Public Transport Users Association report finds bus services in Melbourne’s boom suburbs inadequate

A staggering number of suburb’s earmarked for a population boom by the Allan government have been found to have low and poor quality bus routes — with some so bad no services run on weekends.

Bus services in suburbs the Allan government has flagged for a population boom are woefully inadequate, with fewer than one in 12 running frequently.

The Public Transport Users Association assessed 51 bus routes that run through 25 new activity centres where high rises would be encouraged around railway stations.

They include suburbs such as Carnegie and Oakleigh in the southeast, Footscray in the west, inner city areas around Hawthorn and Toorak, and bayside suburbs of Brighton and Hampton.

Only four services were rated as “good”, meaning they have weekday frequency of 15 minutes or better, and 20 minutes or better services on weekends.

“This stands in contrast to 22 routes offering a low quality service and nine routes offering a poor service, with buses hourly or worse and, in some cases, offering no weekend services,” the report says.

Low and poor services account for almost two thirds of all of buses servicing areas proposed for higher density transport hubs. Picture: Nathan Dyer

“Together, low quality to poor services make up almost two thirds of all buses serving areas proposed for higher density transport hubs.”

Spokesman for the PTUA, Daniel Bowen, said unless bus services were improved in the high density hubs, it would be a recipe for congestion.

“You don’t want to build up housing density and have lots of people relying on cars,

that’s obviously going to lead to traffic chaos,” he said.

Mr Bowen said the report showed there were also questions about how rail services would be improved in some areas, given the activity centres had been selected due to proximity to stations.

The activity centres shown in purple — including Carnegie, Oakleigh, Toorak and Brighton — are set to get high rise towers.

He said buses could help solve congestion, pointing to how extra services were added to Fishermans Bend and patronage increased 165 per cent on weekends.

The report shows the poorest routes have just five services a day on weekdays and nothing on weekends, such as between Mitcham and Vermont and Alphington and Hawthorn.

“Our analysis of transport networks in each of the 25 announced centres have highlighted that Melbourne’s bus network continues to fall behind, with most services offering a low quality service,” the PTUA report says.

“Melbourne has already been given the title as Australia’s most congested city, and our traffic problem will only continue to worsen if established areas become more populated without a cohesive vision to improve all modes of public transport in an integrated manner.”