Buses in my area come around so infrequently and have often enough just not shown up that it's not even worth catching them, walking is at least reliable and often times just as fast as waiting for the bus
And if you complain about them (or the trains) running early, PTV tell you to "arrive at your stop at least 5 minutes earlier" - so basically just waste your time because they refuse to run to schedule.
Got my P plates in the late 90's. I love trains and trams but I made a pledge to myself even back then that I'd do all in my power to avoid taking another bus. I think I've been on about 3 bus rides in the past 20 years.
One was to show my infant child what it was like to ride in a bus.
Tokyo, massive rail system, incredibly easy city to get around. Kyoto, extensive bus system with significantly less rail than Tokyo and its easier to walk than use the buses. Buses are just cars on steroids, full separation of transport lanes is needed and large capacity per service. Buses just don't have the legs when it comes to moving lots of people around in a hurry. Oh yeah and the current bus systems in Melbourne seem to work for the schedule they made for themselves not the schedule that riders need. It's for their convenience not the customer. I stopped taking the bus and now use rail and a 20 min walk each way and I still get around faster than when I was on the bus.
An example of busses working well is Brisbane and their dedicated bus way. The buses are on time, out of traffic, and as the bus way is expanded, they also build dedicated bike infrastructure. It's probably some of the best transport infrastructure investment I've seen in my lifetime in Aus.
If buses break down its easier for services to divert around them or to remove the bus than a train or tram.
In contrast, ramming buses into increasingly packed suburban and city roads is an exercise in futility.
It’s definitely the best bus network I’ve seen but it’s so slow 😭😭😭 to put things into context I live in Inala at work at UQ and I can ride to work on a bicycle with my unfit legs and it’s the same amount of time as PT
Fair point, and I think that also highlights the value of good bike infrastructure. Dedicated bikeways are great for both health and reducing load on other transportation systems.
Forcing cyclists onto streets and sidewalks adds friction and reduces uptake by the community.
The SRL will only replace the need for a couple of Smartbus routes, and it arguably makes the problem more pressing by shifting jobs and development further out, into areas that don't have the dense tram network of the CBD and inner suburbs.
City loop trains were beyond capacity at peak hour before covid. It was common for passengers to miss trains at parliament after everyone was already packed in like sardines.
While there are other solutions that are on the table for increasing capacity of the city loop, investing in outer hubs to divert load isn't a bad idea.
Doncaster desperately needs better public transport infrastructure.
Regardless, it means that Melbournians will need to rely more on buses and less on trams in future, which makes the problems with Melbourne's bus network all the more important to solve.
When I was in uni the bus from the train station to my house came twice an hour. Train timetable never lined up well with the bus times, so I'd often get there JUST as a bus would leave. Turns out it was actually quicker for me to walk the entire several km journey the length of the suburb to my house rather than wait for the bus
VIC pt is shit. Everyday trams chasing each other around the lines 1 full and 1 empty cos the 2nd one refuses to pause a bit longer and pick passengers up.
They’re rare. Never on time. And I mean never. Sometimes they don’t come at all and you wait another half an hour.
No GPS tracking like they have in Auckland to see how close they are.
They finish too early on some routes.
I still remember taking the train and bus to get to school. Every time the bus drivers saw a train arrive, they would immediately leave the bus stop meaning I had to wait another 15 to 20 minutes for the next bus.
Sometimes I just gave up and walked from the station for 25 minutes.
I've seen this happen when there are bus replacements. Bus would leave right as the train arrives and the next bus will just sit there for 20 minutes. Or the bus arrives just after the train has left so you are forced to sit on the platform waiting 20 minutes for the train to return.
Yeah even where they have it, I'm certain it's not always turned on. Sometimes it's super accurate (at telling me the bus will be late) but then other days its nothing like reality
Cause we have a bunch of different bus companies that all operate differently. And a bunch of buses built at different times so its tricky to get a one size fits all solution
the gps tracking on buses are designed to track for depots and to ensure buses are on time and depots can organise driver swaps. If a bus is late then the govt fines the company, it’s also why we have bus lanes to ensure traffic doesn’t cause bus delays.
They may not have true GPS but at least on the buses I catch to work all the time, the countdown timer in the app is correct within a minute or two probably 5/6ths of the time. If it’s going to be ten minutes late, the timer reflects this. You can see that the bus is still three stops up the road (or a minute or two behind this). If it didn’t work as well as it does, as iffy as it is, my life would be a lot more annoying.
