UN 108: Better transport to Moorabbin's jobs

Moorabbin was proposed as a district centre in the 1954 Metropolitan Planning Scheme. It got a transport kick-start with road/rail grade separations and later a third track but, unlike Box Hill, significant private and public institutional development either didn't happen or were too distant from the centre to contribute to its vitality. Moorabbin was too much of a traffic sewer for local shopping (where neighbouring Bentleigh and even Highett took custom) and was overlooked when the area's major drive-in centre opened at Southland in 1968. 

The early 1990s were a time of decline for Victoria generally and Moorabbin especially. Deindustrialisation hit local jobs. St Kilda ceased playing home games at Moorabbin oval in 1992. Instead of it being a convenient stroll from Moorabbin station, 'home' games moved to the inaccessible Waverley Park. 

Local government amalgamation was another blow, with the disbanded City of Moorabbin split between Kingston, Glen Eira and Bayside councils. There's a town hall used for shows but it lacks even a public library. The aquatic centre is down the other end of the suburb, in the industrial area. Southland continued to expand, leaping over the Nepean Hwy. Big box retail opened up and down Nepean Hwy between Brighton and Mentone, Moorabbin became little more than the traffic-choked intersection at South Road, to be avoided if possible. 

Moorabbin's successful niche

There was one exception to this story of failure. Light industry. Moorabbin, along with Clayton and areas around Dandenong were centres of light and heavy manufacturing in Melbourne's south-east. Moorabbin more smaller scale and Clayton / Dandenong more heavy, including electronics and automotive. The latter slumped when protection wound back from the mid 1970s. Typical industries found at Moorabbin include metals, automotive, building supplies, printing, cabinetry, furnishing, food and more. Also important in the areas's east is 'big box' retail (including op-shops) on Warrigal Rd and the Kingston Centre slightly south of there. 

The industrial trades area can be identified by the island of shiny metal roofs in a sea of post WWII tiled houses. It is just over a square mile with none but its western extremity within walking distance of a Frankston line station (most often Highett but seldom Southland and never Moorabbin). 

The 'last mile' problem

If there was anywhere that needed 'last mile' access to jobs from a nearby rail line, it would be here. How well is it being achieved? At first glance it looks pretty good with eight bus routes running through or near the area. That's much more than other light industrial areas like Bayswater or Laverton. 

But are they useful? Or do they just go through the industrial area because it happens to be on the way to somewhere else? Are local buses job ready? The map below gives a snapshot of issues affecting Moorabbin area routes.  

Frequency and connectivity

The main issues that make transit access to the Moorabbin industrial area so (unnecessarily) hard can be put under two headings: frequency and connectivity. 

Frequency first.

The only really frequent route is the 903 SmartBus down Warrigal Rd. This is every 15 min weekday interpeak and better than 10 min during the peaks. This is followed by the 824 every 20 minutes on weekdays. All other routes have basic frequencies of half-hourly or hourly. Some, like 811/812 (each hourly) have deviations, with only a handful of trips per day serving the heart of the industrial area. 

Secondly there's connectivity. From here you need access to surrounding residential areas where workers are likely to live and, for those coming from further afield, direct connections to the Frankston and preferably Dandenong lines. 

Of the latter the Frankston line is closest, being slightly beyond walking distance of the Moorabbin industrial area. However Moorabbin industrial area routes hardly ever run to its adjacent stations like Moorabbin, HIghett and Southland. The only useful route that really does is the 824. The 811/812 does but its occasional trips are rarely useful. 

Then there is the 903 running south to Mentone station. There's some backtracking involved if coming from the north. Besides the bungled design and rebuilding of the new Mentone station destroyed any convenient interchange with buses as explained here. It's more common for the main bus routes (eg Routes 631, 767, 821) to stop short at Southland Shopping Centre bus interchange. This is a long way from Southland Station with the indirect walk many times longer than the 1 minute a good interchange takes. 

Recent initiatives

There has been no significant bus network reform in the area for at least 20 years. Rail projects (like new stations) that ordinarily trigger bus reform in other parts of Melbourne have not done so here. Opportunities not yet taken up include the new station at Southland and the rebuilding of Cheltenham's as part of the grade separation. And, as mentioned before, Mentone's new station has made bus connectivity worse, not better.   

