3/2/13 Service Changes (Western)

Map of Cambridge St changes.

Tomorrow there will be several major changes occurring to buses in the Western area.

The service along the Cambridge St corridor will be massively revamped. The 81, 84, 91 and 92 will all undergo time changes, and some of the above will be renumbered, with a new route introduced.

The 81 will see 3 extra morning peak services. The 6:10am departure from City Beach will be replaced with 6:00 and 6:20 buses, the 6:45am trip will be split into 6:40 and 6:55 journeys, and the 7:25 am service will become 7:20 and 7:35 buses.

The 84 will be renumbered to route 82, but it will still take the same route. There will be an earlier first bus, leaving City Beach at 6:05 am. There will also be an additional peak hour service, with 7:45 am departure replaced by 7:40 and 7:55 buses, and an extra evening service, leaving ther terminus usually only served by the 81 at 7:35 pm.

The 91 will be renumbered to 83, but again, no change to the routing. There will be extra morning trips, departing at 6:10 am and 6:35 am, and the peak hour 7:50 am service split into 7:40 am (replacing a service that currently commences and Grantham/Marlow Sts) and 7:55am trips, and the 8:20 am trip split into 8:10 and 8:30 trips.

The 92 will not be renumbered, becoming the odd one out of Cambridge St routes (presumably because the logical route number, 84, would be confusing if used for the 92, as it would only just have been used on a different route.

The new route 85 will also be introduced, replacing the 401. The 85 departs Wellington St Bus Stn and follows the other Cambridge St routes, until it turns off at Selby St, taking Flynn St, Reserve St, Herdsman Pde, Jon Sanders Dr, Harborne St and Scarborough Beach Rd to Glendalough Train Station. The first trip from Glendalough will be at 5:44 am, and the last trip leaving Wellington St will be at 6:30 pm on weekdays (the first and last trips on Saturdays are 6:54 am and 7pm). It will run every 20 minutes during peak hour, half-hourly on weekday middays and hourly on Saturdays.

Cambridge St will become a better frequent service corridor, with frequencies up to 19 bph (buses coming every 3 minutes and 9 sec on average) in the morning peak, 15 bph (4 minutely buses) in the afternoon peak,  every 10 minutes on weekday middays, every 15 to 25 minutes on Saturdays (a 15-20-25 cycle; I don't know why they haven't made it an even 20 minute frequency), and every 30 minutes on Sundays, along Cambridge St until Harborne St. There will also service every 5 to 12 minutes on Grantham St, and every 5 to 10 minutes along Cambridge St (to Selby ST in both cases) during the peaks.

Altogether, buses in the western suburbs will be immensely improved, but this is partially funded by the reduction of the 381 to one trip each way, as I commented previously. It could've made a good beach exploring routes, but would've needed to run on weekends and at a reasonable frequency. There's also the the deletion the 401. Daglish St, Ruislip, Vincent St and Bulwer St will no longer be served, but that isn't too great a loss, and those areas can be served in the future by a more useful and less convoluted bus route.

The other major change happening to Western bus services is that the 23, 78, 79, 102 and 107 will no longer serve Wellington St Stn; they will commence and terminate at Esplanade Busport. This is temporary, according to Transperth, because extra congestion due to construction would blow out running time between Wellington St Stn and Esplanade Busport, and the 30, 31, 34, 881 and 940 will still offer connections between the above two bus stations. That is understandable  but inconveniences travelers to UWA (or QEII Medical Centre, in the case of the 79), who come from across the metropolitan areas. To terminate the 30, 31, 34, 881 and 940 in the Busport and run the 23, 78, 79, 102 and 107 through to Wellington St would be much less inconvenient. Also, no extra time has been added to the routes that continue to go to Wellington St, to compensate for any construction. (These two concerns could be accounted for by the fact that only Swan Transit raised concerns over potential running times, except that Swan also operates the 34, and in any case, Transperth should communicate with other operators)