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By our count, Lonsdale Street gets more than 35 buses per hour in each direction in off-peak hours — quite a few more at peak times. This includes four Smartbus routes.

And yet, despite Lonsdale Street being rightly declared a Bus Priority Route in the VicRoads “SmartRoads” network operating plan developed with the City of Melbourne, it doesn’t have fulltime bus lanes. Instead thousands of bus passengers are held-up by parking for a few dozen cars.

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Melbourne is now a 24-hour city, and the half-hourly Nightrider buses on Friday and Saturday nights are increasingly popular… so much so that there is now overcrowding on some services, with passengers sometimes left behind, unable to fit on board. These photos are of the 3am service to Knox and Belgrave.

(Photos from Robert and Anthony)

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It’s coming up on a year since both Myki and Metcard have been operating in parallel on all Melbourne public transport services. The government continues to dither over making a decision on whether they’ll keep Myki or not. While it’s been hugely expensive and problematic, Myki largely works now — in fact many of its problems are because it has to coexist with Metcard.

Running the two systems is also adding to costs to taxpayers, and is causing confusion — often you’ll see tourists and other occasional users trying to “touch” their Metcards on the Myki readers. The placement of Metcard machines also prevents more Myki machines being installed, for instance to allow topups on buses and trams, and on more station platforms.

It’s time the government decided one way or the other, and got on with the job.

See also: Sunday Age Myki gains in transport double

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The 903 Smartbus to Chadstone on a Saturday. Not only is it standing room only, it crawls at a snails pace from Holmesglen to Chadstone because of a lack of bus priority.

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This crowd was at Dandenong on a recent Saturday night. A track fault resulted in trains being suspended between Dandenong and Pakenham around 6pm, but by 6:47pm when this photo was taken, there was still a shortage of buses to replace trains.

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It seems illogical: a number of wheelchair accessible (DDA) tram stops have been installed on tram routes that never get a low-floor tram. They include stops along St Kilda Road south of the junction (routes 3 and 67), along route 59, and this stop on route 64. While able-bodied passengers may enjoy the improved amenity of the upgraded stop, those who really need the platforms still can’t catch trams there.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus the building of accessible stops on routes that have at least some low-floor trams?

On the upside, it could be a decade or more away, but when those routes eventually do get low-floor trams, the stops will be ready for them.

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The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has endorsed the new route 601 express bus service operating between Huntingdale railway station and Monash University Clayton campus, but said it should be seen as an interim measure only. The PTUA warned that the service will not entirely solve Monash University’s transport woes and proves that the Rowville railway line is urgently needed.

“While the shuttle bus is welcome, it does not have the potential to attract the same patronage or to move the same volumes as the train line,” said PTUA’s outer east convenor Jeremy Lunn. “This bus does not offer the economic benefits or the 15,000 or more new jobs that the Rowville railway would generate in the Cities of Monash and Knox.
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The new X’trapolis trains have been rolling-out onto the rails for just over a year now. They’ve been wisely designed with lots of hand holds, but whose bright idea was it to place the internal signs behind them? As a result the next station and destination of the train are often obscured.

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On Friday 20th May members of the Outer East Branch of the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) together with representatives of the City of Knox inspected the route for the proposed Rowville railway line.

“We saw the great potential for this railway line to revolutionise transport and the economy by creating over 15,000 jobs in the cities of Knox and Monash,” said PTUA outer east convenor Jeremy Lunn. “The potential to reduce car dependency in Knox and adjoining municipalities is especially important.”
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It’s not just trams and trains that are getting increasingly overcrowded: buses are too. (Admittedly on this particular bus, there is still room for some extra passengers; some are much more squishy.) While there are 50 new trams, and dozens of new trains on the way, there’s no big push for more bus services. In fact the most recent state budget included no new funding at all for buses, despite crowding on busier routes, and long waiting times on others.

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