The Kingston area local bus review from over 10 years ago proposed some reforms. It wasn't much acted on. Neither have there been significant recent proposals for bus services. The closest we got was 2018's Mordialloc review but its proposals for regular route buses were poor and were (thankfully) dropped.

It's not that there hasn't been action on transport; there has been. Except it's been all about encouraging driving via the under-construction Mordialloc Freeway and the long way off Suburban Rail Loop (which won't have a stop in the area). Frequent and direct buses,  so important in providing 'last mile' access to jobs and homes, have been the missing piece. 

Prospects and opportunities

Older 1950s-era industrial areas like Moorabbin are better laid out than newer industrial areas as regards public transport. For example permeability is better, they more likely have grid streets and they are closer to existing residential suburbs and the rail network. This creates opportunities for bus reform to improve local public transport access. 

Especially important is that their relative contiguity and compactness can enable routes to run with multiple purposes including residential area coverage. This is good for patronage and a simple seven day network with wide operating hours. With any luck it will be possible for such routes to provide full coverage without the need for part-time and often indirect industrial routes (like the 417 in Laverton North).  

Below are four network concepts. Each has their pros and cons as regard to frequency and connectivity for a given level of resourcing. 

1. This shuttle concept is similar to the niche service that has worked well for universities a few kilometres from the station. The concept is you layer a short direct route over the existing network and run it frequently. You can do that with few buses as the route kilometres is short. The aim is to do one thing and do it well. The concept below shows such a route from Moorabbin station. It rather than the closer Highett was chosen as it avoids buses having to cross a level crossing. The unidirectional running saves route kilometres so permits a higher frequency with a given number of buses. 

2. Here we take the shuttle route and split it so it runs between two interchanges (in this case Moorabbin and Southland). This makes more trips zero or one interchange only. The trade-off is that the route is longer. This means a lower frequency for a given number of buses. The two interchanges are however on the same radial corridor. 

3. Below is an even longer route running between two railway lines. Termini could be Moorabbin and possibly Clayton stations. Some homes would get a no-change connection to the industrial area. It is even longer than the above route so similar comments with regard to a reduced frequency apply. That is unless there is already an existing route that could be modified to run via more of the industrial area in which case reform could be more economical than adding a new route. 

4. Last is a grid network concept. The existing network has a lot of the ingredients of this but not enough as routes mostly do not directly run to Frankston line stations. Also a true grid network relies on interchange between intersecting routes. Current frequencies on all routes except the 903 are not sufficient to reliably enable this. However these could be increased if network reform reduces overlap and reforms rather than add routes. 

Towards a revised network

A reformed network may be a mix of the above four options. Some changes are relatively logical with few 'losers' while others involve complex trade-offs or interactions with other routes. 

Because some of the routes that pass through the Moorabbin jobs area end up 15 more kilometres distant it's desirable that what's done in Moorabbin do not detract from their role further along it. For example it would be poor for a route that is direct and justifies a more frequent service on one part of it be made less direct in another area where a lower service is more justified. 

You can reduce the number of network options, and thus the complexity of a reform, by doing the following: 

a. Making note of routes that can stay the same as now as they are already useful, frequent and direct. 

b. Making certain changes that have so much merit that you'd do them no matter the network options for remaining routes. 

The routes you'd keep in their current form are the 824 on South Rd and the 903 along Warrigal Rd. Arguably there may be merit in extending the former to the Brighton area via the 811/812 alignment but this wider change doesn't affect its alignment in the industrial area. You might also add earlier am trips to better suit industrial start times but this is only a timetable change, not a route change. 903 is a also a strong corridor that you'd leave alone. 

The above takes care of South and Warrigal roads, to the north and east of the jobs area. Chesterville Rd is to the west of most (though some industrial land uses are west of Chesterville). This is currently served by the 767. This is one of those routes without a train station connection to the Frankston line. It is also only half-hourly off-peak. It could be described as a neighbourhood type route south of Chadstone, with the portion north of Chadstone being a more important route (being more direct and service large destinations like Deakin University and Box Hill). 

822 also has its indirectness in the Bentleigh East area though direct roads and other routes exist for network reform to straighten it. As it happens the roads a straightened 822 would run along (Murrumbeena and East Boundary) are exactly half way between the Frankston train line and the Warrigal Rd 903 SmartBus. This makes the 822 a logical candidate for a future upgrade to 10 - 20 minute frequency (as opposed to the current 30 - 60 minute service). Swapping it with the 767 (map below) would extend the benefits of this better service to the Chesterville Rd end of the Moorabbin light industrial area. As well it adds a train station connection at Cheltenham, something that the current 767 does not do due to its Southland bus interchange terminus. (NOTE: Map doesn't show unchanged 824 or 903). 

