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)

3/2/13 Service Changes (Southern)

This post will detail the service changes to the Southern area occuring on 3rd February.

The 514, 515, 516, 520, 525, 526, 530, 531, 532, 543, 551, 552, 558, 559, 561, 584, 592, 594 and 600 will have time changes.

The 514 will have time changes, and the last Sunday trip from Murdoch (which left at 10:22 pm and did not have a corresponding trip from Murdoch prior to it) will be cut. It's a shame PT finishes early on Sundays, but there are trunk routes that don't have this service, so an hourly feeder finishing before 9:30pm isn't very important.
The 515 will have time changes, and more weekday services deviating to Jandakot Airport, and also more counter peak services (from Murdoch in the morning and to Murdoch in the afternoon, this is a very cheap enhancement, as the buses already ran something similar to that service, just not revenue service). I don't really understand the rationale behind running the 515 every 2 hours in the middle of the day. Yes, it may be a low-ridership route, but when a round trip on the 515 takes an hour, and there are no other buses running every 2 hours at Murdoch, so the bus doesn't do anythging for an hour and it would be very cheap to increase service to an hourly frequency(similar to the 251 on Sundays I talked about in the previous post).
The 516 will have time changes and a new deviation to Jandakot Airport every weekday morning, on the 7:43 bus from Murdoch (there's no corresponding return service, so I'm not sure what this is for. Those who take the bus in the morning but get lifts to the station in the afternoon?).

The 520, 530, 531 and 532 will begin to deviate to Cockburn Gateway Shopping City on Sundays because of Sunday trading, where previously they hadn't. The 531 will also deviate to Phoenix Shopping Centre.

The 564 will run two additional short services. One leaves its Baldivis terminus (Smirk Rd/Regency Av) at 7:30 am and concludes in Warnbro at 7:50am, and the other leaves Warnbro at 3:16pm arriving in Bladivis at 3:34pm. There will also be extra 568s, one leaving Warnbro at 7:56am, and terminating at Baldivis Secondary College, the other departing Nairn Dr/Kingaroy Dr at 8:17 am and deviating via Stocklands Baldivis SC, arriving at Warnbro at 8:39 am on school holidays, and 8:46am on schooldays due to a deviation to Baldivis Secondary College (Transperth sneakily refers to 'three additional weekdays services' on the 568, but in practice there are two services, just one that varies depending on whether school is in).

The 592 will have a route change. The bus will turn off Dawesville Bypass (when approaching from Mandurah) earlier, at Ocean Dr rather than Bailey Blvd, and use the new Dandaragan Dr to better serve new developments in Dawesville West.

3/2/13 Service Changes (South Eastern)

This post, second in a number of posts describing the service changes occurring across the Transperth network, concentrates on the South-Eastern service area.

The most significant change here is to services heading south of Armadale, to Byford, Mundijong, Jarrahdale and other areas. The 251 will have extra trips and the 251, 252 and 253 will have time changes and will be routed further down South Western Hwy to serve the Byford by the Scarp development better, and the new 254 will be introduced.
The 254 will serve the new developments in Byford, to the west of the railway line. It operates along a temporary route, since the new road network in that area is incomplete, and is fully accessible. It runs Monday to Saturday, every 15 minutes during the peaks and hourly at other times.
The 251, 252, 253 and 254 will interline from Armadale along South Western Hwy until Larsen Rd for a 30 minute frequency during weekday middays and on Saturdays (during peak hour, the 254 alone will run every 15 minutes, as stated above). Unfortunately, Sundays will see the lone 251 running every 2 hours, a far cry from the half-hourly service on weekdays. I don't see why this happens given one bus on a Sunday can run both the 250 and the 251, but not the 245 as well (all run every 2 hours). You can run the 250 and the 251 hourly on Sundays and still only use one bus. This means that running the bus every 2 hours saves no money on labour (there are small savings on maintenance due to less wear and tear, but a pittance compared to the potential doubling of frequencies).

There are also minor time changes to the 100, 101, 210, 211, 212, 229, 506, 507, 508 and 509, as well as an extra 212 trip leaving the Busport at 4:30pm, and numerous extra 100s and 101s, such as an earlier first trip on weekdays, leaving Curtin University as 5:50am, and an increase in frequency of buses between Curtin Uni and Canning Bridge in the mornings from 12 buses per hour (bph) to 18 bph (these buses previously deadheaded back to Canning Bridge, as the frequency from Canning Bridge to Curtin University was and stays at 18bph).

3/2/13 Service Changes (Eastern and Northern)

On 3rd February 2013 a whole wad of service changes will be implemented, across the Transperth network. This post will detail the changes occurring in the Eastern and Northern areas.

In the Eastern area, there will be a couple of extra trips on the 955 and 956 to Ellenbrook. There will be an extra 956 to Bassendean before the current first bus, leaving the terminus at 4:55am and arriving in Bassendean at 5:30am, improving the span of service, allowing passengers to arrive into the city before 6am, although it's a bit premature, I think, seeing as there are no buses for travellers to Ellenbrook leaving the city after 9:30pm. There is also an additional 955 to Ellenbrook, leaving Morley at 6:38pm and arriving in the Ellenbrook terminus at 7:22pm. This is a good improvement to afternoon peak shoulder service, where ther previously was a 45 minute gap in outbound buses.

