TT 206: Werribee's off-peak bus upgrades done pronto

The state government has set a new standard for upgraded bus services in Melbourne's outer suburbs. Not only in frequency and operating hours but also in a radically compressed budget funding to delivery lead time. 

With DTP typically needing 12 months to deliver even simple bus timetable upgrades after budget funding, observers thought that the 7 months achieved for last year's Route 800 upgrade was quick. But now the department has shrunk budget-implementation lead time to just six weeks for this very worthwhile package that adds 470 extra trips per week. The difference a tight by-election, political will and/or new delivery-oriented DTP leadership can make! 

The upgrades, funded in last month's state budget, will see later trips and/or improved frequency on bus routes 170, 180, 190 and 192 from Werribee Station. They will take effect on Tuesday July 1, the first day of operation under new bus franchise agreements (though there's no operator change with CDC  continuing to run Werribee buses).

Operating hours

Melbourne bus routes typically start later in the morning and stop about 3 hours earlier than trains with 9 to 9:30pm finishes common on most nights. 

These upgrades extend service until about midnight with smaller extensions (to approx 10pm) on Sunday nights. This means that at nearly all times people will want to catch a bus - day or night - there will be a service on four key bus routes in the City of Wyndham. That's three routes up from now where only the Route 190 currently operates long hours. There is however a catch affecting one route - more on that later. 

Frequency

Buses are also usually less frequent than trains. These improvements help here too. Currently these routes drop to every 40 minutes after about 7 or 8pm on weekdays and 5 or 6 pm on weekends. 

Next month's upgrades add trips such that the service remains at every 20 min until approximately 10pm. Then it falls off to every 40 minutes. This expansion of daytime frequency to about 9 or 10 pm on all nights of the week for routes 170, 180 and 192 matches improved Geelong train timetable last year, Route 905 and 907 bus upgrades this year and potentially also the Metro Tunnel train timetable later this year. Route 190 also gets some improvements but (contrary to confusing PTV wording) weekend service remains at every 40 minutes. 

Out of the four routes the 192 is the biggest winner with both longer hours and doubled 7 day frequency. As well as covering a large unique growth catchment the government will be hoping that this bus consoles people who really want the widely expected station at Black Forest Rd. However the bus won't be a satisfactory option for commuters until its infrequent peak timetable is fixed - something that, in the rush to deliver some improvements as soon as possible, was out of scope for this upgrade.    

Have you read about any of these upgrades before? 

Possibly. What is proposed is very similar to some of these upgrades discussed in 2019 and 2024. 

Potential future improvements

These are big improvements but there's always others that could make Wyndham area buses even more useful. Here's a few: 

* Fixing low peak frequencies on all four routes: Excluded from these timetable changes is peak frequency. All four routes retain gaps of around 30 and even 40 minutes in the morning peak. The timetable for Route 180, for example, has a 28 minute gap at the peak of the peak arriving at Werribee (there being no arrivals between 7:21 and 7:49am). Parts of 180 at least have the 182 overlapping on Tarneit Rd. But this cannot be said for the 192 which remains with 30 to 35 min peak gaps. 190's gaps are almost as long while the 170 has a 41 minute peak period gap.

The Metro Tunnel will see a rewrite of the Werribee line train timetable including a 7.5 minute peak frequency. Hopefully these are stage 1 upgrades with more coming after more buses arrive. It would be highly desirable for main bus routes to be upgraded to operate every 15 minutes in the peaks, noting that this will increase the peak bus requirement.

* 192 - fixing late weekend morning starts: Despite long operating hours in the evening the weekend morning start times are unacceptably late, especially for a bus route with a lot of unique catchment. For example the first arrival at Werribee is 8:20am Saturday and 8:38am Sunday (much like the current timetable). These need to be made 60 - 90 min earlier, even if it means some early morning and evening gaps are widened to 40 minutes to keep the number of weekly trips the same. 

* 190 - weekend frequency: PTV's wording does not match the timetable here with this exacerbated by the same wording being used for a different service pattern and customary idiom (see box below). Clarity is essential when you have many users whose first language is not English. Contrary to what PTV says, Route 190 will remain at every 40 minutes on weekends rather than joining 170, 180 and 192 with 20 minute weekend frequencies. But getting the 190 up to every 20 min all week would be a good idea, increasing the proportion of people within walking distance of a 7 day 20 minute service. It would also remove the network oddity of Route 190 having wide operating hours but a low weekend frequency.  

* 7 day 20 minute service on other routes in Wyndham. These upgrades are good but open up an inequality where there remain strongly used routes in the east of the municipality that still have 40 minute gaps. Popular Wyndham routes that deserve a 7 day upgrade to every 20 minutes include the likes of 150, 152, 160, 182, 494, 495 and 497. 

Conclusion

These are a good set of off-peak bus timetable upgrades for an area whose residents will definitely use them. Others for Wyndham, including the 153 upgrade and new routes will come later. Closing the embarrassingly long peak period gaps for the above four routes to 15-20 minutes should also be high priorities as soon as new buses arrive. 

Index to other Timetable Tuesday items