With these parts of the network settled, the loose ends can now be tackled. The most significant of these include: 

a. Continued lack of east-west connections from Frankston line stations to the industrial area. 

b. Desirability of a more regular service for Keys Rd (also east-west) 

c. Connections to residential areas like Clarinda and Clayton (which have a blue collar oriented workforce with significant commuter flows to the area)

The Suburban Rail Loop, starting at Southland, will pass quite near the area. A station is not planned in the area. However a Suburban Rail Loop SmartBus between Southland and Clayton may have local stops. Because of the long spacing between SRL stations this route would remain even after SRL commences operation. A potential SRL SmartBus alignment, based on an extended Route 733 from Clayton, would see upgraded service in Bernard St, about 300 metres south of Keys Rd (map below). 

The extended 733 would provide an extra Clarinda/Clayton connection. This would assist access to southern parts of the industrial area distant from the 824 on South Rd. However industrial area patronage wouldn't be the whole (or even a majority) of its usage due to the improved connections between the strong destinations of Monash University, Clayton Station and Southland Shopping Centre. A continuation to Southland station would be highly desirable to provide an east-west Frankston line connection. While the route is on this alignment it would be desirable that it run directly to Sandringham, improving service to another industrial area along Bay Rd. This would provide a new Monash University connection and be more frequent and useful than the existing indirect 822 (or 767 shown on an earlier map). 

The network with the extended 733 fixes some issues but not all. For example Keys Rd doesn't have a service along it (although the 733 is nearby). Also there is still a gap in east-west connections. Highett is the nearest station to most of the industrial area. However it has a level crossing. Although buses on Route 708 cross that on Highett Rd, it might not be thought desirable to add another route. Also if buses were run from Moorabbin, scope exists to replace the existing confusing routes 811 and 812 with alternatives, including on the residential Chapel Rd. 

Network option A

This option take the above and reroutes 821. Instead of running to Southland it instead operates to Moorabbin Station. Doing so connects this to Keys Rd and services Chapel Rd. The 811/812 can be shortened to operate between Southland and Dandenong only with the Brighton - Moorabbin portion serviced by a westward extension of the 824. The latter would improve off-peak weekday frequency from 30 to 20 minutes. The loss of 821 to Southland would be offset by the new 733 between Clayton and Southland. In conjunction with the unchanged 631 this would maintain two routes between Clayton and Southland. 

The revised 821 would likely gain hourly weekend service to retain 7 day service on Chapel Rd similar to what the 811/812 now provides. Scope exists to swap the 821 with the 705 to provide direct access to the Moorabbin industrial area from Springvale and for 705 to enable better Mordialloc - Clayton / Monash access. 

Network option B

Another option could likewise replace 811/812 with another route in the area. This might be known as the 826, running between Moorabbin and Southland via the industrial area and Friendship Square in Cheltenham. This could enable the southern part of the 631 to be deleted, with the service replaced in the Clarinda area by the extended 733 and potentially a re-aligned 824. Again the latter would need to be extended to Brighton to replace the deleted part of the 811/812. 821, which runs through a large 'dead' catchment might still need to be upgraded given the loss of the 631 on Kingston Rd. 

Conclusion

Two bus network options for the Moorabbin industrial area are offered. Either will involve extra buses and extra costs versus the existing network. However it should greatly improve connectivity to local jobs and deliver other benefits well beyond its area, including support for the Suburban Rail Loop. 

Which option do you prefer? Or maybe there's another that offers further advantages? Comments are invited and can be left below. 

More Building Melbourne's Useful Network items are here

Timetable Tuesday #136: New bus route 390 starts later this month

Quite a lot has happened lately with bus services. We've seen the new Night Network commence with extended hours on selected routes (though not 24 hours yet due to curfew restrictions), a much needed reshuffle of service resources within the Transdev group from quieter to busier routes, the new Route 202 shuttle and, yesterday, the end of Telebus, with FlexiRide taking over in the Lilydale area. 

