Building Melbourne's Useful Network - Part 5: Altona North, Newport and Williamstown

Today we head west to look at Altona North, Newport and Williamstown’s Useful Network.  

Williamstown dates from the early years of white settlement.  Most was settled before mass motorisation and has well established train and bus services. Newport to the north is a major railway junction and again developed over a century ago.   

Mass motorisation after WWII made living further from the railway more viable. This was when Altona North grew fastest, with a post office opening in 1960.  Parts near the refinery (opened 1949) had a station (Paisley) and local shops. However the station closed in 1985 and the shops are shuttered.  As belated compensation for the station’s closure, the route 232 freeway express bus started operating from the Park & Ride west of Millers Rd from about 1990. It used to be popular but traffic congestion has made it slow, unreliable and poorly used.   

Forty or fifty years ago the new brick houses on spacious blocks in Altona North were considered more desirable than the small timber cottages near the railway.  It's different now.  Newport and (especially) Williamstown are now expensive suburbs populated by high income CBD workers.  Altona North, in contrast, has aged and degentrified, with many people not in the labour force.  Its manufacturing-based workforce would have been hit hard by the Toyota closure. You can see the big socio-economic divide west and east of Hansen St / Blenheim Rd on this Charting Transport SIEFA map. 

The above is important to know when planning bus routes and service levels. Low income / low labour force participation areas require frequent all day service over long hours while commuter-heavy areas need direct and frequent bus feeders to employment hubs and railway stations, especially if parking at these is scarce. 

The area presents massive opportunities for no to low cost bus network reform. It has roads where multiple routes overlap. Other roads have no continuous route down them. Patronage levels vary so there is scope to better align service with usage. The whole area is in the state seat of Williamstown held by Melissa Horne, the current minister for public transport who last year vowed to remove archaic bus routes.

When you talk to political candidates from all parties bus services often get cited as an issue. However when they get in the best you can usually hope for is a new route running over the existing deficient network. It remains to be seen whether this minister will, unlike her predecessor, champion and implement the type of wider, better and more cost-effective bus network reform Melbourne needs.  

Existing PTV network map for Hobsons Bay

Existing Useful Network

I explain the Useful Network concept here. It's those routes that are frequent enough and run over long enough hours to be useful for many trips. I've specified a 20 minute frequency on weekdays and 7 day service until 9pm. In other words the coloured lines on the Melbourne Public Transport Frequent Network map with the 20 minute frequency selected.

Altona North and Williamstown has several Useful Network routes (map below).  They mainly run north – south.  Two (232 and 903) overlap along Millers Rd.  With Route 411  these provide a high (but uneven) frequency of 7.7 trips per hour. Three (one railway and two bus routes) occupy a narrow strip in the east. Only the 471 serves the heart of Williamstown's shopping strip.  The large central area of Altona North has only one Useful Network route. Neither Mason St nor Blackshaws Rd currently have continuous routes along them.  

The service 'hole' between Millers Rd and the Williamstown rail line is clear in the 2014 SNAMUTS map below. This shows the area as being 'urbanised without minimum service'. If you wanted to plug this gap then Blackshaws Rd and Mason St are the places to start. 

Altona North has more opportunities for low-cost bus reform than most other areas. This is because (i) parts of the existing Useful Network are quite poorly used and (ii) there are large overlaps between routes involving the 232, 411 and 903. Reform of these routes present opportunities to economically extend Useful Network service to more places, increase peak frequencies and/or boost neighbourhood routes. 

Expanded Useful Network


The map below shows an expanded Useful Network. Most noticeable are the dedicated routes on Blackshaws Rd and Mason St. These provide direct access to frequent trains at Newport, or as an alternative, frequent buses to Footscray. This is done by straightening Route 471 (for Blackshaws Rd) and rerouting 232 (for Mason St). These are significant gains for commuters in the western part of Newport slightly beyond walking distance from their local station.    

A minor Useful Network extension along Ferguson St is terminating Route 472 near Williamstown centre. This improves access to the town centre for those in Yarraville, Spotswood and Newport. 

