UN 181: How Auckland is beating Melbourne on buses

 

When I compared public transport service trends across the six larger cities in Australia/NZ last month one stood out for the increase in its population near 7 day frequent service in the last decade. 

Auckland.  

In 2011 it had both (i) the lowest proportion of people and jobs near frequent service and (ii) the lowest service intensity per 100 000 population. Both its numbers then were slightly worse than Perth - another sprawling, car-dependent city whose own public transport renaissance inspired Auckland's. 

By 2021 Auckland had surpassed both Sydney and Melbourne in service intensity. And it was rivalling Melbourne in the proportion of people and jobs near frequent transport (defined as every 15 minutes or better). Plus Auckland's service was still heading in the right direction; unlike Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth whose recent population growth had outstripped service growth, thus lowering service intensity per capita. 

Another snapshot of Auckland's progress came in a LinkedIn article by their network planner Pete Moth. The item announced the commencement of Auckland's 40th frequent bus route. This lifted the proportion of residents near 7 day frequent service to 45%. Still not enough but a vast improvement on the 15% from 8 years ago when there were only 9 frequent corridors. When you count Auckland's high population growth it is possible that the number of Aucklanders near frequent service would have almost quadrupled in that short time. 

How did they do it? The biggest single increase came when they were reforming their bus routes. That success has begat further service improvements, including additions to their frequent network. The dramatic geographical effect of Auckland's expansion of frequent service is mapped below. 

What about Melbourne? My interactive frequent network maps show the extent of frequent service in Melbourne. If you want to use the 'gold standard' yardstick of 7 day frequent service then you use the Sunday maps as this is the day which frequent service is least prevalent on the Melbourne network. In other words if a service is frequent on Sunday then it should be equal if not more frequent on other days (with Ringwood/Belgrave/Lilydale trains the main exception since the 82 tram got weekday upgrades).

Below shows Melbourne's 7 day train, tram and bus corridors that are frequent in the middle of the day to at least early evening. 

The frequent network looks quite extensive in the inner suburbs but there is an important qualification; in Melbourne no individual route has 7 day frequent service until mid-morning. This typically continues for about 8 hours before falling off after about 6pm. If I was to rigidly apply the 7am - 7pm criteria that Auckland does then the map would be almost blank, with only a handful of multi-route corridors showing. 

The majority of lines (which are trams) got their 7 day frequent service in 1999 when Jeff Kennett was still premier. The three longer train lines (Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston) gained their 7 day frequent service in 2012 (under Ted Baillieu). 

Premiers Bracks, Brumby, Andrews and Allan may have built a lot of transport infrastructure but have not presided anywhere near the 7 day frequent train and tram network expansions that Kennett, Baillieu and even Napthine have.   

Which bus corridors qualify for 7 day frequent service? The map below, with the trams removed, make this easier to see. 

Mebourne's 350 route bus network includes just five significant corridors with 7 day service every 15 minutes or better. These are the 200/207, 234, 246, 907 and the Knox Transit link portion of the 732. Many other routes or corridors, notably our orbital SmartBuses, qualify on weekdays but don't make it onto this map as they lack sufficient weekend frequency (mostly every 30 minutes). 

What have been the most recent additions to Melbourne's 7 day every 15 minutes or better frequent network? I mentioned the 82 tram upgrade before. The most recent bus additions have been the 234 and 907 upgrades in 2021. These are welcome upgrades but their span of frequent weekend service is still less than Auckland's 12 hours. A few years before that was a 246 weekend upgrade. Overall, pretty meagre despite high patronage potential 7 day corridors like Footscray - Highpoint or Coburg - Preston - Northland - Heidelberg with overlapping routes existing. 

Conclusion

In the rush to deliver frequent service to the most people Auckland has left Melbourne for dead in the last decade.  It rolled out 31 new frequent 7 day bus corridors in the time Melbourne has taken to introduce 3. This is despite Auckland starting from a very low service base, inheriting far less fixed rail infrastructure and having a more transit-hostile urban form. That's a 90:1 difference in their work-rate when population differences are considered.  

Auckland's bus network reform, especially its now substantial 7 day frequent network, is an inspirational story of achievement in public transport planning and practice delivering community benefits. The odds were against it but the will was there to make it happen.  

In contrast Melbourne has far underperformed despite having more going for it, including:
(i) a massive still-operating train and tram network legacy that very few Anglosphere cities have;
(ii) triple Auckland's population;
(iii) knowledge of the need for simpler frequent 7 day bus routes as per its barely acted-on bus plan and
(iv) there being a dozen or more potential cost-effective 7 day frequent bus corridors between popular destinations possible with minor increases in weekly service hours or overlap-busting network reform.     

With bus reform successful in Auckland, Perth and Sydney, Adelaide telling us how not to do it and even stirrings from Brisbane, the time is now ripe for Melbourne to now get on board with frequent 7 day buses. 

With rising infrastructure costs and tightening state budgets for the foreseeable future, attention to efficient service delivery through better 7 day train and bus services might be one of the few untapped cost-effective initiatives in transport left. 

More: Lessons from Auckland - Bus reformers speak (UN 154)

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