Today I'll do the same for this latest lot of housing growth areas. Again most have been selected to be near stations. However there is still a need for train service increases as well as improved buses and trams to other nearby destinations.
Some potential service priorities for each centre are listed below. A high proportion do not involve additional train or bus purchases; instead it's just a matter of working existing trains, trams and buses harder. They would be especially cost-effective where the same initiative can benefit multiple centres.
Sandringham line
* Upgrade Route 78 tram with improved accessibility, speed and frequency
* Boost other tram frequencies to 10 min or better for long hours
South Yarra, Caulfield, Glen Huntly, Ormond, Bentleigh, Mentone
* Upgrade Route 900 to every 10 minutes or better 7 days
* Upgrade bus route 630 to operate every 10-15 minutes 7 days with longer operating hours
* Upgrade bus route 703 to operate every 10-15 minutes 7 days with longer operating hours
* A package of bus upgrades for Mentone including Route 903 7 day frequency upgrade to every 10 minutes, 811/812 simplification and frequency upgrade and 708 frequency upgrade (especially weekends).
* Extend tram route 3 to East Malvern or Chadstone
* Investigate a potential southern entrance for Mentone station to increase station catchment and measures to bring buses closer to trains (undoing the LXRP error that moved the station further away).
* Major 901 and 902 bus boosts including service every 5 min peaks, 10 min off-peak 7 days
* Route 816 extended north from Noble Park station to Waverley Gardens via Noble Park North with frequency improved to every 20 or 30 minutes
Glen Waverley line
East Malvern, Holmesglen
* Upgrade trains to operate every 10 min or better 7 days on the Glen Waverley line
* Boost Route 903 to every 5 min peak, 10 min off-peak with longer hours
* Boost frequency and hours for bus routes 623 and 767
* Extend Tram Route 3 to East Malvern Station (or Chadstone) and boost service to 10 min or better
Alamein line
Riversdale/Willison, Ashburton
* Upgrade Alamein line to every 20 min or better at all times
* Extend Route 734 to Caulfield Station and boost frequency to every 20 min or better 7 days
* Boost evening tram frequencies on Route 70 and reduce maximum waits to 10 min
* Reform station locations to create better train/tram interchanges
* Extend Tram Route 70 to proposed Burwood SRL station
* Consider rail extension to Oakleigh to provide an inner east suburban rail loop
Upfield line
Brunswick, Coburg
* Boost Sunday am rail frequency from 40 to 20 min on the Upfield line
* Implement 10 min 7 day rail frequency upgrade as proposed in 2016 Metro Tunnel Business Case
* Upgrade Routes 503, 506, 512 and 526 buses to operate 7 days
* Rationalise bus routes on Bell St with the main orbital route operating every 5 min peak/10 min off-peak over longer hours
* Upgrade bus route 508 to operate every 10 min or better seven days with longer hours
* Frequency, speed and accessibility upgrades for local trams with maximum 10 min waits
Hurstbridge line
Heidelberg
High St, Thornbury (tram corridor)
St Georges Rd (tram corridor)
Kew Junction (tram corridor)
Inner city
Inner City (City of Melbourne)
Inner City (Yarra)
Conclusion
Described are transport service and infrastructure upgrades for the proposed remainder of the government's housing activity centres. Improvements along these lines are necessary to maximise the location and accessibility benefits for residents moving in. These are only 'top of the head' lists and there are no doubt other upgrades that would be equally beneficial. If you know of any please mention them in the comments below.
1 comment:
Glen Waverley is an odd one IMO, the suburb feels like it has been left behind despite having grown massively over the past decade or so with all the apartments that have sprouted up, along with The Glen shopping centre being rebuilt and the area gentrified. That said, the older shopping strip east of the station is showing its age, and the massive area between the shops and Century City being wasted on thousands of open-air parking spaces can only be described as peak 20th century carbrain; it is an absolutely miserable area to have to walk through in Melbourne weather, be it 7°C and raining sideways or 42°C without a single cloud.
These days the area is packed, with just short of 40,000 residents according to Walk Score, yet the trains are every half an hour after 8PM (7PM on the weekend) and most buses are every 30-60 minutes off-peak including the 902 SmartBus (every 30 minutes evenings/weekend) which also stops dead at 9PM on Sundays. Never mind the NQR SmartBus 703 a kilometre to the west at Syndal, which is still (just) within the Glen Waverley border.
The current bus and train timetables might have made sense twenty years ago when Glen Waverley was a poor man's Box Hill with not much going for it, but the services today are a joke when you have a vastly increased population and major shopping hub which avoids the need to travel all the way to Chadstone or Eastland.
While most (all?) of Glen Waverley's buses have been upgraded to the minimum standard, a lot of them are just that, the bare minimum with weekday daytime services being every 30-40 minutes and hourly at any other time, and an 8-9PM finish (while on the weekend and public holidays they are a flat hourly service all day e.g. 623, 734, 736, 753, 754; 737 and 742 are every 40 minutes on Saturdays but drop to hourly on Sundays).
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