Enjoy some examples of the latter here:
Suburban Rail Loop Authority
Level Crossing Removal Project
Victoria's Big Build
West Gate Tunnel
The project's 2.7k subscriber-strong YouTube channel has many videos but not any end-of-year wrap-up. Their Facebook page has 44k followers.
Department of Transport and Planning
DTP, possibly reflecting the current leadership's diffident style, didn't do a publicly available end of year video. Their 1.6k subscriber YouTube channel comprises mostly of little viewed digital tools tutorials, slightly higher viewed arts projects and more popular train and tram videos (that gunzels would love).
It's as if the more enterprising sections of DTP took it on themselves to make videos showcasing their niche work, which, in the absence of 'big picture' videos commissioned by the Secretary, defined their YouTube channel as a hotchpotch. Lacking general videos that portray a network vision effectively deals DTP out of the undeclared low-level propaganda war for public and political goodwill between government bodies that exists when competing for limited budget resources.
The last time the department articulated a rough vision for public transport in video form was about 5 years ago (below). This was before the pandemic when Jeroen Weimar was heading PTV. Paul Younis had just taken over as Department of Transport head. Under the latter's stewardship public transport services were to lose prominence in this merged department which saw it also take in planning in 2023.
Fix Dandy Buses community campaign
The last year
Read my last item in 2023 where I speculated on the future of the (then) over 900 day old Bus Plan. To answer the question posed, some good 7 day upgrades got done for buses (notably the Route 800 mentioned above) but 2024 wasn't really the year of wholesale bus network reform. Although there was significant community campaigning for same, with the Sustainable Cities campaign getting high prominence in the west. As we heard in PAEC, the Bus Plan has effectively been redefined as a label added when the government does good stuff with buses as opposed to being a coherent budgeted reform strategy. Planning purists might hate that but it does mean that a focused community campaign can prevail by engaging with media and politicians in ways that a supine department is restricted from doing.
Metro train timetables continued to be stagnant with no inroads made into getting rid of the cheap-to-fix 30, 40 and even 60 minute gaps that makes the network far less useful than it should be. However V/Line saw some significant service gains, notably the Geelong line going from every 40 to every 20 minutes on weekends. But Melton still awaits relief from its hourly weekend trains (Labor promised an improvement from every 60 to 40 minutes in 2022 but this is both inadequate and not yet delivered).
On the leadership side, the Public and Active Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams got promoted, gaining responsibilities for transport infrastructure from Danny Pearson. This late 2024 reshuffle was prompted by the retirement of long-standing Treasurer Tim Pallas. Housing, including the government's aim to concentrate housing around transport hubs, dominated the planning agenda in 2024.
The next year
Jeroen Weimar will take over from Paul Younis as DTP Secretary in four weeks. The change will see Mr Weimar return to transport, which has been his primary career area. Despite the prevailing state budgetary pessimism, Mr Weimar comes with high expectations; for the first time in a while the department will have an articulate and not-shy leader with operational experience of public transport.
We should see more growth area bus upgrades start with previous years' GAIC funded improvements coming to fruition. In early 2025 we'll hear about the results of the current round; the government has previously signalled that bus services will be one of the priorities. GAIC funding for buses is good but it needs to be emphasised that this is for a temporary term and is highly conditional to the extent that it grows network coverage but does not necessarily enable as much network reform as desirable. As a recent Age series emphasises, there's a huge backlog with population growth outstripping services in growth areas. At about this time the under development Plan for Victoria will be released, with an expected emphasis on housing including more housing growth centres (the first 25 discussed here).
One requirement of this must surely that this denser housing not only be clustered around public transport infrastructure but the service operate frequently at least 18 hours a day. In contrast to Sydney's network post the 2017 train timetable, not a single individual line in Melbourne currently does this, with the nine hour rule dominant. All eyes then on whether this plan specifies (and funds) the 'switch to service' our network needs and a modern replacement for the moribund Principal Public Transport Network along the lines of the Future Frequent Network.
In the public transport world 2025 is likely to be dominated by the Metro Tunnel. This project appeared a lot more real in 2024 with many people getting tours of the new stations. However the all day service levels for this and other intersecting lines remain the big unknown - unlike Sydney our track record is one of greater secrecy with regards to even broad timetable specifications and no guarantees that we will get all day frequent service.
We also don't yet know the extent of tram network reform post Metro Tunnel. This is one of the potential major side benefits of the Metro Tunnel project as it allows tram capacity to be spread more evenly across the CBD rather than be concentrated on the Swanston St corridor. Wise tram reform would also improve multimodal connections around the edge of the CBD.
Have other predictions for 2025? Please leave them in the comments below.
5 comments:
The next round of bus contracts will commence in July 2025 - we wait with baited breath if this could be the catalyst for re-starting the plans to reform buses in the northern suburbs pilot area, which had some baseline consultation three years ago in late 2022.
Emphasis so far has simply been future orders for electric buses which doesn't instill much confidence, especially when most Ventura Ivanhoe routes are still running 5 or 6 days a week, despite the much lauded 100% electric fleet.
Kinetic and Dysons are still running the same timetables as Moreland and Moonee Valley ran with few, if any, efficiencies found so far.
Ultimately there will need to be a modest investment in extra buses and kilometres to fix late running issues and introduce Sunday buses on many routes in the inner/middle north.
Likewise, unclear yet if the GAIC funding includes at a minimum 20 min peak hour services in growth areas (well used in Point Cook, Tarneit and Craigieburn) or we end up with more token 40-60 minute routes such as those inflicted on Clyde North and Cranbourne West in recent years (760, 863, 881, 888 & 889), which do little to ease transport pressures.
For 2025, other than the shared hope for useful service frequency post MM1, I'm hoping that the opening of the Greensborough bus interchange will usher in usable spans and frequencies for buses in Banyule and Nillumbik. Not sure what has happened to the promised reform alongside a St Helena FlexiRide though, the interchange is practically done and still no word any changes.
I personally don't think many tram changes will happen post MM1 since the Park St and Elizabeth St links got cut due to descoping. I think it will just be some retimetabling and a route or two being diverted away from Melbourne Uni to boost capacity on William St.
I do hope something comes from the new bus contracts in July in the north. I responded to the surveys and wrote to my local member but seeing that nothing much has been heard, I've lost faith in the department to do anything. Given the metro tunnel may open mid year, service alignment and uplift would make such an improvement immediately.
I agree with you that no tram changes will happen post MM1- the opportunities were there to time them but with no proposals, it's another lost opportunity for train/bus and tram reform to make a major leap in service delivery to go along with all the infrastructure works. I guess the money ran out long ago for any real change now.
Will per capita service levels continue to decline? Melbourne now has nearly half a million more residents than in 2019 but there has been virtually no change in timetables. The city's population has doubled since 1974 when daytime train frequencies were every 20 minutes Mon-Fri. Most lines are still only every 20 minutes. There has been a small increase in service hours through extensions of some electric lines and more frequent regional services, but it's still close to a halving of train service hours per capita. Let's hope Wiemer can push this line that service hours per capita.
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