In the Northern area, there will be time changes to the 410, 412 (adding different schedules for a couple of outbound weekday morning runs depending on whether it's a school day or school holiday), 415, 441, 443, and 444. Trips will be added to the 15 and 442.
The 15 will see school day only runs departing Wellington St Stn at 8:05am and 8:10am, terminating at Oxford St near Scarborough Beach Rd at 8:27am and 8:32am respectively, and the former school day-only service departing Wellington St at 8:15am forming a full service through to Glendalough.
The 442 will have an extra trip from Warwick Stn, departing at 6:50am, and arriving at Whitfords at 7:19am, a good morning peak bonus for those living on the northern section the 442.

If I ran Transperth... Suggested Minimum Frequency Standards: v2

I previously made a post about minimum frequency standards, but I will revise them now.
IDEAL MINIMUM FREQUENCY STANDARDS
Definitions
MONDAY TO THURSDAY -
Early Morning - 4am to 5am
Daytime - 5am to 10pm (excluding peak)
Peak - 6am to 10 am and 3pm to 7pm
Evening - 10pm to 12 am
Night(after) - 12am to 4am
FRIDAY -
Early Morning - 4am to 5am
Daytime - 5am to 10pm (excluding peak)

Peak - 6am to 10 am and 3pm to 7pm
Evening - 10pm to 2 am
Night - 2am to 4am
SATURDAY -
Early Morning - 5am to 6am

Daytime - 6am to 8pm
Evening - 8pm to 2 am
Night - 2am to 5am
SUNDAY

Daytime - 6am to 8pm
Evening - 8pm to 12 am
Early Morning - 5am to 6am
Night - 2am to 5am




I will provide some examples of service standards. Most routes should fit into these, but some may need special standards.
BRONZE
Every 15 minutes during peak, 30 minutes during (the rest of the) daytime and  60 minutes during evenings and early mornings.
SILVER
Every 7.5 minutes during peak, 15 minutes during the daytime, 30 minutes during evenings and early mornings, and 60 minutes at night.
GOLD
Greater service than Silver.

 As a result, most areas will get TUAG (every 15 minutes or more)service during the peak, and main routes (along most main roads) will receive TUAG from 5am to 10pm, and some kind of service 24/7. This trunk service could be depended on, and would make it possible to live comfortably in many parts of Perth without a car.

Beaufort St and Guildford Rd Bus Changes - November 11

On November 11th there will be some changes to the Beaufort St and Guildford Rd bus services.
Beaufort St will have some good service increases to an already well served corridor. Buses will operate every 6-7 minutes during the middle of the day, and every 10 minutes on weekends. This would have to be the best PT frequency in Perth (or at least along a corridor of reasonable length). But this is deserved at Beaufort St is a VERY busy transport corridor and commercial strip.
There will be some replacement of 21s with 22s, in fact at least half the service is provided by 22s. But the Embleton section of the 21 is mostly duplicated by the 48 or 955, and the only unique section is about 700 m on Lindley and Priestly Sts, which is ridiculously close to both the 955 and the 48. So I would question the very existence of the 21.
On Sundays the 67 will finally get a decent frequency on Sundays, every 30 minutes instead of the current service every 1.5 hours. Intersestingly, this is better than the frequency on Saturdays, as some of the half-hourly Mirrabooka runs are 68s. I'm not sure why there is a difference between Saturdays and Sundays here when the total frequency is equivalent.
Beaufort St still lacks decent night service, especially on Sundays. It is a strip busy at night, especially in Mt Lawley, yet the half-hourly night frequency is but a small fraction of daytime service. And Sunday service completely stops at 9:45, when most businesses open late on Sunday just like on any other night.
These issues will be addressed in a future post detailing a complete rethink of Beaufort St services.

On to Guildford Rd. There won't be any frequency increases on the Guildford Rd, but the few 43 (41 and 42 combined route)services on weekdays and Saturday (only in the early morning and late-night) will be replaced by 41 or 42 services, which is good as dedicated routes are more direct than combined routes.

Quite the opposite of frequency increases, the 44 will be removed in order to fund extra 22 services. This is understandable, as the 44 sits between the super frequent Beaufort St corridor, and the frequent, high capacity and long-service-span Midland Line, so the 44 isn't much use. In addition, Beaufort ST gets consistently high bus loadings, so could use more service.

The service changes could be summed up as Beaufort St increases and Guildford Rd increases. However, this ignores the fact that Guildford Rd still has a strength over Beaufort St - night. It gets buses every 20 minutes on weeknights and Saturday nights, better than Beaufort St's half-hourly. Neither route has Sunday services running late into the night (Guildford Rd is wrap at 8:30, while Beaufort St continues till 9:45, but not near some southern services such as the 106, 507, 920 and 940 which run until midnight or so on Sundays).

Red Cat changes 28th October 2012

On Sunday 28th October there will be some small changes to the Red CAT bus service. This does not concern frequency, but stop location. The Freeway stop (currently 20), will be removed, and instead of stop 1 being at Murray St (corner Pier St), it will be renumbered, and 1 will be at the WACA.
What do I have to say about this? Well, the Freeway stop is relatively quiet due to proximity to the freeway (lack of patronage generators, deterrence to walking across it) and the QV1 stop. But then again, the CATs are designed for fine-grained city circulation, and I don't think that this stop removal would free much time in the schedule (not that the Red CAT even has a timetable). Renumbering to start in East Perth may be logical, as the residential population make sit a good starting point. But these changes are relatively inconsequential.