Millers Rd retains Useful Network coverage with an upgraded SmartBus Route 411 replacing the 903 SmartBus, whose timetable rarely connects with trains.  903's termination at Sunshine frees up resources to give 411 SmartBus type operating hours, better peak service and higher weekend frequency (at least between Footscray and Altona).  Buses could be timed to meet trains at West Footscray station, improving connectivity for Brooklyn, Yarraville and Kingsville. It would slot in particularly well with a rebuilt Paisley Station with resultant network benefits, such as better access between Werribee/Williams Landing and Altona North.

The upgraded Route 411 would be the first SmartBus to operate exclusively in Melbourne's west. Its implementation would be a first step in resolving the west-east divide in public transport service provision (Melbourne's east alone has no less than six SmartBus routes entirely within it, not counting the three orbitals). All of it runs via roads designated as being part of the Principal Public Transport Network in Plan Melbourne. Thus buses should be accorded priority for faster movement. 

So that upgrades pay for themselves (in terms of service kilometres) quieter or duplicative parts of some routes need to be deleted or replaced with a service that is cheaper to run. This includes Route 903 through the Brooklyn industrial area and some stops on Civic Pde, Altona. As you'll see later, all stops will retain a 7 day service. And through travel from Altona to Sunshine will remain via another route.  

Removing Route 232 from Melbourne CBD is the other major change. This suffers poor reliability and patronage. Shortening this route allows more buses locally rather than be stuck in the CBD. Existing Route 232 passengers will gain better 7-day access to stations from straightened local routes and proposed 411 SmartBus.


Expanded Useful Network and local routes

The reformed Useful Network affects some local routes. For example deleting Route 903 requires another route to serve its missed stops. I've chosen a modified Route 412 for this job. Instead of going to Footscray, the route would run to Sunshine, serving all Route 903 stops. Staggering its times with Route 428 may allow a more even and consistent Hampshire Rd service than currently exists for Sunshine South.

The Blackshaws Rd route allows Route 432 to be shortened. Also the improved main road services may warrant adjusting Route 432's relatively high (but uneven) weekday frequency to something more regular like every 30 minutes. 

Compensating for the 232 and 903 changes are new travel opportunities. For example the rerouted 232 provides access to Port Melbourne jobs from Newport station. This may benefit some train passengers from Werribee and Williamstown and bus passengers from Altona Gate. An extension of Route 412 along Civic Pde to Westona Station would improve access to Altona Gate. While no route change suggestion is made for Route 415, scope exists for it to gain 7 day service and longer operating hours. 

The map below shows the network implications of these changes.  

More detail, including route by route details, are on this interactive clickable map (click top left for menu and top right to open in new window). 

Funding and trade-offs

The existing network has 154 km of Useful Network bus routes. This figure includes the full length of routes that operate well outside the area, including the 232, 411/412, 472 and 903. Not all Useful Network routes are equivalent, for instance 903 has higher frequency and longer operating hours than the 232, so is dearer to run.

The expanded network actually has only 133 km of Useful Network routes. Yet it serves more people. How? It adds service to Blackshaws and Mason while removing overlap from Millers Rd. Other economies come from not running via the freeway, into the CBD or through the industrial area of Brooklyn. In other words moving service to nearer where people live and removing duplication. Such changes provide a simpler network with a generally more frequent service. The main reallocations between routes are summarised below. 

Service priorities for expanded Altona North Useful Network 

1. Blackshaws Rd direct route by straightening Route 471 to run straight east then south to Newport. 

2. Mason St direct route by rerouting Reroute 232 to form direct Altona Gate - Newport route. Extend weekday peak trips (and every second interpeak trip) to Port Melbourne. 

3. New terminus for Route 472 at Nelson Pl to better serve Williamstown shops and remove duplication on Victoria St.

4. Upgraded Route 411 (SmartBus) service between Footscray and Altona along Millers Rd. Every 10 - 15 min peak, 20 min day (Monday-Sunday) and 30 min night with service until midnight. Existing service maintained between Altona and Laverton with all trips operating as Route 411.  

