Building Melbourne's Useful Network Part 35: Northern Epping

One of Melbourne's major growth corridors is around Wollert, about 25 km north of the city, beyond Epping. It ranks with the large subdivisions between Cranbourne and Berwick as one of the emerging areas with the least public transport infrastructure or prospects of same. This is because it's off the main rail corridor, which from Epping has been successively extended east and then north to South Morang and Mernda. 

Aurora, developed by VicUrban in the early 2000s, is one of the area's earliest estates. A rail extension, branching off from Lalor, was included in its master plan. Plans mentioned transport corridors but were vague as to the mode and timing. For years the area had only a single bus route (the former Route 575), operating only every 40 minutes even during peak times. 2016 brought an upgrade, with three routes (356, 357 and 358) replacing the 575, providing new coverage. Off-peak service remained at every 40 minutes but peak service doubled to every 20 minutes. These three routes form the basis of today's public transport in the area, with no subsequent changes apart from a minor extension to Route 357 happening later this month.

Older areas, mostly developed between the 1970s and 1990s are to the south and south east towards Epping. These include areas off Findon Rd served by the 577 discussed on Tuesday. Also nearby is Route 556 along Derby Dr. 

The area east of Epping Rd is in the seat of Mill Park, held by Lily D'Ambrosio MP with the rest in Thomastown, held by Bronwyn Halfpenny. Both are safe Labor seats. 

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. This map shows the sparsity of Useful Network routes in most fringe areas, despite their sometimes high population densities. 

Below is the existing Useful Network for the northern Epping area. Just two routes qualify. These are the Mernda train line and the 901 SmartBus. No single Useful Network route runs north of McDonalds Rd. This leaves tens of thousands of people with only sparse transport access at most times. 

Some routes and corridors almost but don't quite make it on the Useful Network map. These include the hairpin-like 556. This runs every 22 minutes from Northland to Epping Station. It then goes east, half way to South Morang Station (which didn't exist when the route started) then returns in a hairpin like loop to Epping Plaza. Only a few 556 stops in this area are unique due to the substantially overlapping 901 orbital (also between Epping and South Morang).   

The 356 and 357 also have an overlap along High St/Epping Rd. These provide a combined 20 minutes on weekdays. However weekday peak and many evening and weekend timetables are less well spaced with gaps approaching an hour followed by two buses within a couple of minutes.  

Existing regular network

The map below shows all bus routes in the area. They typically run every 40 minutes off-peak with the 577 (uneven 20 to 40 minute frequency) and 556 (every 22 minutes) offering a higher service. All operate to minimum standards, ie a 7 day service every hour or better until approximately 9pm. Key issues with each route are noted on the map.

The Epping Rd/High St corridor

Before proposing an expanded Useful Network, I'll discuss the Epping Rd corridor in more detail. After all it is here that one might run a future frequent bus route. And in the interim upgrade services along as much of it as possible. 

Routes 356 and 357 overlap between Epping and the Epping North Shopping Centre on Lyndarum Dr. Then they branch off, 357 to the west and 356 to the east and then north. They depart from the same bay at Epping Station and are evenly spaced during weekdays off-peak but not necessarily at other times (discussed previously). 

There are dense apartment buildings on both sides of Epping Rd. Their low unit prices would make them 'affordable housing', for both buyers and tenants. Such a housing mix may include populations with a high propensity to use public transport. 

Both 356 and 357 go near the shops and pass apartment estates like Waratah Gardens. However there are no stops where people can catch both routes to exploit the 20 minute combined clockface service to Epping. Instead they must take a gamble on which bus is coming next and pick their stop carefully. 

The result is that although six buses per hour pass Waratah Gardens during peaks (and three off-peak) the usable service is halved by the pack of a stop serving both routes. The same applies for the Epping North Shopping Centre. 

Stop spacing is another issue on Epping Rd. 356 and 357 buses zoom past but do not stop for a 700 metre gap. This spacing is double the 300 to 400 metre spacing normally accepted as reasonable for local bus stops. Hence at least an extra pair of stops is required to provide adequate coverage.   