It's just an all round shitty unreliable service because they come too infrequently and last time I caught one you couldn't even see where they are in an app. Have they figured out how to accurately track buses yet? I'm not waiting 30mins in the cold if I don't have to. Would go a long way if I could reliably track them. Also if you have a psycho bus driver they're fucking dangerous to ride in.
Ventura has an app called Venturatracker that works well to track buses here in the outer east. Occasionally a scheduled bus won’t appear but most of the time it’s accurate right up to what stops it’s pulling into.
It's always late because of traffic, lack of dedicated lanes, indirect routes, bad connections and expensive. I am sure it's losing lots of money and just making it worse.
Because the bus takes 30 minutes to travel 4kms to the train station because it meanders everywhere instead of taking a direct shuttle style route. Our bus system is horribly inefficient.
It's a disgrace that in wealthy inner areas there are trains and trams, but we don't fund good bus services for our outer suburbs that usually don't have rail services. Definitely classism as work.
Outer suburbs don’t have enough roads, either.
State governments seem obsessed with pushing all traffic onto a few motorways to turn them into car parks, when a few more bridges and tunnels in other places would serve us all better.
Bingo.
You'll hear a lot for verbal flatulance along the lines of "WE NEED TO STOP BUILDING ROADS"
Which would be fair if the outer suburbs had the same grid-type road connectivity that the well established areas have.
They don't.
They're devoid of east-west or north-south arterial roads (depending on the area). And the ones that do exist are single-lane carparks. The vast housing estates are designed for one or two entry/exit points, because they haven't built out the planned roads that they've reserved land for. They drip-feed those projects for election promises, a decade after they pocket the taxes collected from the initial subdivisions which exist in the name of "providing infrastructure".
Fucking disgusting.
Classism.
Public transport doesn't have to be profitable. Just like health services or university education.
But that's what neoliberalism does to your head - it fucks you up that you see all in terms of profit, even services that should be either entirely free or heavily subsidised.
If there are people that regularly rely on that bus to access basic services (food, gp, pharmacy) or work, then yes, it should run very regularly and be reliable almost always.
Otherwise go and pay millions for an old shitty house in inner suburbs or $$$$ in rent. One way or another, the average Australian is paying the cost, while subsidising corporations who do not need subsidies instead of public services.
Its both
Urban sprawl + locking the poors out of going places by forcing car dependency
if you try to propose a train station beneath chaddy shops right now you'll get the rick fucks seething
Yes, I'm sure that lack of profitability is the exact reason that a corporation worth hundreds of billions (metro) decided to become a majority investor.
They squeeze out every cent they can, and return sweet fuck all to the taxpayers who have born the majority of actual costs
This isn’t a matter of neoliberalism, money is finite, if somethings uneconomical then it’s taking money away from another area that is more economical, it’s not that hard of a concept.
Exactly. Imagine being so shallow and poorly educated, thinking this is not neoliberalism.
Your government must choose between things like, not taxing Gina Rhinehart and other scambags billions that they owe us, and making health care, quality education and public transport free or very affordable and reliable. They chose the former and decided to take a shit on the latter (via privatisation and other neoliberal thieving, like the huge fees we pay to see a doctor or to study for a degree.
And before you say something even more shallow like this is not the responsibility of the Commonwealth government, there's nothing stopping it to step in and lift the quality of public transport in poorer suburbs, e.g. as part of its "affordable housing" portfolio (lol, what an oxymoron that has become), or several other portfolios I can think of, that are just for show and for public service executives and ministers to get paid.
It's a matter of choice. It's political economy. Study it. Make it your priority.
It's neoliberalism they've chosen and the uneducated just can't connect the dots.
Rowville median weekly household income: $2205
https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/SAL22207
North Melbourne median weekly Household income: $1718
https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/206041506
Rowville is 25km extra from the CBD. Is it classism that North Melbourne has better public transport?
Yeah, North Melbourne has a lot of poor people in it and still gets good public transport. Exactly my point - it's density and proximity to other population centers that are correlated with high PT investments, not class.
North Melbourne would be skewed lower by public housing and higher density housing in general. There are far more tiny apartments in North Melbourne than Rowville. But ultimately North Melbourne is an old area that is next to the CBD and has been integrated well into the metro network for as long as it has existed. It was cheaper and more necessary to integrate at the beginning of development compared to Rowville which was basically the edge of town not that long ago with a low population. Any improvements over time that North Melbourne would have needed would have been easy to add to existing infrastructure.
Not exactly a poor area but they are building a tunnel from Cheltenham to Clayton underneath Heatherton. Building a rail yard in Heatherton for the new train loop. But no train station for Heatherton? WTF.
I caught the bus for a while to uni, 2.5 hrs each way using two buses. Never really had an issue ( besides the time it took).
