The latest V/Line train timetables to come out are for services to Geelong, Warrnambool and Ballarat. Starting December 1, they honour the government's (much-needed) 2022 election promise to boost Geelong line weekend service from every 40 to every 20 min. As well as other changes that I'll mention later. Today I'll just discuss the Geelong line with particular reference to the growth area stations along it (Waurn Ponds, Marshall, Wyndham Vale and Tarneit).
Another big positive is that, apart from a few 'holes' (eg a 33 min gap at Waurn Ponds) 20 minute weekend frequency holds up for a 14 hour span (7am - 9pm). That is vastly handier than the ~10 hours found on busy Metro lines to major stations like Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Craigieburn, Coburg and Reservoir in Melbourne's service-starved north . Planning for Metro timetables in the north, which have been basically stagnant for years, can really draw inspiration from the Geelong line here.
New Geelong line timetable - the bad
Trains need to run at times people need to travel. There's a point of diminishing returns - eg the number of people wanting to go to the CBD at 2am is less than say 8am. You might not run a train at 2am Sunday, or maybe you'd have a cheaper to run bus if you thought some type of service was justified. But you still need a decent span of hours so that the train is an option for travel to jobs, major events and other transport such as long distance trains or airport buses. This makes service in the 5am - 8am window super-critical, especially on weekends. Reinforced by the precautions many take of arriving earlier than strictly necessary for critical long-distance trips to allow an 'unreliability buffer'.
A late weekend am start has been a chronic problem with the existing Geelong (and Melton) timetables. This is in stark contrast to Metro lines that now enjoy 24 hour Night Network services. While you might not run Night Network services on V/Line the first train should at least arrive reasonably early (eg say 6 or 6:30am even on Sunday morning). The new Geelong timetable does not fix this, with the first arrival remaining too late to be useful for some early morning events, especially on Sundays.
40 minute weekday interpeak frequency remains for Waurn Ponds and Marshall
Even though the weekend timetable got a big boost to capitalise on the line duplication the weekday timetable didn't so much. This means twice the waits between trains on weekdays than weekends, a less legible service, and excessive dependence on timetables (you can't just take a bus or drop someone off at a station and take it for granted there'll be a train within a reasonable time).
Waurn Ponds and Marshall are the nearest stations to the major growth area of Armstrong Creek so justify the 20 minute weekday interpeak service that finishes at South Geelong continuing to Waurn Ponds.
Bus and coach information not where it should be on the PTV website
If you scroll down the PTV website train item you'll see a list of something like 50 bus and coach routes listed. These will get timetable changes to retain coordination with trains. This is notable as the Wyndham and Geelong bus networks, introduced in 2015, are the biggest instance of rail / bus coordination in the state. Regrettably PTV have a 'silo' mentality when it comes to publishing passenger information with a dislike of cross-referencing and hyperlinks. Hence if you go to their bus and coach page you won't see reference to these timetable changes. At least a brief item on the bus page and a link should have been provided. Speaking of buses, the 190 from Wyndham Vale to Werribee, originally intended to coordinate with all Geelong trains, retains its 40 minute weekend frequency, thus meshing with every second weekend train rather than every train (more or less) before.
Complex and irregular peak stopping patterns
The new timetable keeps this. An opportunity exists for a true greenfields timetable with more regular times and fewer unique stopping patterns to make catching trains easier. Especially for trips between intermediate stations. This change did not exploit this opportunity but the sooner this happens the better.
A break to a regular frequency can discourage travel at certain times. Or it can give rise to crowding as people try to plan their trips to avoid it. Essentially the timetable forcing a travel behaviour change.
This effect is particular pernicious when the gap is widened for peak direction trip at shoulder peak times. This is because shoulder peaks need good frequency and spare capacity to try to flatten the peaks and create room for more passengers.
The new timetable exacerbates an already existing problem as the gap between trains at Tarneit increases from an already unsatisfactory 28 minutes to 33 minutes around 9:30am on the inbound direction. This is due to a messy interface between the peak and off-peak pattern. Either rejigging the peak timetable or adding a short trip from Wyndham Vale to Southern Cross might help plug this gap.
Arguably worse, as it affects the whole line, is the extreme frequency drop-off after the 9:21pm from Waurn Ponds. Before then a 20 minute service runs. After then it's an 80 minute gap, with the next train at 10:41. The best fix would be an extra trip, perhaps departing at 10:01pm, such as is done on Saturday where the gap is 40 minutes. But the very least the frequency fall-off should be gentler with the 9:21pm departure moved later.