Epping Rd becomes High St further south. That also has problems with bus coverage. As discussed on Tuesday the 577 to South Morang has an 800 metre gap between stops. This makes travel to South Morang Station and the Plenty Valley Shopping Centre harder than it needs to be from parts of Epping.  

All three of the Wollert routes (356, 357 and 358) have between 21 and 25 passenger boardings per bus hour. This is fairly average for buses in Melbourne. Of these the 357 is the most productive, due likely to its amount of unique coverage and coverage of parts of Thomastown with favourable demographics for buses. Weekend usage is lower, at between 11 and 18 boardings per hour with 357 again being the best performer.   

Route 556's tangle

Slightly to the south of Findon Rd is Route 556. Its irregular 22-minute non-train harmonised frequency was noted above. It's also very indirect. Trips that should take 5 or 10 minutes to Epping Plaza Shopping Centre take three times that time due to a dogleg the route has east of Epping. This is long-established and was not sorted out when the Route 901 orbital added service in the area. And even if it's considered that the 556 should be retained in the area, an opportunity was not taken to operate it to South Morang Station when that opened several years later.

The 556's problems have been known for years. The Whittlesea local area bus review from about 10 years back proposed straightening the 556 (to improve directness) and interlining it with the 555 (also every 22 minutes) to form two upgraded and direct routes operating every 20 minutes and connecting with trains. This would be a highly beneficial cost-effective upgrade of two major routes.

I suggested a similar straightening of 556 as part of the Reservoir area Useful Network (UN #2). Since 556's catchment abuts Findon Rd and the 577, reform to it could happen independently as part of an Epping area review, although inclusion of a 555 upgrade as per the bus review would obviously be highly desirable.  

Expanded Useful Network

I will not cover Wollert and desirable frequency upgrades for routes like 357 on its own. While of merit they need new buses to be purchased. Instead I will concentrate on cheaper upgrades for parts of Epping Rd and the section east to South Morang.

Priorities could include the following:

1. New bus stops on Epping Rd to improve coverage and maximise the area accessible from both the 356 and 357 routes. One pair of stops should be as close as possible to Epping North Shopping Centre with another about 300 - 400 metres south. Pedestrian operated lights with quick response times to assure easy access to these new stops are needed. 

2. Rescheduling Routes 356 and 357 to provide more evenly spaced services 7 days per week, with priority given to peak, weekend and weekend evening service. The aim should be a 10 minute peak, 20 minute off-peak day and 30 minute evening service, coordinated with trains.

3. Additional stops on Route 577 to reduce the long gap between them on trips towards South Morang. Road treatments, traffic calming with zebra crossings at regular points on Findon Rd to allow safe and reliable pedestrian access to bus stops. 

4. Operating Route 556 direct from Epping Station to Epping Plaza with an upgrade to a 20 minute frequency.  This change to be introduced in conjunction with a new Route 576 between Epping and South Morang to replace the 556. A suggested frequency of 30 minutes peak, 40 minutes interpeak could apply, with Route 577 operating a similar service. Times could be staggered with 577 to improve frequency for those between both routes. While this entails a reduction to Route 577's peak service, current usage is low and many would benefit from the new 576 to South Morang and Findon Rd pedestrian upgrades.

5. Extend one of the Epping routes (either 356, 357 or 358) to Craigieburn for a new connection across the north. Previously mentioned here.

6. Further extend the abovementioned Craigieburn to Epping route to Bundoora RMIT and Greensborough via Mill Park to incorporate the reformed 566/proposed 565 mentioned here. The entire combined route would operate every 20 minutes or better at least on weekdays. If 357 is chosen you would need to split the existing route at Epping and operate the Epping to Thomastown portion separately. A 357 Useful Network upgrade was mentioned in Useful Network #2.  

Doing it for (almost) nothing

This is an 'oily rag' Useful Network. In other words I've sought to make at least some of the upgraded service possible for no or little cost in terms of bus requirements.  Let's see how we score. 

* 356/357 rescheduling. I've assumed that the number of trips stays the same but that rescheduling is possible to provide more even service during peak periods, weekends and weekend evenings. 