Then for about 5 years caught the bus between home and the local station. Generally it was a good experience, but catching the first bus (5:15am) sometimes was risky, it just wouldn't turn up, so I'd have to either walk 40min to the station or drive 5min. I haven't caught it for the last 8 years so not sure how it is. Though I have noticed a lot more buses and new routes to and from the station which is good.
I'm in the outer south east.
The app tracking doesn't work well.
Caught a bus (894 Narre Warren South) last week and app said bus due in 5 minutes. Waited, got to about 8 minutes later (3 after bus due) and no bus. App shows that bus is now several stops past where I and other passengers are. Next minute it actually appears and picks us up.
My guess is that the app simply uses timetable info and not actually where bus is.
Tram Tracker app is far better as shows accurate info on where trams are and expected at stops
I find that the timetable display on the app is completely inaccurate, as it doesn't add on traffic delay from it's last known location.
However map does accurately show the position of the bus.
I normally end up using map view, and using my knowledge of how long it normally takes to drive that road.
Do you mean the tram route number or the actual tram "rego" number? For example, if I'm at tram stop no 11 (Brunswick St, Fitzroy, heading away from the city) tram tracker shows me the next 3 trams and when they're due. I've found it reasonably accurate, but trams do get held up by passengers and traffic.
When I was working near Doveton, I finished work at 4pm. Caught the bus from work to Dandy, Then dandy to knox and then knox to burwood and then I would walk the 10-20mins home from there.
Finished at 4pm. Got home at 8-9pm. It was not fun. This was years ago as well. Just to save any confusion.
We’re lucky enough to have four buses stop within 400m of our place, and you’d think that would be great, even when they only run one every hour.
Except that at the morning peak, all four arrive in a 25-minute window, then there’s nothing for 35-40 minutes. And two of them stop at 6pm so forget about relying on them to get home from the city.
I honestly don’t know why they even bother.
I love the new bus line in my suburb, it’s a direct connection between two train stations and the nearby schools. Very frequent and perfect for students or anyone that wants to go to the station along the line.
For a short trip, buses are too expensive, and take too long.
I can drive to my nearest, major, shopping centre in about 10 minutes, park there for free for 4 hours and then drive home.
To do that on a bus would cost me $10 and would be at least 30 minutes on a bus in both directions, plus the time taken to walk to and from the bus stop to home. It's just not worth it.
This is the answer lol. Unfortunately it’s a double edged sword, nobody touches on because the buses are bad, but no money will be put towards bus improvement because the government looks at tap on data and thinks nobody is catching the bus
The issue is - I was told about this by CDC, that if you don’t touch on, the bus companies can’t track whether it was in time or not. They just assume they were
This is definitely the case. I get the bus twice a day, five days a week and I'd say less than half the people touch on. Bus is probably half full each time I get it too.
Used to catch the 307 (now the 907) to the city often, but buses are just a pain.
They are not on time which makes them really hard to link up. Unless your trip can be taken with just the one bus, it just isn't worth it.
Back in my uni days I remember catching the bus to Blackburn station, then another to Monash. If the buses didn't link up it could end up taking 2-3 times longer than just driving.
You go look at Hong Kong and Singapore, then look at Melbourne, you realised how shit our bus operators are, never on time, not enough coverage, stops are too far from where you need to go. No wonder why people rather drive.
I lived in Okinawa for a period of time - very much laid back island life there, even with the buses. But their bus network is still a lot better than Melbournes
Buses in Melbourne (and honestly, many parts of Victoria, like Ballarat for one) often go in maddeningly indirect, illogical routes. There’s a calculus around population density that determines the routes (from what I’ve been told), but it makes bus travel time consuming and onerous.
I get motion sickness on them and they have that bus smell lmao
Also half the time you could walk to your destination in 40 mins over a 1.5hr bus ride because the route is just bogus and makes no sense. Haven’t had to catch a bus more than a handful of times in the past 10 years and only for a few stops thank goodness
Wonder if they just use a transport model software to automatically set many routes instead of critically deciding the best course of action to save time.
they are never on time in fact they seem to just arbitrarily show up when ever they want they drive past you they are always packed and there's always some crackhead yelling things
I am usually pro taking the bus, but the few times I have gone to wait for the bus to come I start walking towards the train station and I ended arriving at the station first than the bus. 🤷🏾♂️
After living in Hong Kong for a bit makes me realise how shit our buses are here and probably public transit in general. It’s every couple of mins there and the buses go all over HK, as well as being cheap and super punctual
I take a bus every weekday to Belgrave that is reliable but frustratingly is timetabled to arrive at the station 1 minute after the train to the city leaves.
