Craigieburn bus services on route 529 slammed for running late during morning peak

CHANGES to buses on a popular Craigieburn route were supposed to improve services, but commuters say it is now worse with services failing to run on time and mass overcrowding.

CHANGES to buses in Craigieburn are a shambles, causing mass overcrowding due to services failing to run on time, commuters say.

Extra morning peak services were added in June to route 529 between Craigieburn station and Craigieburn north to “reduce crowding” on the popular route and improve connections to trains.

Frequency on the route was to improve from a bus every 20 to 15 minutes between 7am and 8.30am on weekdays.

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But passenger Jen Niddrie said since the timetable change the buses had been delayed every morning.

Ms Niddrie said she relied on the 7.08 bus at Redheugh St/Waterview Blvd to arrive on time so she could make a connecting train, bus and tram to get to work.

She and her daughter, who catches the bus a few stops prior, have started driving to work because of the unreliability.

“Increasing services in the morning has been a major fail,” she said.

“The buses have not run on time since. This has resulted in more overcrowding and we are missing our connecting trains.

“The passengers high-fived on the bus route when we heard about the changes but now we laugh and say give us back the old timetable.

“They are saying this is worst service they have ever seen.”

Passenger Sarah said her bus on the route was regularly 10 minutes late and her complaints to Public Transport Victoria (PTV) have amounted to nothing.

PTV spokesman Tim Clare said the department had listened to the community and updated routes to make it easier for locals to get to their destinations.

“We continue to monitor and review public transport services to identify priority areas and deliver improvements where they’re needed most,” he said.

The State Government is in the process of updating contracts for Melbourne’s bus network to emphasise on-time running and customer service.

Broadmeadows Bus Service, which operates route 529, didn’t return calls for comment.

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