* Route 556 reform. Currently requires 6 buses to operate a 22 minute service. The run time is approximately 60 minutes with some scheduled dwell time at Epping in one direction. The 22 minute frequency, while unharmonised with trains, allows some recovery time. Shortening the route to operate directly between Epping Station and Epping Plaza cuts run time to approximately 50 minutes peak and 45 minutes interpeak. The existing 6 buses would easily support a 20 minute service, peak or off-peak, due to the shorter route. Since 556 has the same terminus and is run by the same operator as the 577 (and likely the new 576) some scheduling efficiencies or at least flexibility may be possible. For example it may be possible to use the saved time to enable an upgrade of Route 555 to an even 20 minutes by interlining services. 

* Existing Route 577 and new Route 576. I've assumed 3 buses now provide the existing 20 minute peak service and 2 buses run the existing 30 min (average) interpeak service on the 577. Run times are currently slightly over 20 min weekday, slightly under weekends.

New route 576 is slightly shorter than 577. So I've assumed a run time slightly less than 20 min each way. Add to 577 for about 40 minutes assuming that arriving 577s at South Morang form departing 576s (and vice versa). The concept is that a reduced frequency on 577 could free up resources for the new 576 (which would partly overlap the 577).

Two buses could (just) provide a basic 40 minute off-peak service (connecting with every second train). Three buses could enable a 30 minute  peak frequency on each route. If possible departures would be offset by 20 minutes so that those living between the two routes would gain a more frequent combined service. That would compensate some for the slight reduction in 577 frequency (as mentioned on Tuesday it currently has a lumpy timetable with uneven intervals and current boardings per hour performance is below average for Melbourne buses). 

Some scope may be possible for peak frequencies to be nearer their current 20-22 minutes if (a) there were additional efficiencies unlocked by making 556 shorter and interlining some trips, (b)  if Route 576 was commenced from Epping Station rather than Epping Plaza (since the nearby and more frequent 901 serves the Plaza), (c) the better peak frequency only operated on the 577 (since the new 576 is fairly close to the 901) and/or (d) an extra bus became available.

An even more radical change would be to not have 576 at all and concentrate all resources into the 577 which could run every 20 minutes all day. This measure would make pedestrian access improvements across Findon and McDonald roads essential to retain reasonable coverage if buses are removed from Derby Dr. Hence I am not suggesting this as a short term option. 

Even if none of the above happened and peak frequency was at 30 minutes those on Derby Dr would gain extra connections from South Morang Station that aren't currently available. They'd be able to get home by alighting at either Epping or South Morang rather than just Epping. And note the vastly better all-day train connectivity and shorter travel times in Reservoir and Thomastown thanks to the more harmonised, frequent and direct 556. 

The above is the cheap stuff that uses about the same number of buses and service hours as now. Points 5 and 6 before need more buses and more service hours. However they will deliver further  desirable upgrades, including 20 minute service into the heart of Wollert and a new east-west route connecting Craigieburn and Wollert with Bundoora RMIT, Greensborough and, via a tram connection, La Trobe University. 

Conclusion

Presented are potentially low-cost upgrades for the northern Epping area. If combined with the 556 change there are substantial benefits for Northland, Reservoir and eastern Thomastown as well.

If you have any comments about them please leave them below. 

An index to all Useful Networks is here.

Timetable Tuesday #57: 577 - the bus with stops you can't get to

At first sight there's little remarkable about bus route 577. It connects homes to stations and shops across Melbourne's middle-northern suburbs. It's relatively direct with operating hours and frequency fairly typical for a Melbourne suburban bus. 

577's map is below. 

The map below is how it relates to nearby routes. It's basically an east-west route serving homes off Findon Rd. It overlaps many others to allow one-seat access to Epping Plaza and the health precinct around The Northern Hospital.

577's catchment is basically 1970s to 1990s suburbia. It's mostly detached houses though block sizes are getting smaller. The area could be described as working-class with a high proportion working in industrial areas in Epping and off Sydney Rd. 

Epping was popular with Southern European migrants after WWII (who appreciated its spacious homes and gardens compared to the more cramped inner suburbs where many first lived) and, more recently, those from the Middle East.  Most of Route 577's catchment is in the safe Labor seat of Mill Park, held by Lily D'Ambrosio MP. 