5. Associated local route changes including (i) Operate Route 412 between Sunshine and Altona/Westona (to replace 903) with 30 min peak and 40 min interpeak frequency, (ii) Minor straightening of Route 432 and operate to every 30 min weekdays/40 min weekends for better train connections, and (iii) 7 day service on Route 415.

What do you think? Is this an improvement on what's there now? Do you have other ideas? If so please leave them in the comments below. 

PS: An index to all Useful Networks is here.

Timetable Tuesday #24: Route 460 - the Caroline Springs main road bus route with the 75 minute wait

When I posted last month about the Caroline Springs Useful Network I nominated Route 460 as the first and most important addition. After all, its service already operates at the required three trips per hour. It only fails to qualify due to its uneven timetables. Had the intervals between trips been even it would have made it on to the 20 minute frequency layer of the Melbourne public transport  frequent service map and thus form part of the existing Useful Network.  

Today we'll look at Route 460 in more detail. First I'll give some background. Then I'll discuss the timetable and coordination with trains at the new Caroline Springs station.

Historical background

Route 460 is the main north-south route through Caroline Springs, about 25km west of Melbourne. It runs from Watergardens Station to Caroline Springs Station. Although the latter only started when the station opened in January 2017. 

Caroline Springs itself started growing rapidly in the 1990s. At the time it constituted leapfrog development. St Albans and a small pocket in Deer Park were developed decades before around train stations. That was followed by road oriented subdivisions, like Albanvale, Delahey and the various Keilors and Taylors (apart from the original Keilor which dates from the gold rush).

There were (and are) few direct road connections between these suburbs and areas immediately to the west (ie what we now call Caroline Springs) as it was thought it would never be developed.  The requirement for people to go onto the busy Western Highway for short local local trips continues to affect access to schooling and services in the area today. The divide is also sharply seen in average incomes and other measures of social disadvantage, with the eastern (St Albans) side being worse off.

Burnside, remote from all the others but convenient to the Western Highway, started growing from  the 1990s. Several routes were extended to the area including 215, 456 and then 216. Being an original Met Bus route, the 216's extension gave Burnside a 7 day  service until midnight, something that was (and remains) rare in Melbourne. Route 216 was often described as operating to Caroline Springs but never connected to the fast-growing town centre. That was served by the shopper-based Route 215 to Highpoint and, for a while, the occasional 218 to Albion Station. 

Many areas lacked a regular service to their nearest station. And even if they did there would have only been infrequent country trains at Deer Park and Sydenham.  Road access was considerably better and it is this that drove Caroline Springs development. Caroline Springs was closer to the city than similar new estates to the south-east and there ended up being more (and, some would argue, 'better') schools than closer in areas like Sunshine and St Albans.

Rail electrification

Rail electrification in 2002 delivered more frequent trains to Watergardens (the renamed and shifted Sydenham) and a new station at Keilor Plains on Taylors Rd.  It took a while for buses to catch up.   Upgrades included an extension of Route 418 along Taylors Rd to Caroline Springs Town Centre (2006) and the new routes 460 and 461 in 2007. Both connected areas north or east of the town centre to Watergardens Station.  

Bus services in the area were uneven with newer routes operating less frequently than old routes. For example the historic Route 476 operated every 20 minutes during peak periods along Melton Hwy. In contrast Route 460 ran a flat hourly service (even in peaks). Parts of both routes had indirect and direct portions for many years.  This changed with the 2014 Brimbank revamp. Route 460 was made the direct route (along the Melton Hwy) while Route 476 was run through residential streets of Hillside. 

Since then Route 460 has had a series of service upgrades and extensions. 

In 2014 extra peak services were added to provide a 30 minute frequency. Then, in 2017, when Caroline Spring Station opened the route was kept on the main road through Caroline Springs and extended south to the station. This provided a direct connection to the Caroline Springs Town Centre that had previously not been available. The map of the extended Route 460 is below. The dotted line is a school deviation to connect Hillside with schools in Caroline Springs. It reflects how all trips of Route 460 ran before the 2014 network reform.  In addition frequencies were increased to approximately every 20 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends.  You'll read later how approximate that is today.

