Bus
Concept map below (click for better view):
My video of deputy premier Gabrielle Williams media conference at West Tarneit here:
No time-lines were given on how long the new network would take to roll out if Labor was re-elected. Although they promised to make a start on planning it right away. The 10 minute services are a 'gold standard' that offer turn-up-and-go capability with easy connectivity between services provided this is backed by suitable interchanges at stations and bus stops right at road intersections.
This announcement comes following years of advocacy by the Sustainable Cities Better Buses Campaign across Melbourne's west.
Today trains in the west (and a bit in the north) were the focus of Labor's attention. Age item says that 550 extra services per week are promised. This would cost $420m over 4 years to increase V/Line services by 24%.
This would be split as follows:
* Wyndham Vale 249 (with more stoppers enabling Geelong expresses off-peak weekdays with Waurn Ponds boosted from 40 to 20 min)
* Melton 162 (not clear whether this boosts weekends from 40 to 20 min)
* Bendigo 101 (improving Kyneton interpeak service from 60 to 30 min)
* Seymour 29 (giving Wallan and Donnybrook a 40 min weekday inter-peak service)
ABC story on this is here.
More detail is in this Labor media release.
The west requests more train stations and better frequency but locations like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo want speed. This measure moves towards a two tier service pattern to reconcile these differing needs.
Chance of it happening
Cost blowouts, alleged corruption and heavy borrowing during the Big Build era has lead to rising debt payments that are competing with other priorities including maintenance of existing assets and any desire to add services (which are opex heavy).
The Coalition has pledged hybrid electric trains for Melton and the return of passenger trains to Mildura and Dimboola.
Victorious parties sometimes look at their defeated opponents' transport promises. And may sometimes implement or at least draw inspiration from them. Hopefully this is also the case for bus and train services in Melbourne's west regardless of who wins.
Hidden in the detail of the media release is extending weekday interpeak South Geelong services to Waurn Ponds, doubling service to 20 mins, to match weekends.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for them, they left out any mention of last year's Traralgon Line upgrade from 60 mins to 40 mins as a recent achievement, which therefore makes Gippsland look completely forgotten, bar one extra Sunday train.
As something that is largely promised to be delivered next year, it does seem like a good package, especially as it seperates out Geelong & Ballarat passengers from the outer suburban stations during the day.
They have not made any announcement on future electrification plans here - ultimately you want to use rolling stock to Wyndham Vale & Melton that is designed to carry more passengers and has more/wider doors for faster boarding/alighting at stations like Tarneit or Footscray.
However, splitting out the outer suburban stations from the Geelong and Ballarat services is the only way they could realistically deliver further infill stations such as Truganina, Black Forest Rd, Mt Atkinson and Thornhill Park without further crowding and longer journey times.
Look forward to seeing if any of these get announced in the coming weeks.
A lot of the promised extra services are in the interpeak, which means working the fleet harder rather than sending sets to stable after one inbound peak service
I'd be curious if they plan to run more 3 car services to Ballarat and Geelong now those services aren't going to fill up at outer suburban stations, which helps free up sets for the additional Melton & Wyndham Vale services in the shoulder peaks.