On the weekend we learned that Skybus operator Kinetic will take over Transdev routes involving one-third of Melbourne's buses. Transdev's loss was not unexpected; they did some good things with run times and network reform but couldn't run a consistently clean, safe and reliable service. Key factors were thin margins, tight inherited timetables, lax contract supervision by PTV and internal management issues. Transdev's bad luck continued yesterday, today and possibly longer with mass cancellations due to COVID-related driver unavailability. 

The next cab off the rank (or bus out the depot) is the new Route 390. It will run from Craigieburn Station to Mernda, thus joining the outer stations of each line. It will start at the end of this month. Advice is on the PTV website here. 

Background

Labor promised a Mernda - Wollert - Craigieburn bus in the 2018 election campaign. It got funding in the 2019/20 state budget. Public consultation was promised for late 2020. The pandemic greatly scaled back government face-to-face engagement with the public on many matters (not just transport) so I don't think this actually happened. 

Mill Park member Lily D'Ambrosio MP posted about its arrival later this year back in January, around the time that tenders were called. The route also serves Yan Yean (Danielle Green MP), Thomastown (Bronwyn Halfpenny MP) and a little Yuroke (Ros Spence MP). Dysons, who already operate all the buses around Mernda, was the successful tenderer. 

Route description

The route is almost a straight east-west route. The road layout necessitates a bend at Wollert. There is also a bend off Bridge Inn Rd at the Mernda end for improved residential area coverage. A map is below:

The special thing about the 390 is that it links the outermost stations on the Metro train network on parallel adjacent lines. This is rare as such routes would be pointless between most other rail termini due to unfavourable geometry, caused by lines being being different lengths, and development patterns with low catchment populations between lines. The only other cases where joining rail termini makes sense is Frankston - Cranbourne (provided by the popular Route 791) and possibly Belgrave - Lilydale (served by the less popular 663). Otherwise it is better to run direct bus routes along the road grid from the end of one line to the middle of another, such as Upfield to Broadmeadows, Sandringham to Southland or Cranbourne to Narre Warren/Berwick. 

How does the 390 relate to other routes and destinations? A large number of routes meet it at both Craigieburn and Mernda stations. Most are every 40 minutes off-peak so it's pot luck whether connections are good.

The 390 terminates at Craigieburn Station in the west. This means that it misses Craigieburn Town Centre and Route 541, the area's main north-south bus route (with a 20 minute weekday frequency, which in outer northern suburbs is rare). There is a small group of shops near Craigieburn Station but overall the main reason you'd alight there is the station to change to a train or another bus. Another  handicap is that the route passes but has no stops near the industrial area east of the station.   

Three Wollert area routes operate north from Epping Station (356, 357 and 358). Unfortunately they finish slightly short of Craigieburn Rd. Hence there will be no easy access from Epping North and parts of Wollert to Craigieburn as the routes do not intersect with the 390 and are not being extended to do so. 

This gap creates 'missing links', particularly as the Mernda line veers east from Epping and catching a bus to Epping to board a Mernda train and then the 390 results in more than doubled the distance travelled than should be necessary.

Service levels

Route 390 operates over hours broadly similar to the 'minimum standards' proposed in 2006 and partly implemented since. That is 6am - 9pm weekdays, 8am - 9pm Saturdays and 9am - 9pm Sundays. It was later realised that the weekend starts were too late for many peoples' routines so these were made an hour earlier on some new routes. This was notably the case for Mernda area bus routes like 386 with longer operating hours than most (even before its recent Night Network upgrade). 

There was never published information on the finer points of these standards. For instance whether the first bus should arrive at the station before 6am or whether it should just be on the road around then. 

However way you look at it it seems the 390 has span issues. For example the first trip arrives at Mernda after 7am. Given the length of the train trip from Mernda, this means even the first bus won't get you into the CBD before 8am, making it unsuitable for early starters. The first trip on Saturday arrives Mernda just after 8am and on Sunday just before 9am. Mernda also gets a raw deal at the other end of the day, particularly on weekdays where the last trip leaves Mernda at 8:53pm. Ideally there would be one or two earlier eastbound trips, even if they run just the eastern third of the route. 

The Craigieburn end is better looked after with first arrivals about 40 minutes earlier than Mernda. Last departures are also later with the last trip around 9:30pm on all nights of the week. This may be because the bus operator is based nearer to Mernda than Craigieburn and there would be a desire to minimise dead running. Also Mernda has other routes with earlier starts and those in the Wollert area might be more likely to go to Craigieburn rather than Mernda due to the former line's better directness for trips to the CBD. 