The map below shows the network around Caroline Springs. 460's directness and centrality to development in the area can plainly be seen.

Timetables

Below are weekday timetables for Route 460. Operating hours are slightly better than minimum standards, especially in the evenings. As has become common on some main routes in Melbourne's west, there is an additional late trip on Friday evenings. 

Some trips start or finish at Caroline Springs Library. This is the main stop in the Caroline Springs Town Centre. Also making the stop busy are nearby schools. It is at school times that trips deviate off Melton Hwy to connect residential areas of Hillside with schools in Caroline Springs. 

Also notable is the irregularity of service in both directions. 

Interpeak service averages three trips per hour. However their unevenness causes there to be intervals ranging between 12 and 28 minutes for trips from Watergardens (timetable below). Gaps in that direction increase to approximately 40 minutes either side of the morning peak south of the Caroline Springs Library as some trips terminate short. 

Larger gaps exist in the direction towards Watergardens. This includes one of nearly 50 minutes in the morning. That gap immediately follows a 14 minute period in which two buses appear. The afternoon has a gap of over 50 minutes for those south of the town centre. Because a critical trip does not run on school holidays, the gap is 75 minutes then. Again there are uneven intervals, with two trips later in the afternoon just 11 minutes apart. 

460's intervals mean that it is not a 'memory timetable'. People need to plan their trips carefully to avoid waits close to or even exceeding an hour. 

Weekend timetables are below. There are two trips per hour during the day. Operating hours are  wider than minimum standards. This is particularly so on Saturdays where the last trip leaves Watergardens after 11pm. This long span applies on public holidays where a Saturday timetable applies. 460's superior span on public holidays is different to some other routes where a Saturday timetable applies except for 10 and 11pm trips that do not operate. 

Connections with trains 

What about train connections? Except for Sunday mornings trains are rarely over 30 minutes apart at Watergardens. Outside peaks Watergardens train frequencies are a regular 20 minutes during the day and 30 minutes at night.  Whereas regional train timetables can be irregular with long gaps. This makes good bus scheduling both more important and more difficult. However extreme waits can be avoided if one or the other services is moderately frequent and there are no large gaps.  

Below are weekday V/Line Caroline Springs train timetables. I've added bus times. The timetable below shows bus to train connections for travel towards the city for the first half of the day.  They are presented this way because this is likely to be the main direction of passenger flow. Some connection times are a little uneven. There is also an instance in the afternoon where the bus arrives at the same time the train departs.  Click it for a clearer view.

This is the timetable for the opposite direction, ie train from city to bus. It only shows afternoon and evening service to reflect peak passenger flows. You can see the effect of the missing trips around 3pm. In both cases they result in arriving trains not having a bus. That's particularly important as Caroline Springs station is isolated with nothing within walking distance.

How much time should you allow for a train to bus connection? Part of it depends on how long it takes to walk from the station to the bus stop (something Melbourne, unlike Perth, isn't good at minimising when building stations).  Service frequency is another factor. If buses and/or trains are at 'turn up and go' frequencies then careful coordination is unnecessary. But it's vital when frequencies are low.

Thirdly there is reliability. Caroline Springs is served by V/Line trains on the Ballarat line. V/Line is faster but less reliable (and usually less frequent) than Metro services. You can compare recent performance statistics below.  

V/Line train performance

Metro train performance

To put things in perspective for train to bus commuters, an 80% punctuality means that you will probably miss your bus connection one day per week. That's especially likely if buses leave only 5 minutes after trains are scheduled to arrive. However on most other days when trains are punctual the 460 timetable above has you waiting up to 16 or 17 minutes in the early part of the commuter peak. That appears excessive and makes the bus choice unattractive. 

Route 460 has two trips that run on Friday evenings. Friday nights are busier than other weeknights so the extra services are potentially useful. However they both depart 9 or 10 minutes before trains arrive. This causes waits of up to 50 minutes at one of Melbourne's most isolated stations. Departing these trips 15 or 20 minutes later would have made them much more useful. 

