New tram route 58 and Route 6 extension from today

New Route 58 replaces previous Route 55 and 8 to create a new West Coburg - William Street - Toorak route. Services are every 10 min during the day and 20 min at night. That new style service pattern features a maximum wait of 20 min, unlike many other tram routes that still have 30 min intervals on Sunday mornings and evenings. 

Prior to that the old Route 8 was Moreland to Toorak while the 55 was West Coburg - Domain. Route 6 from Glen Iris to Melbourne University was extended to Moreland to replace the removed Route 8. More: 

https://yarratrams.com.au/news/our-new-route-58-extended-route-6-and-updated-timetables-from-1-may-2017

Note: Item retrospectively added for posterity.

Major reformed bus networks in Latrobe Valley start today

Major bus service upgrades and route reforms across the valley start 9 April 2017 with details below: 

Moe

https://web.archive.org/web/20170413132755/https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/getting-around/network-changes/latrobe-valley/moe/

Morwell and Churchill

https://web.archive.org/web/20170413132824/https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/getting-around/network-changes/latrobe-valley/morwell-and-churchill/

Traralgon

https://web.archive.org/web/20170413132846/https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/getting-around/network-changes/latrobe-valley/traralgon/


Note: Item added retrospectively for posterity.

PTV launches "World of Melbourne by bus" campaign

Around 2017 PTV was worried about stagnant or falling bus patronage. As was operator Transdev whose franchise was meant to have an incentive payment for patronage (which depended on accurate data, but that's another story!). There was talk that people weren't going out shopping or on excursions as much as they were, hence depressing bus usage. 

It was not then proper to observe that due to lack of maintenance and cleaning Transdev buses then resembled mobile bird cages and reliability was suffering. So some egg-head decided that a campaign encouraging people to "explore the world of Melbourne by bus" would make things rosy. Hence a stack of money was handed over to creative agencies to make pretty websites, ads and postcards.

Some amazing art was created but its effect on boosting bus usage was questionable. 

More here: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170306195444/https://www.melbournebybus.com.au/

https://campaignbrief.com/public-transport-victoria-says/

https://www.dcxw-archive.org/2022/10/27/explore-the-world-of-melbourne-by-bus/

Note: Item added retrospectively for posterity.