Usage

Route 577 gets less use than one might expect. On weekdays it attracts just 16 passenger boardings per service hour. This is less than both the average for Melbourne buses (low 20s) and what Infrastructure Victoria considers a productive bus route (over 20 boardings per hour). Weekend usage is slightly lower, with 14 and 12 boardings per hour for Saturday and Sunday respectively. 

Why is this so? After all Route 577 is a direct route serving significant jobs, shopping, education and health destinations. Its demographics are not bad for buses and it's not overlapped by other routes for much of its way. 

Maybe the 577 doesn't stop where people would wish to catch it? Or people just can't quickly, directly and safely walk to where it does stop. More on this next.   

Coverage and access issues

The map above doesn't tell the full story about 577. Local roads have been constructed to the bare minimum standard that enables cars to drive along it. They have come under pressure from development to the north, north-west and east and rat-running drivers preferring them over busier parallel roads. 

It's a common road builder ploy to replace cross roads with roundabouts when traffic levels rise, apparently to 'calm traffic'. However all this does for the walker is to guarantee continuously flowing traffic with no gaps to cross. Hence walking becomes an impractical and unsafe means of transport, even for local trips that could reasonably be walked. 

The result is even higher traffic volumes and local campaigns to signalise the intersection (which might happen 10 or more years later). Roundabouts are cheaper than signals but those who commission them rarely bring themselves to add the paint required to include zebra crossings. At the very best one might get a stand-alone signalised crossing on one leg of the roundabout some distance back from the intersection which is usually the walker's desire line (eg the ones near Mill Park Secondary College on Civic Dr and Ferres Bvd near the council chambers (but 300m south of Findon Rd).  

Bus stop locations is another issue that's often missed. Wider stop spacing increases bus speed but reduces coverage. The wider they are spaced the more important exact location is to ensure adequate coverage. This means locating them at intersections, near popular destinations and at midblock locations where there are good connections to paths. 

A local bus route (like the 577) might reasonably have stops spaced every 300 to 400 metres.  However gaps can sometimes exceed 800 metres, such as in High St on trips towards South Morang where the bus turns right into Findon Rd.  This excessive spacing means that those who should have a bus towards South Morang and Plenty Valley Shopping Centre miss out, despite a route passing by.

Access to Route 577 can be difficult even where there are stops. Nowhere is this apparent more  than along Findon Rd, the main area where it provides unique coverage. You can get the idea from the map below. Although Findon Rd is the only possible through route for a local bus there's a 3km stretch where there's no crossings. Traffic volumes, even on weekends, are sufficiently high to make crossing the road to catch the bus slow, unsafe and difficult. This probably contributes to the route's poor patronage noted before.  

Those who need to cross Findon Rd, for example to reach the convenience store, are similarly restricted. Findon Rd goes back to the early 1970s. Back then it was just a 600m long access road from Epping Rd to the Darebin Creek. Later a bridge was built and it extended east, serving as the only access to the Boral quarry. By the late 1980s housing had sprung up to its south with some streets connecting onto Findon Rd.

A decade later it had extended east almost to its current extent, reaching the municipal offices and Ferres Bvd. By this time there was housing both north and south of Findon Rd. Route 556 was the only bus in the area, operating an indirect route along the western part of Findon Rd. Apart from quarry trucks overall traffic would still have been fairly quiet since the council offices were the absolute edge of suburban development. Route 577 commenced in 2002, with a similar route to now along Findon Rd but extending east to new estates on The Lakes Boulevard (instead of South Morang Station which opened a decade later).

Findon Rd is an example of a formerly fringe area road that gets extended as homes get built. The increased traffic is evidence that drivers along it find it useful for some of their trips (and may even make trips they wouldn't have beforehand with the new connection).

The road goes from being benign (when it's quiet) to posing a major barrier when people can't easily, directly and safely cross it even for a 100 metre walk to a convenience store or to a 577 bus stop. This in turn influences peoples private decisions like driving instead of walking, not riding the bus or prohibiting children from walking to the nearby secondary college. Which further induces demand for driving and depresses bus usage.