Conclusion

Route 460 has all the things that make a bus route successful. It is direct. It serves two train stations that will only grow in importance. It serves two town centres, smaller shopping centres and schools. Its catchment is continuously settled with demographics that have high school and workforce participation. And there is little overlap from other routes.

At first glance its timetable is appropriate for the route's importance. For example three buses per hour is about twice the frequency that is typical for buses in a Melbourne outer suburb. However the more you inspect it the more 'holes' you see. These include irregular times, hour-long gaps and some poor scheduled connections.

Public Transport Victoria is meant to review and approve bus timetables for connectivity with trains.  It is appreciated that often scheduling trade-offs need to be made. However it is difficult not to conclude that a better effort could have been made with Route 460, particularly given its regional importance and the low frequency of trains it is supposed to connect with. 

What do you think about 460's timetable? Please comment below if you have a view.

See other Timetable Tuesday items here 

Building Melbourne's Useful Network - Part 4: Greater Dandenong

So far I've examined areas that could be given better bus services without much change to their local networks. For Greater Dandenong I'll be more ambitious. I need to be. Existing routes are too complex. It's hard to justify upgrades without making them simpler. 

As mapped on Charting Transport, Greater Dandenong residents are amongst Melbourne's most disadvantaged.  Many live away from stations. Buses enable access to employment, education and social opportunities. Their usage is high for the service offered. However often they run only every hour, even at peak times. Some weekend timetables have buses every two hours or not at all.

Local routes are largely unchanged from 30 years ago. The area's last serious bus network review (about 10 years ago) was not acted on.  When services were added (eg route 709's extension to Noble Park) they were run over or near unchanged existing routes. This causes confusing and wasteful overlaps like you see in the PTV map below. 

 
Existing Useful Network

I explain the Useful Network concept here. It's those routes that are frequent enough and run over long enough hours to be useful for many trips. I've specified a 20 minute frequency on weekdays and 7 day service until 9pm. In other words the coloured lines on the Melbourne Public Transport Frequent Network map with the 20 minute frequency selected.

Greater Dandenong Useful Network routes are shown below. There aren't many for the area's population. To give an idea of scale, Springvale Rd (902) and Stud Rd (901) are 6 km apart. Most areas in between are residential, served only by infrequent buses. It's a stark contrast to the PTV map, crowded with (mostly hourly) routes. 

Key gaps include Heatherton, Chandler, Police and Gladstone roads. Also significant are Jacksons, Westall and Corrigan roads. All except Corrigan Rd have a continuous or near continuous bus route down them. Some roads have multiple routes but none operate at Useful Network frequencies. Multiple overlapping routes allow service upgrades for little cost if they can be simplified.

Expanded Useful Network

The map below shows an expanded Useful Network. Parts of some existing routes go from every 60 to every 20 minutes.  Many wide gaps above are gone. Tens of thousands would get a Useful Network service nearer home with this expansion.

Sometimes this is done by rolling overlapping infrequent routes into one more frequent service. For example between Keysborough and Dandenong. Three overlapping routes every hour (812, 813 and 815) become a simpler single route (813) every 20 minutes.

Elsewhere more services are added on existing route alignments. Unavoidably this requires more buses, more drivers and more hours. However the existing patronage along with Greater Dandenong's demographics and social needs make such investment worthwhile. This is different to my previous Useful Networks in areas that had better service to start with so were cheaper to upgrade.

Expanded Useful Network and local routes

Just upgrading existing routes to run more frequently can increase duplication and waste money. Especially in Greater Dandenong where routes often overlap. However making them straighter could mean that some stops lose their bus.

That may be no big deal if there are other stops nearby and you were doing a full area network review informed by survey data and public engagement. But that's not today's exercise. So I'm being more modest, mostly only suggesting changes to neighbourhood routes necessary to retain service. 

