The map below shows the unique portions of road with buses that do not run 7 days. Beside the 800 Princes Hwy corridor others like the 802/804 and 814 are prominent in residential areas. 857 also shows but much of its Dandenong area catchment is industrial.
After the 800 the 802/804 and 814 are well above the rest on both unique coverage and productivity metrics. Route 885 also does well on productivity but has less unique coverage. 885 would get some of its productivity from Springvale Rd where it overlaps the 902. This is an extremely high productivity corridor whose paltry half-hourly weekend service does not reflect this.
In a nutshell the answer remains 802/804 closely followed by 814.
An 802/804 boost (two routes but they're part of a bundled trio along with the already 7 day 862) would benefit a large catchment in Dandenong North. Plus gains would stretch west along the Wellington Rd corridor to Monash University and even further to Chadstone and south to Dandenong Hospital and Chisholm TAFE. All those would massively benefit students and workers, especially if 7 day upgrades were accompanied by evening hours extensions as well. 802's inclusion would also upgrade the only Dandenong Route that lacks any form of Saturday service.
Potential for network simplification
One could just keep all the routes as they are and add extra Saturday and Sunday trips. This was largely the approach taken in the successful 2006 'Meeting Our Transport Challenges' 7 day upgrades. It gave quick results, with the rate of annual bus service kilometre growth vastly more than in the last decade.
Beneficial as it is, just adding service doesn't simplify the existing complex network and is more expensive than accompanying the 7 day upgrade with Brimbank-style network simplification. Because Greater Dandenong has more bus routes than Brimbank despite its smaller population, there is scope for some to be reviewed with longer hours and 7 day service a major benefit.
Both the 802/804/862 and the 814 corridors have been unchanged for decades. Their timetables reflect this with zero or minimal weekend and evening service. Their alignments have significant overlaps, indicating opportunities for simplification while retaining coverage. Most overlaps are off the maps above with the most notable being between Chadstone and Mulgrave for 802/804/862 and Police Rd for the 814.
Of these the 802/804/862 corridor (currently three routes with only one operating 7 days) appears easiest to simplify. Essentially it should be possible to go from 3 to 2 routes (both running 7 days) with minimal loss of coverage. That would have huge gains, slashing maximum waits and delivering 7 day service between Dandenong, Dandenong Hospital, Dandenong North and Chadstone. More detail on fixing Dandenong North's complex 802 / 804 / 862 here.
Simplifying Route 814 is a bit harder. However it could be done in conjunction with reviewing routes between Springvale South, Springvale and Mulgrave. Again the base frequency of many routes is only every 40 - 60 min and there should be scope to do better, particularly on weekends. Particular opportunities also exist due to level crossing removals that give more (but so far unrealised) options for new fast direct routes, such as between Clayton Station and Waverley Gardens via Centre Rd.
Conclusion
Greater Dandenong's high social needs, low level of service and high weekend productivity on the few bus services that do run makes it the perfect location for 'light touch' bus network simplification. Brimbank's new network, introduced nearly 10 years ago provides a sound template for Dandenong, especially for routes like 802/804/862 and, less obviously, 814.
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