A preventative step could be a requirement that every pair of bus stops on every suburban road have a zebra crossing with stops typically about 400 metres apart and located to maximise walking catchment and connectivity with other routes. Road widths and conditions would be set to encourage cautious driving, as opposed to the 'open road' you see in the picture above. Large roundabouts would never be built, with signalisation occurring earlier if required by traffic volumes. Only through measures like these can roads in fringe areas support increased traffic without them blocking communities from facilities and services that they could and should be reasonably able to walk to.  

Timetable

As noted before, Route 577 operates to similar hours and frequencies as other bus services in Melbourne. This means 'minimum standards' service that is at least hourly until 9pm seven days per week. Peak buses are typically every 20 minutes approximately (over a broad peak) and 40 minutes on weekends.  

577's main oddity is its weekday service between approximately 11am and 3pm. Instead of being a flat 20 or 40 minute (both of which would harmonise with trains) it runs a lumpy timetable with alternating long and short gaps of approximately 20 and 40 minutes. This provides two trips per hour. Unlike a 30 minute frequency it is not 'clockface' memorable. However the staggering may provide better connections with trains than a flat 30 minute headway. 

Intervals are slightly more even for trips towards Epping.

Given the route's low usage one might think that a flat 40 minute service would be sufficient. Or, if you wanted to be more generous then a flat 20 minute timetable would be simpler to remember. However extra stops and improved pedestrian access is essential to get any patronage return from the improved service given how difficult existing stops are to reach.  

Conclusion

What do you think about the 577? Am I right that its main problems are lack of access? Or are timetable changes also important? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. 

PS: An index to all Timetable Tuesday items is here.

Melbourne on Transit bookshop

Favourably reviewed books about transport and cities. Purchases via these links support this blog and its independent reporting (at no extra cost to you).   

Building Melbourne's Useful Network Part 34: Fixing our broken summer and holiday timetables

It's time to admit that what we now do, especially between Christmas and New Years Day, isn't working. Travel patterns and service provision, already mismatched at other times (eg evenings and weekends) is severely out of whack over this period. 

Fewer people go to work during this period, including on weekdays between Christmas and New Years Day. Yet train commuters get a full weekday timetable and may almost enjoy carriages to themselves. 

On the other hand, more people shop. Either in the CBD or major suburban centres. Weekday trams reduce to weekend frequencies in this period. Shopping centre buses run as infrequently as hourly, including on Boxing Day when it's busiest. And, due to traffic congestion, bus companies simply throw up their hands and refuse to serve where the people wish to go.

This is even though congested times are precisely when public transport is most beneficial; not only for those on it but also those in cars. Buses should be embraced rather than shunned during these times. It's not as if Boxing Day creeps up unannounced each year.

Despite the number of people they attract and their regularity each year the Boxing Day sales are not considered to be major events that require transport plans and service resourcing. Hence you get results like this when service doesn't meet demand:

There's also major sporting events, eg the cricket from Boxing Day that needs to be catered for. These have somewhat more effort put into transport arrangements. Also there's the beach traffic that places so much stress on coastal routes like the 788 down the Mornington Peninsula (which does have an upgraded, though still limited, January weekend timetable). 

What happens now? 

I wasn't able to find combined network information on the PTV website (though it might have been there before I wrote this). What follows is what was published by various operators.

Metro Trains has the simplest arrangements. A full weekday timetable (including express trains) runs throughout the festive period except on public holidays. About ten or fifteen years ago there were reduced summer timetables running until mid-January but these proved inadequate since many people were back at work. So they were completely scrapped. This was great for simplicity but not cost-effectiveness as there are a few days between Christmas and New Year when commuter usage genuinely is low.

A Saturday timetable applies on Boxing Day and New Years Day while a Sunday timetable runs on Christmas Day. After approx 11am there is no difference between the two. However the Sunday timetable has a late start (which Melbourne trains used to be notorious for) and infrequent morning service (which they still are).

The late Sunday start issue was largely fixed when Night Network introduced 24 hour weekend service. However unless Christmas Day is on a Saturday or Sunday (when Night Network runs regardless of public holidays) the late start remains (as it does every Good Friday which is the only other public holiday with a Sunday timetable).

