Session 2
Room: Yarra
Session Title: 10 ways to run empty buses
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Peter Parker, Melbourne on Transit Blog
Presenter best contact email: parkerp@internode.on.net
Notetaker: Lachlan Burke
Summary:
Peter Parker from Melbourne on Transit explored the reasons why 150 out of nearly 400 government designed bus routes in Melbourne are severely underused, despite spending the majority of funding on the network. Particularly in the north areas such City of Manningham and Knox. His 10 types of routes which run empty consistently are:
1) Routes that are indirect such as 787
2) Routes that are confusing - separate routes such as 566
3) Routes with dead ends/weak termini such as 518 - only useful for a variety of trips, should connect to other stations to assist people with transfers
4) Routes that do different things at different times 558 like the City Loop - people can’t remember which way it goes
5) Routes that overlap others such as in Manningham, huge loop routes such as 280&282 (Manningham Mover) overlapped by 309&901 - bus routes compete for patronage - overall boardings per hour per service km is low
6) Routes with poor operating hours/days such as 757&758 from Knox City - too late for school or work in the morning
7) Routes that are infrequent such as 745A, B, C ,D - one bus a day - Knox, Scoresby Road and almost the total coverage of Bayswater
8) Routes that don’t connect with trains - such as 580 (Eltham to Diamond) where the timetables aren’t harmonised making transfer possibilities within 40 minutes lucky coincidences
9) Routes that don’t run public holidays such as 681&682 in Rowville, City of Knox - operate 7 days, but not public holidays
10) Routes that are overserviced for their catchments such as routes 578 & 579 through Research and Warandyte where the catchment population is sparse and there are 15 boardings an hour - could be reused to alleviate crowding in areas such as Box Hill to Doncaster in increasing service levels of routes such as 800