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Tram Travel Time Saving Narrows: 7 Seconds in Sydney Road

An update to a PTUA travel time study has confirmed an earlier finding that extended clearway hours on Sydney Road in Brunswick have not noticeably improved tram travel speeds.

Earlier results obtained in November last year, after 5 months of study, found that after clearway times in Sydney Road were extended from 6pm to 7pm, average travel times for trams heading out of the city during these times improved by just 14 seconds on the 2.5km to Moreland Road.

At that time, however, police were not actively enforcing the new clearway times. But observations continued to be made, and earlier this year police commenced enforcement. Accordingly, the results were re-evaluated by adding the most recent five months’ observations to those already taken.

The result? The mean improvement in travel time is now 7 seconds, not 14–from 9 minutes and 12 seconds to 9 minutes and 5 seconds.
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Our letter as published in today’s Age was edited, which has subtly changed the intent. Below is the original letter as submitted:

Peter Fisher and Len Puglisi (Opinion, 18/3) are correct that density is not a panacea for car dependence. Los Angeles is a denser city than Melbourne but hardly rates on the sustainable transport front.

Shifting from car use to public transport is not a magical outcome of denser living, but happens when public transport is organised into high-quality networks which serve not just CBD travel, but trips in all directions. In Melbourne these networks are found only in inner-suburban areas with reasonably frequent tram services.
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Despite the understandable concerns of peak hour train commuters, Metro Trains should be commended for wanting to double train patronage by 2020.

It shows there is more capacity to be squeezed out of the network, and smarter timetabling can get more trains on to the tracks.

But there will be no doubling of peak hour trips to the CBD. The vast majority of CBD commuters already use public transport, and the peak hour commuting population is only expected to grow by 20 per cent to 2020, according to City of Melbourne projections.
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