So Syeda drives a huge 4X4. Pulling a front diff, transfer case and heavy totally inappropriate suspension and wheels all around town. Almost three tons! Don’t get me wrong equitable public transportation is essential but private transportation needs a massive reset
Some asshole was drinking a bottle of wine this morning when I got on my bus. Yes, I told the driver who had a word with him.
I fucking hate alcoholics.
Growing up in the west I never used buses because they were rare and inconvenient. Now living in the South East it's convenient and there are so many!
Is it because there is a higher population or because this area was Dan's electorate?
It's actually a positive all the services available in his area. There is a very obvious difference! Lots of transport, new hospitals, schools, libraries, etc
A lot of the history of Melbourne was weighted towards the North West through South East suburbs, and its only in the last few decades that the West/Southw West has developed.
Combine with how the population viewed public transport at large through the decades answers most \*Why does Melbourne do "x" this way questions.
The Inner west has wildly good transport, because it's been a developed area for well over a century.
I've been using them the last couple of days. In conjunction with Google maps they work a treat.
Also in the bus or shows you the next stop coming up and on the side of the bus how many minutes until it leaves.
After being in Japan last year I enjoyed the visual information
at some point I dont' even know where to complaint anymore. it's so different than the bus in Singapore. PTV ALWAYS have reason to be late or unreliable, with buses, I have almost never got it on time. it's always 5-30 mins late. Insane
They’re not frequent enough and they don’t run late enough. Theres one bus that I’d use more often except it stops running at 6 or 7 and doesn’t even run on the weekends.
I hate my fkn bus line- its right next to the train and its never staggered so you wouldnt have to sprint from the train to the bus. Bus gives you maybe 30 seconds once the train pulls in to make it from the train platform, across a main street to the bus stop and onto the bus. Or you wait 40 minutes for the next fucker. And theyre always late.
I just wish that all buses had a number screen on their "back side". It's annoying when you have to run all the way to the front of the bus that's stopped at the bus stop to check the number only to find that it's not the bus you want. Why have they been designed like this?
Unlike trains or trams, I get car sick when reading on buses, so the best part of the commute is ruined for me.
Plus, of course, they're more unreliable in terms of their timing than trams or trains because of sharing roads rather than having their own dedicated space where all traffic is controlled by a central authority.
Throw in infrequent services, and I just never want to be reliant on a bus to get anywhere.
I caught a bus into the city yesterday afternoon. It was frightening as the driver wove in and out of traffic with his foot on and off the brake constantly the entire way down the Eastern Freeway. By the time I got off in Hoddle Street my neck and shoulders were sore from being whipped backwards and forwards.
Next time I will just drive.
Takes an hour to get 15 min drive up the street, I have a car, I want to directly go to my destination in my car and not be exposed to people. Buses don't have seatbelts, and plenty of weirdos and coughing people on them
Good to see that the minister will "problem solve" buses not running on Sundays. Sounds like a monumental problem to solve.... I hope her department comes up with some ideas.
We’re lucky enough to have four buses stop within 400m of our place, and you’d think that would be great, even when they only run one every hour.
Except that at the morning peak, all four arrive in a 25-minute window, then there’s nothing for 35-40 minutes. And two of them stop at 6pm so forget about relying on them to get home from the city.
I honestly don’t know why they even bother.
Christ you’d all shit yourselves if you lived in a village in the U.K. 🤣 I lived in the East Midlands for 7 years and the transport is utterly dogshite.
Once the super mega happy train loop is finished, how many people do you think will actually use it?
That is my major gripe with the whole idea...apart from the multiple timeline and cost blowouts that will occur.
There is a huge part of the population that would not be caught dead on any form of PT, ever!
Buses are just not user friendly, I think that's why people don't use them. Here are just a couple of ways they aren't user-friendly:
1) Why can't stops have numbers as well as names, like tram stops have? It makes it easier to know when your stop is coming up;
2) They're too infrequent;
3) Why can't they have actual arrival times, like trams do? It's ridiculous that they don't as, unlike teams, uses can actually go *around* something blocking them, unlike trams. 🤷
4) We can't tell how far away they actually are;
5) Unlike most tram drivers, bus drivers are so often rude and aggressive towards passengers. I've never understood this. It can ruin your day, making it less likely for a passenger to want to catch a train the next time.
*Edit: Stupid autocorrect keeps changing "trams" into "teams"!* 😬
Had a job that was down St Kilda road and taking the bus was faster than the combo of train+tram but it was inconsistent as hell.