Other states have simpler arrangements where instead of public holidays being either a Saturday or Sunday timetable they are just a Sunday timetable. However, as compensation, their earlier Sunday start times (and sometimes later finishes) make this more practical. Trains in Brisbane and Sydney, for example, have early Sunday starts with a full frequency normally applying. And even Perth, known for its restricted trading hours and lack of city life, has much better Sunday morning train frequencies than Melbourne.

V/Line has roughly similar arrangements to Metro on weekdays. However the term 'altered timetable' on the public holidays is less legible and requires one to look it up. A material difference is that V/Line services (particularly to Geelong) are more commuter oriented, and unlike most Metro lines, have a much lower frequency on weekends than they do weekday interpeak. This means that even metropolitan area V/Line stations like Deer Park, Caroline Springs, Wyndham Vale and Tarneit receive half or less service on weekends (and therefore public holidays) than do Metro stations like Watergardens or Werribee. Their late Sunday am starts is an issue all year as Night Network trains don't operate (unlike Metro).

Buses are a mix. The 2006 - 2010 Meeting our Transport Challenges upgrades and the 2013 Transdev franchising went a long way to harmonising bus with Metro train arrangements on public holidays. Hence Boxing Day and New Years Day get a Saturday timetable and Christmas Day a Sunday timetable. However this standardisation is not universal; there are over 20 bus routes that run Saturdays but not public holidays and even some that run Sundays but not public holidays. This makes network-wide summer and public holiday arrangements difficult to communicate, with the hapless PTV either failing to do so or getting it wrong.

A few residential area bus routes still have weekday cutbacks over summer (as posted recently). Not because their usage is particularly low, but because that's how it's always been in the past. History, rather than a route's patronage, has a large part in determining which cut service over summer, with one of the routes with a larger summer cut (the 733) being one of the network's busiest.

Yarra Trams has other rules. Instead of operating a regular timetable weekday services from before Christmas to at least New Year are cut so that a Saturday frequency applies. That means daytime frequencies down to 15 minutes on some routes, a headway too long to regard as 'turn up and go', especially for shorter trips.

Below is a rough summary of timetable arrangements over the Christmas / New Year period compiled from the above information.

What should we do? 

It would be easy if we were a small city state with everything running (say) every 5 or 6 minutes. You'd hardly have timetables. You might increase service to 3 or 4 minutes during peak times and drop back to 7 or 8 minutes at quieter times. And lower traffic volumes on days like Christmas morning would allow a good frequency to be run with fewer buses or trams since you're running a headway-based service. You'd hardly even need to tell people about this since they would regard the service as 'turn up and go' at all times.

The nearest Melbourne had to this was probably in the cable tram days (the motto being "always a (tram)car in sight"). With some decades of service cuts from the 1950s, not much of a recovery in all-day frequencies since, and a tendency to buy bigger trams, we're far from this today on most corridors. Hence, for the foreseeable future, we still need to think in terms of timetables.

The biggest mismatch where service falls short of demand is Boxing Day where there's sales and cricket. A Saturday timetable applies with very limited bus services exacerbated by (and sometimes cancelled due to) traffic congestion.

The biggest mismatch where service exceeds demand appears to be weekday peaks between Christmas and New Year. A regular peak service operates on trains and most buses.

Christmas Day can also be quiet. Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston are lucky enough to have a 10 minute frequency (in contrast to London which has no public transport at all). From what I've seen services are lightly used. However Christmas (most years) and Good Friday (all years) have an issue where trains start too late in the morning, especially for trips from Melbourne. Night Network fixed this where the preceding day is a Friday or Saturday.

Short term measures (ie from 2020/1)

Where we could cut

METRO: Christmas Day cut Frankston line 10 to 20 min (optionally Good Friday also)
METRO: Weekday peak Dec 26 - Dec 31 Sat TT but with 10 min in peaks and 20 min to 9pm
BUS: Weekday peak Dec 26 - Dec 31 cut peak to 8 - 10 min if service better than that (eg 906, 907)

Where we could add

METRO: Early am trips Xmas Day and Good Friday as per Sunday timetable with preceding Night Network trips (every 60 min as per Night Network times back to approx 5 am)
METRO: Boxing Day extra trips for shopping & cricket
TRAM: Abolish summer timetable - weekday frequencies continue through December/January
BUS: More buses on selected bus routes on Boxing Day to provide increased frequency and compensate for longer run times. Doubled frequencies on selected bus routes on busy weekends before Christmas.
BUS: Remove summer timetables on residential area routes where peak frequency is worse than 10 min
V/Line: Boxing Day 20 min service on Geelong line.

