Maroondah's 2025 - 2035 Transport Strategy

 

Reading council minutes and agenda documents is sometimes useful. As it was for me last week when I came across the Maroondah Transport Strategy in the attachments. 

Overview

Some interesting numbers in the overview. I've reproduced just the public transport ones here (click for better view).  

Even though Ringwood has an intensive peak train service, the number of trains on a Saturday is almost 90% that of a weekday. This is mostly due to unfinished timetable business from over a decade ago. That is Ringwood got its weekend trains upgraded to every 10 minutes but its interpeak weekday frequency remained at every 15 minutes. Sunday rail services were 317, or 67% the weekday service. I was surprised at that given the main difference between Saturday and Sunday service is mostly confined to a few hours on Sunday morning where a lower frequency applies. 

Bus services are very different. Saturday service collapses to barely half the number of services on weekdays. A major contributor to that would be the 901 SmartBus that runs every 30 minutes on weekends versus 15 minutes on weekdays. Sparser still are Sunday services, with barely one-third of weekday trips. This is because many outer eastern bus routes operate over limited hours or not at all on weekends. 

Council advocacy aims

There's a lot more to the report than I discuss here but I suggest first looking at page 28 which is what the council is asking for regarding public transport. I've ticked and crossed items, with more discussion below. 

The list is overwhelmingly positive. Implementation would significantly improve public transport in Maroondah. 

Main points

The two points I wish to highlight is train frequency and SmartBus 737.

The recommendation for a train every 10 minutes 7 days per week at Ringwood is very good. Weekends are already done so this just needs interpeak weekdays and (preferably) evenings to finish off.  That would deliver consistent turn-up-and-go service that would improve connectivity with buses and foster transit supportive land uses around stations. It's a reflection on how poorly we use rail infrastructure or regard rail as being useful for other than peak period travel that the Belgrave/Lilydale train timetable has been effectively frozen for so long. 

While not really stated, the 10 minute frequency recommendation should also deliver overdue relief to the 30 minute gaps between trains at Belgrave and Lilydale by improving weekday interpeak frequency to 20 minutes (as already operates on weekends). That would end the situation where stations like Ringwood East and Heathmont have longer gaps between trains than Geelong despite being half (or less) the distance to the CBD.

A Belgrave/Lilydale line greenfields timetable could be jointly advocated with other councils including Boroondara, Whitehorse, Knox and Yarra Ranges. This area contains a lot of marginal state seats. It is hard to see Brad Battin's Liberal Party regaining office without getting Melbourne's middle-class east and outer back. And if it wants to keep its strong majority Labor also needs to care about retaining its eastern seats in the 2026 state election. Thus there are good reasons for both major parties to back what is a highly cost-effective rail service upgrade. 

Route 737 is a long and popular bus route serving many destinations in the eastern suburbs including Monash University, Glen Waverley, Knox City, Boronia and Croydon. It currently runs every 30 to 40 minutes at most times with a 9pm finish. A SmartBus upgrade would massively improve operating hours and frequency so it's great that Maroondah is supporting its improvement. And the cost is relatively modest, with this being in the low millions of dollars per year in additional service kilometres. 

A 737 SmartBus is the sort of region-wide network upgrade worth advocacy from not only Maroondah but also Knox and Monash councils.  Bus upgrades sometimes have trouble getting reasonable profile in state election campaigns as they are so localised. But this one serves so many seats and useful destinations that a 737 upgrade is an easy sell for 2026. 

Other matters

Smaller items advocated for include 7 day service on buses 671, 672 and 689. This would help address the paucity of weekend and evening bus service in much of Maroondah. The requested 688 extension to Ringwood is also highly desirable with improved connectivity to hospitals just one benefit. 

There's two items I've crossed as not being desirable. Multi-storey commuter day parking (as proposed for Ringwood) is better placed outside of a major town centre. That's because town centres have higher value land more suited to productive housing and commercial uses. Also most town centre parking provided should be time limited to maximise turnover and better support local retail. Parking at stations may have merit in low density fringe areas but (especially) where it needs to be multi-storey the cost per extra rail passenger gained is high relative to other ways to get people to stations (eg improved buses). 

It's commendable though that Maroondah has considered ways of improving access to and around Ringwood CBD. However the on-demand bus concept proposed has a low chance of success. After a faddish honeymoon a few years ago, FlexiRide is generally now recognised as a flop except for niche applications where high operating costs per passenger carried are acceptable. Hence the policy direction now is towards replacing FlexiRide services with new or reformed fixed routes. 

What about a dedicated fixed route? Both Dandenong and Ringwood had such services many years ago. Ringwood had at least two in the 1980s - a car park shuttle operating as a trial and the Ringwood City Circuit (Route 666) with details here. It is understood that the 666 got incorporated into a larger route.   

An alternative could involve simpler and more frequent regular bus routes with better passenger information. When town centres get beyond a certain size there may be merit in having throughs running through a CBD and out the other side (like trams in the city) rather than terminating at a station terminus. A bus network review for Ringwood is well overdue anyway given that there are substantial long-established areas (eg Eastfield Rd) with no bus coverage at all.  

Conclusion

Maroondah has made some worthwhile proposals in its Transport Strategy. Councils advocate a lot of things. Only rarely do state governments take them on board. But this one has some good ideas  with some wide network benefits that hopefully the state will act on.