TT 195: The new Route 800 bus timetable

Most of Princes Hwy between Oakleigh and Dandenong will get 7 day buses for the first time in over 30 years under a new timetable to commence on Sunday 24th November 2024. The new timetable for the popular Route 800 between Chadstone and Dandenong will also feature tripled Saturday service and a rearrangement of weekday trips to extend its finish time to after 9pm. 

Minister's announcement here with news coverage here and here. PTV's write-up on the upgraded service is here. Timetables for both the existing and new services are available on their website.

The upgrade was funded in the May 2024 Victorian state budget following a 2 year community campaign by #FixDandyBuses (then as #Fix800Bus). 

Service features

What does the upgraded Route 800 service feature?

* Minor route changes for improved consistency and directness 

At the moment a few trips do a loop via Springvale cemetery. That lightly-used variation will cease. All trips will stay on the highway. The PTV website item advises that a signalised pedestrian crossing is available for those who need to cross Princes Hwy to reach the cemetery. The cemetery deviation actually has a bit of history, it effectively replacing the Spring Vale cemetery branch railway that was electrified in 1922 but with services ceasing in 1950. 

There will also be a small loop at the Chadstone end with buses operating clockwise. This was done to slightly speed trips.  

* Boosted weekend service with longer hours and higher frequency

This is the big reason for the upgrade. It seemed ridiculous that such a major route operating between the south-east's biggest shopping centre and its major suburban industrial centre via its busiest highway have such a limited service. That is no Sunday service and a sparse Saturday service including short hours and up to 120 minute afternoon gaps (see Timetable Tuesday No 2 for background).

The new timetable increases the number of Saturday trips from 16 to 53 (both directions counted). More than a tripling, that's enough to buy a 30 minute frequency during most of the day (approx 9am - 5pm) with a drop to every 40 minutes before and after. The 1 to 2 hour waits have been made history by this timetable. 

How do Chadstone retail workers fare? The new timetable has early Saturday arrivals at 7:45, 8:25, 9:05, 9:35, 10:05, 10:35 am. Not perfect for those with a 9am start (Chadstone's listed start time) but setting timetables requires a lot of jiggling and you can't please everyone unless you make the service frequent. In the afternoon from Chadstone the 30 minute service continues until 5:16pm. Then the 40 minute pattern takes over at 5:56pm. Those with a nominal 5pm finish might find that 5:16pm is too early and might have preferred that the 30 minute pattern continued a bit longer. The Chadstone website lists a 9pm closing time for Saturday. This is supported with last buses leaving at 9:16 and 9:56pm.  

Sunday contains only two fewer trips than Saturday (51 versus 53). There is again a 30 minute midday frequency with a fall to every 40 minutes earlier and later. The first arrivals at Chadstone are 8:00, 8:40, 9:10, 9:40am, with the last suiting a 10am start. There is an earlier finish with the last trip being 8:15pm ex-Dandenong as opposed to 8:50pm on Saturdays and 9:46pm on weekdays. Last finishes from the Chadstone direction are a bit more even across the week.

The times are not the same but this timetable having the same Saturday and Sunday frequencies is a really good feature. Especially on a route like the 800 that serves Melbourne's biggest suburban retail centre. The 30 minute service is a clockface 'memory' timetable - unlike the 40 minute frequencies so common across Melbourne's buses. On this the 800 timetable compares well with recent weekend upgrades for other popular shopping centre routes like 733 and 767, which got a 30 minute frequency on Saturday but only a 40 minute service on Sunday. 

* A rejigged weekday timetable with a later finish

Like all timetables this one was done to a budget. Some judicious nipping and tucking was required to keep the number of weekday trips the same as now but spread operating hours. For example there's a 40 minute early am weekday frequency towards Dandenong and an earlier finish of the 20 minute frequency from Chadstone. The trade-off is that you get a 2 or 3 hour later finish at night, with last trips  from there departing after 9:30pm.

Another win is for those finishing work at Dandenong. The current timetable finishes its 20 minute service at 5:08pm, with an approximately half hourly service until the last bus at 6:32pm. The new timetable keeps the 20 minute service going until 6:18pm, with an approximate 40 minute frequency until 9:46pm.  

Bigger than Metro Tunnel for some?

That might sound ridiculous but take another look. It's only after you play with the journey planner for some common trips at various times do you realise how much time better buses can save.

There couldn't be any better case than the upgraded Route 800 with this before/after example:

Supposing you wanted to go from Noble Park North to Chadstone, leaving at 10am on a Sunday. Not necessarily an uncommon trip. And there's a direct highway linking the two if you're driving. 