This hole leaves those in the Tarneit area without alternatives to plug it since regular bus routes that could have run from the Werribee line have typically ceased around 9pm Sundays. The only bus that does run late 7 nights in the City of Wyndham is the 190 between Wyndham Vale and Werribee, with its original intention being to connect with Geelong trains and compensate for the removal of direct trains to Werribee in 2015. Scheduling the Route 190 is a juggling act since it is likely that more passengers would benefit from good connections from the Werribee end than Wyndham Vale. However it is unfortunate that the last Sunday evening Geelong - Werribee connection has gone from super-tight (bus leaving 2 minutes after train arrives) to just broken (bus leaving 1 minute before train). Passengers aren't however completely stranded, with another (and last) bus being 30 minutes later (11:53pm).
Uneven train timetables with big holes may be a consequence of having to accommodate other movements on the line, including long distance services. However then could also indicate a parsimonious attitude to timetabling and/or a refusal to countenance even minor but highly beneficial improvements that are considered 'out of scope'. Also, as Page 50 of the latest DTP annual report advises, V/Line has difficulty with fleet maintenance and availability, with Vlocity availability at 87.1% in the last year, well down on the 92.5% target.
Conclusion and wider implications
This welcome timetable upgrade brings some much needed weekend frequency benefits to the Geelong line. This is a major win for a population catchment exceeding 600 000 people and growing fast. 'Almost there but not quite' is my summary.
The need for refinements remain, likely with disproportionate benefits. The more significant include extending the weekday 20 minute interpeak frequency to Waurn Ponds, a simpler tidier peak timetable, fewer 30 - 80 minute 'holes' in schedules and earlier weekend start times so important to support major Melbourne and regional events. The number of extra weekly trips needed to plug these gaps would be relatively small since most of the hard work on improving basic frequencies at most times has already been done.
It puzzles me why they weren't done this time. It seems that Melbourne has an austerity mindset when it comes to all-day train frequency, even though most of rail's expenses are fixed. Examples include duplicating train lines but not simplifying complex peak stopping patterns, neglecting frequency, or accepting 40 minute Sunday morning train frequencies on major lines (that not even Adelaide does).
International rail trouble-shooter Simon Lane found that Melbourne's train reliability problems in the 1990s mostly arose from bad timetabling. 30 years on timetabling remains the single biggest reason why Melbourne's train service is barely half as good as Sydney's and generally inferior to Perth's.
A new culture of abundant service needs to supplant the current 'scarce service' mindset to maximise the Metro Tunnel's returns on the considerable political and financial capital invested in it. For example 5 minute rather than 10 minute all week frequencies for at least Metro Tunnel's central portion. Not excessive when one considers existing service levels in Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney on their subway/skytrain/metro lines. Or even Perth with 7.5 minute core network frequencies.
Only with this plus all-week frequency boosts on intersecting lines can the Metro Tunnel truly deliver all business case benefits, including the huge wins possible from a reconfigured tram network and enhanced connectivity across the state's rail network. Including the Geelong line that will hopefully get further timetable tweaks addressing the issues raised, before Metro Tunnel opening day.
5 comments:
The weekend services were an easy addition, given the RRL is barely used with one hour frequencies to Ballarat/Bendigo.
I'm hoping that extending the weekday services from South Geelong to Waurn Ponds has been pushed back awaiting the new Platform at Sunshine as part of a wider greenfields timetable for the RRL. I'm assuming that the current weekday timetable couldn't be extended without causing problems at Spencer St (benefit of the doubt).
Prior to the opening of the RRL in 2015 Geelong had quite a strong reverse commute of Melbournians taking Vline to jobs in the Geelong CBD. Then following the opening of RRL Geelong trains no longer connected with Werribee trains and I dont' know what happened to the reverse commuters - did most of them change to driving? Or have there been enough commuters whose connections work to compensate for any decline in commuters connecting from the Werribee line?
I agree the changes to weekend services are generally good. Additional evening services leaving Melbourne are needed after 9pm and early morning services before 8am as you mention coming to Melbourne. I wouldn't think there would be capacity issues at Sunshine stopping all weekday off peak services running to Waurn Ponds. It seems wasteful of the recent South Geelong duplication project to not run all weekday services off peak to Waurn Ponds, as Marshall and Waurn Ponds are left with a terrible 40 minute weekday off peak frequency,
Heya Peter,
I was wondering if you knew anything about the Twice daily bus from Marshall to Geelong and vice versa? From an outsiders perspective it seems like a waste of money to run a coach service to only cover 1 stop. In the morning it seems its to plug a gap between short terminating South Geelong services, however the 6:05 and 6:28 services from southern cross are also shown not to stop at Marshall. Is this an error or are there no services to Marshall from the city between 6:02am and 8:14am when the shuttle bus arrives.
In the evening a train departing from Waurn ponds runs express through Marshall towards the city with the shuttle bus departing slightly earlier and meeting this express train in geelong.
I'm wondering if it's to do with the single tracked tunnel causing a scheduling nightmare and the only solution is expressing through Marshall at certain times? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!
Unknown - can't help on that bus sorry.
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