The above would address most of the above problems. Basically taking away from quiet peak weekday times between Christmas and New Year and giving to Boxing Day. The issue with early Christmas and Good Friday service not running is also addressed.

For a few quiet days it reintroduces summer timetabes on Metro train lines during peak periods only. On most lines these are effectively a Saturday timetable but with peak trips added to provide a 10 minute approx am and pm peak all stations service on trains from Werribee, Watergardens, Craigieburn, Mernda, Greensborough, Ringwood, Glen Waverley, Dandenong, Frankston and Sandringham. Altona, Williamstown, Upfield, Alamein and the outer portions of some lines would have a 20 minute service.  Savings here could go at least part way to offsetting the extra costs of running weekday frequencies on the tram network.

While the Frankston line cut introduces a degree of complexity (on its two quietest days) the service kilometres foregone could go towards earlier starts on it and other lines on all Good Fridays and most Christmas Days.

Very frequent bus routes could be cut back to a 10 minute peak on the quiet weekdays between Christmas and New Years Day. Savings could be put towards scrapping summer timetables on less frequent routes and extra Boxing Day service on shopping centre routes.

No detailed costing has been done but the inclusion of cuts as well as gains should greatly reduce it while making service provision better match demand. Discussing this could be the first item of business for the Department of Transport this year so that operators get sufficient notice for staff rostering etc at the end of the year. 

Medium term

The above are some low cost service upgrades for this time next year. However they don't fix the complexities around public holiday timetables (eg is it Saturday or Sunday, and what about buses which might be neither?).

A suggested way around this is to operate Sunday timetables on all public holidays. That simplifies timetables and messaging because you can include the statement that "A Sunday timetable operates on all public holidays". Other Australian states typically do this.

While this might seem a downgrade compared to now (where Saturday timetables operate on most public holidays), this can be addressed by boosting Sunday timetables to make their operating hours and frequency more like Saturday's. And simplification would also mean that bus routes with weekend but not public holiday service would gain public holiday service. Example measures are below:

METRO: Increased Sunday morning frequency. All public holidays operate Sunday timetable.
TRAM: Increased Sunday morning frequency. All public holidays operate Sunday timetable.
BUS: Standardise public holiday arrangements for buses where all routes with weekend service also operate on public holidays (over 20 routes involved). 
BUS: Increased weekend (especially Sunday) frequency on selected popular routes, especially those to major shopping centres. 
BUS: Extend Sunday pm span on SmartBus routes to match Saturday. 
BUS: Extend Sunday am span on local routes by 60 - 120 min earlier.
BUS: Local routes with Saturday but not Sunday service to gain Sunday service. All public holidays operate Sunday timetable. 
V/LINE: Weekend frequency upgrade on Geelong line (from 40 to 20 min)
V/LINE: 60 to 90 min earlier start on Sunday mornings. All public holidays to operate Sunday timetable.

Such a boost is needed anyway and would bring about improved services all year. 

Long term

All Metro train, tram, V/Line and most bus timetables have the same stopping pattern and operating frequency on weekday off-peaks, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Where run time permits times would be the same as well. Exceptions would be limited to routes with a very high weekday relative to weekend usage (eg industrial and university routes) where weekend frequency would continue to be less.

Trams and trains are already fairly close to this. The main upgrade is needed for buses, where key routes like SmartBus currently halve frequency on weekends while others operate only one-third as frequently on Sundays as they do Monday to Saturday.

This is an ambitious upgrade that should be accompanied by comprehensive bus network reform. However it would make service much simpler than now at some compromise for efficiency.

Conclusion

Summer and holiday timetables is a recurring problem that causes underused services on one hand and overcrowding on the other. Their existence makes public transport more complex and less well used than it should be, even during times of demonstrated demand.

A course of action that addresses immediate issues such as Boxing Day while pursuing longer term service simplification has been suggested. What do you think about it? Please leave your comments below! 

An index to all Useful Networks is here.