BEFORE: If it was this Sunday (ie before the upgraded Route 800 starts) you would be twiddling your thumbs until 10:53am. Then you'd walk 19 minutes to the nearest bus that runs on a Sunday (the 811, once bus an hour). You'd alight at Springvale station (passing close to Noble Park station but the journey planner doesn't recognise this as an interchange). Then, hoping there weren't replacement buses, you'd get a train to Oakleigh. From there you'd have to work out which bus is next to get to Chadstone. If you get all this right you will eventually arrive at 12:01pm. That's 68 minutes from when you started walking, or 121 minutes from when you decided you'd want to go. 

AFTER: From Sunday next week you'll have the 800 available. Board it at 10:02am and alight Chadstone at 10:40am. Simple. Depending on how you measure it a time saving of 30 min minimum (but potentially over an hour). 

Sunday trips to Dandenong are also way faster. In this case trip times fall from 45-50 minutes (again walk + bus + train according to the journey planner) to 20 minutes as direct access will be possible via the Route 800 (click below for better view).  

What about that Metro Tunnel comparison? The (then) premier's media release mentions a travel time cut of 25 minutes each way (ie 50 minutes return) for some trips. But there are people in areas like the south-east who don't often travel to the CBD and more often travel locally. Not to mention the issue of getting to the station to access the Metro Tunnel (which the upgraded 800 can help with). So, yes, for some the 7 day 800 boost is indeed more important in their lives than the Metro Tunnel. But there will also be network-effect cases where both work together to slash travel times.  

Weekend patronage boom expected

Route 800 is the sort of bus route whose patronage should respond well to service increases like these. That is because it is direct, serves major 7 day destinations, goes past a lot of jobs and has unique coverage of households with high social needs that don't all own cars. It is also generally the case that patronage / service elasticity is higher for off-peak than peak services, with all of the 800's extra trips being the former. 

September - November 2022 usage was 6436 passenger boardings for that quarter (DTP figures supplied). Multiplying that by 4 gives about 25 000 trips annually. Note that this is with the current sparse Saturday-only timetable involving 16 trips per weekend each way. 

This timetable lifts weekend service by 86 trips to 102 trips. That is an increase by 530% or to more than 6 times now. Even if usage was less than 1:1 elastic you might still get up to 100 000 trips annually just from the higher weekend patronage alone.

To see if such a result was plausible I checked other direct routes that already had substantial weekend service. The 472 (Moonee Ponds - Footscray - Williamstown) and 893 (Dandenong - Hallam - Cranbourne) are of similar length to the 800. Both achieved about 100 000 annual weekend boardings in 2022 (extrapolating from quarterly figures) despite both being much less productive than the 800 (even on weekdays when service levels are most comparable). For example 21, 33 and 20 weekday boardings per hour for 472, 800 and 893 respectively. 

While somewhat longer (23.5 versus 18km) the 767 was very like the 800 on a boardings per kilometre basis. In 2022 this achieved about 200 000 annual weekend boardings (noting that this was before the October 2023 Route 903 realignment via Deakin which will likely have affected 767 usage). The 767 serves three major suburban centres versus the 800's two but the 767 has significant indirect portions and weaker catchment demographics at its southern end.  

All things considered the upgraded Route 800 is bound to be a patronage winner given its catchment and usage of other comparable routes. And weekend patronage growth should be so high that it brings all-week usage of Route 800 up by at least 10 and possibly 20%, even if one conservatively assumes no increase in weekday usage (despite its overall better timetable).     

Summary and future

The upgraded Route 800 is a welcome major addition to 7 day public transport in Melbourne's south-east.

It will help more get to work, connect people to opportunities and serve large parts of south-east Melbourne that previously lacked 7 day transport. When the trains are disrupted some will use the 800 as a relatively quick way to get from Oakleigh to Dandenong. That adds a redundancy and robustness  that the current network does not have. Monash Clayton students living in parts of Noble Park North or Dandenong will also find the boosted 800 a handy time-saver. 

Longer term I can see the 800 becoming even better. Eg to every 15 min weekdays and 20 min weekends. Even wider operating hours could benefit cinema goers and late workers. Operating the bus in the main traffic lane might speed travel on parts of Princes Hwy. There may also be scope, with other network reforms, to reroute the 800 down more of Princes Hwy to be nearer Dandenong Market and the main shopping precinct. 

The 800's likely success may raise political interest in further needed Dandenong area bus upgrades. Initially these could be a basic 7 day service on routes without it like 802, 804 and 814. Then once that's been done strengthening the network such as half-hourly all week frequencies on routes like 850 (Dandenong - Glen Waverley) and corridors like Heatherton Rd should pay patronage dividends.  

For now though it's time to celebrate this achievement and use the bus as much as possible when the upgraded service starts in less than two weeks on 24 November.  

Index to other Timetable Tuesday items