Even that can provide cascading gains. Moving routes to lessen overlap can enable new stops. Benefits can come from replacing a 6 day route (eg 815) with a 7 day route (eg 812). Or an hourly route (814) with a half-hourly route (850). The 813 and 814 upgrade would boost capacity on Springvale Rd, relieving crowding on the busiest section of the 902 orbital. The 814 / 850 swap increases directness and adds a direct station connection for Noble Park North. Seven day service on all routes is another improvement.

View the expanded network below. Useful Network routes are thick lines. Neighbourhood routes that would change are thin coloured lines. Thin grey lines are not suggested for change. For routes 802/804/862 this is because they are part of another area's network that can be revised later.

Brief comments on changed neighbourhood routes are below. Or delve deeper with the interactive map to compare layers and read more detailed per-route notes. 

Service priorities for expanded Greater Dandenong Useful Network

1. Upgrade Heatherton Rd Route 811 service from every hour to every 20 minutes on weekdays between Springvale and Dandenong. Potentially operate this service as Route 810 and terminate 811 at Springvale.

2. Upgrade Route 813 from every hour to every 20 minutes on weekdays between Dandenong and Springvale Station. Resources partly from reducing duplication. Service forms 814 at Springvale Station.

3. Commence Route 814 at Springvale Station and operate to Dandenong via Police Rd, Waverley Gardens and Gladstone Rd. Upgrade from every 60 min to every 20 min on weekdays with 7 day service. Resources to come partly from deleting Route 813 on Police Rd and savings in Route 850 kilometres.

4. Implement supporting local network changes including (i) Route 850 to Noble Park instead of Dandenong Station to replace Route 814 on Jacksons Rd and provide new station connection, (ii) Route 811 to replace Route 814 on Regent Avenue, Springvale, (iii) Route 848 to replace Route 813 on Hansworth St, Mulgrave, (iv) Route 812 to operate more directly to Parkmore and replace Route 815 to Noble Park, (v) Route 824 to operate via Darren Rd and Corrigan Rd to improve coverage, and (vi) simplification in area north-west of Dandenong Station. More details in the interactive map.

5. Provide 7 day service and lengthen operating hours on routes 800 and 885. Also consider 7 day service on Routes 802 and 804, likely in conjunction with network simplification involving Route 862.

Lower priority but still desirable are service upgrades for Westall Rd and Jacksons Rd. These could be achieved by (i) extending all Route 824 trips to Keysborough to benefit Westall Rd and (ii) upgrading the revised Route 850 from every 30 to every 20 minutes for Noble Park North. The latter is best done in concert with network simplification in the Glen Waverley area.

Conclusion

More than the others, this network will cost money. New buses will be needed. And more drivers on more shifts. But there will be more passengers. You only need to see how full buses on Springvale Rd get (photo above) to see evidence of people flocking to a more frequent service in the area. Even on evenings and weekends when a 30 minute service operates. Due to historical patterns of underservice, there would be few places in Melbourne where you would get more patronage for the service added.

What if you wanted to do something and didn't have the money? While they wouldn't meet the Useful Network criteria, boosting the streamlined routes 810, 813 and 814 to every 30 minutes would still double service in many areas. Due to the resources freed up from removing duplication (typically involving hourly routes) the implemention cost would be much lower than the 20 minute Useful Network approach. 30 minute frequencies aren't as marketable as 20 minute services, but usage is still likely to significantly grow given existing patronage and social needs. 

This exercise was based on finding the best means to provide the most people with a Useful Network service without greatly inconveniencing existing passengers. It has concentrated on local destinations like Springvale, Waverley Gardens, Noble Park, Keysborough and Dandenong. Trip generators outside the area have not been considered. A wider review could consider improved connections to Clayton, Monash University and Dandenong South with further patronage growth potential. As well it could enable simpler routes and better service around Corrigan Rd, Kingsclere Av and Police Rd.

What do you think? Do you have other ideas? Are there things you see are wrong with the above? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Post script 31/5/2019

One of the few things for buses in the 2019 Victorian state budget was a new route in Keysborough. The funding for this increases the likelihood that it will be possible to upgrade Greater Dandenong buses with relatively little extra expenditure.  

PS: An index to all Useful Networks is here.