We haven't mentioned frequency. Like operating hours the service offering is what we've come to expect from an outer Melbourne route. That is every 40 minutes off-peak. This meshes with trains typically every 20 minutes (or, on Sunday mornings, 40 minutes). Peak frequency is 30 minutes.

Route 390's run time is just over 40 minutes in the peak and just under 40 minutes off-peak. Given the abovementioned frequencies this provides a fairly efficient operation with two buses off-peak and three buses peak. It is possible that an extension to Craigieburn Town Centre, while desirable to give it a stronger terminus, would make the route inefficient at its specified frequencies due to the increased run time. Or maybe not - keep reading.  

Likely usage patterns

We're going to have to guess as service hasn't started yet. I see two dominant use patterns for the 390, as follows:

(i) Western Mernda (Mernda Rise estate) to Mernda Station (as the 390 is the only bus in the area)

(ii) Wollert to Craigieburn (as the 390 is the only bus to the Craigieburn line and provides unique coverage to areas north of Craigieburn Rd, eg Amber and Arramont estates)

It will serve both rail feeder and shopper functions. Mernda should be stronger than Craigieburn in the latter as the 390 doesn't extend to the Craigieburn Town Centre. The 390 is likely to offer a faster connection to the rail network as it is more direct than existing Route 357 (especially) to Epping from parts of Wollert.

Far fewer passengers will travel eastbound from Wollert to Mernda. The main reason for this is that many of the Mernda line's major attractions (eg hospitals, shopping and TAFE) are at Epping. For those close to them routes 356, 357 and 358 will offer better access. The geometry of routes and railways is such that even if your destination was South Morang you would go this way.

Just like with the (longer) SmartBus orbitals, I don't think that many will travel end to end from Craigieburn to Mernda on the 390. This is due to (a) network geometry and (b) neither Craigieburn nor Mernda being really strong destinations in their own right. For travel across the north the 901 SmartBus will continue to be dominant, with the bonus of direct access to major destinations around Broadmeadows, Epping and South Morang. The lack of end to end travel is not critical to the success of the 390 due to the local coverage function it provides, including it being the nearest bus to many homes. 

Potential enhancements

390's importance will increase as the area develops. Nevertheless opportunities exist for it to be more useful to more people sooner. Examples may include: 

* Stop at Craigieburn industrial area east of station. This is distant enough to justify its own stop but the PTV website map is not showing one. 

* Northern extension of routes 356, 357 and/or 358 so they physically intersect the 390. This could assist some local trips from Mernda Rise Estate, such as to Northern Hospital and Epping Plaza. Without these connections travel for these quite local trips would involve getting the 390 east to Mernda, a train to Epping then another bus via an indirect route. 

* Extension to the Craigieburn Town Centre to provide a stronger terminus and connections with key routes like the 541. Many routes already join the station with the town centre so just extending the 390 would be an unnecessary and inefficient overlap. 

The shortest, and most 'east west' of these existing routes is the 537. It has a run time of under 20 minutes, making a 40 minute frequency possible with one bus. In theory merging it with the 390 should thus be efficient, at least-off-peak. In practice though such arrangements are made harder by the routes being run by different operators, in this case 390 by Dysons and 537 by Broadmeadows Bus. 

Successful precedents exists for multiple operators to run the one route. Examples include the 900 SmartBus to Rowville and the Route 400 between Laverton and Sunshine. Such arrangements may need to be countenanced more in the future if we are to develop the best possible local bus networks. 

Conclusion

This has been a look at the new 390. It provides a direct connection between two roughly parallel railway lines. Even more significant is its role as the nearest bus for growing parts of Wollert and Mernda to provide a feeder and local transit function. Its usage can only grow in the future but  some enhancements to improve its usefulness earlier have been described. Your comments on these would be welcome and can  be left below.

 Index to Timetable Tuesday items

NEWS: Goodbye Transdev, Welcome Kinetic

The winner of Melbourne's Metropolitan Bus Franchise was announced today. 

Kinetic, who operates Skybus, was the successful bidder. 

They will replace Transdev on 31 January 2022. 

More in this Twitter thread. 

https://twitter.com/MelbOnTransit/status/1444132060088524807

Background here: https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2020/09/exclusive-more-on-new-metropolitan-bus.html