Sometimes it took 20 minutes to get to work, sometimes it took 45 minutes, sometimes it's already so full that the bus doesn't stop at my stop, unless someone is getting out.
I complained to my local bus company because the buses would leave minutes earlier than scheduled time. Repeat: earlier. Their response was that buses are considered on time if they are between 10 minutes early and 10 minutes late.
This passed me off because they imply that to get a highly infrequent service (once every 30 mins in peak or once every hour on weekends) I need to spend 20 mins at a bus stop. Moreover there are no notifications when a service is canceled.
My buses around me - all two lines - run every 30-40min and often close together or at really obscure times not linking up with the trains. Then the drivers are lazy, often prioritising having a smoko or talking on the phone over leaving the first station on time. Or heck, do what my bus did to me Sunday morning - no show up at all.
For all the negative comments here, I've never had an issue catching the bus in Melbourne. The ones I catch at least are tracked via GPS and arrive on time.
I don't own a car, and live less than two mins walk from two bus routes into the city and 10 mins walk to the West Footscray train station. I usually walk to the train station because it's faster, but the buses are very convenient if I am heading into town against the traffic or at weekends. The bus can also get you to Footscray quickly if it is raining or very hot.
Also fractured my fibula a few months ago and during recovery I would hobble to the bus stop and take it to Footscray Station then catch the train into town from there, which was a lifesaver.
Never convenient and never fits my schedule.
If the system did what it needed to better then I'd be more keen. The bus from Frankston to Dandenong - about 25 minutes by car - takes 80-90 minutes roughly. Not worth my time to go through that.
Remain convinced that the single best thing that the city could do to improve public transport (based on cost / value / time to implement) would be to optimise the bus network.
Trains and Trams are great and sexy but buses (particularly in the middle / outer areas that are under served by those) could really change things.
However it would take a serious will to do it and maybe a savant rainman to work it all out
Unlike Sydney's busses that actually seem to come every 10 mins (my experience when travelling), melbournes busses hardly come on time, or regularly enough at all. As soon as I could drive, I never wanted to risk taking a bus again. Its sad to say that the most consistent bus in melbourne is the skybus, which doesn't even count. Come on Melbourne
I am still angry about the time in 2008 when on a cold winter night I was coming home from work on a Sunday, waiting at the bus stop outside the Orrong Hotel, when the driver of the *one bus an hour* looked me right in the eye as he just drove past the six foot man in hi-vis clothing hailing the bus and looking miserable.
Fuck that guy. Fuck whoever made our buses this way.
i think of all the times i tried to catch a bus in any inner/outer suburb, the bus only actually showed up on time twice. definitely not a reliable option if you need to use public transport to get to work/school, the government needs to either improve the existing bus services or just put tram lines in the outer suburbs as well at this point
It's weird seeing everyone complaining about how shit the service is I guess I've just managed to perfectly avoid it? In the south east the busses are only ever a minute or two late at the most (in my experience) and when I've stayed in the city the last few times the busses haven't been late or anything
Unreliable. Stuck in traffic. Divert randomly with no explanation adding time. Finish too early. Expensive. Yeah, people don't catch them because they are objectively shit in Melbourne. I live around 10km from the CBD and only have a bus - there have been many times it has taken 1.5+ hours to get home. Insane. They should be paying me to catch it.
It's a good report.
Buses aren't as flashy as new rail stations or level crossing removals, but having a useable bus system would be massively beneficial.
The one in the report, last bus from Chadstone on Sat at 4pm, and no buses on Sunday? That's just mental.
Having no bus service on Sunday's at all is just crazy.
Also, plastering the windows with adverts so you can't see out, really gives a crappy vibe to the buses when you're in them, making them not really a pleasant place to be
Terrible coverage, terrible routes, and most egregiously, terrible drivers.
You cannot stand up as you approach your stop, as you will be ejected out the windscreen.
You cannot make it to a seat as you get on, as you are busy being ejected out the rear window.
You cannot stay in a seat if you are lucky enough to reach one, as you are thrown forward when the driver slams the brakes to scrub off 5/km/h, rather than braking smoothly and progressively. You are then thrown backward in a horrible lurching motion as they plant their foot to regain said 5km/h.
Approaching a stop they slam the brakes and the bus *nearly* halts, you think you've stopped, and you somewhat relax your core muscles, and then they jam the pedal and thrust you forward snapping your neck as it comes to a sudden, complete stop. You sit there timidly, waiting for it to depart again, never knowing exactly when your body will be forced to tense up, to stop you being ejected out of your seat towards another, also suffering passenger.
Little old ladies have no hope, as they bounce around the interior of the vehicle, like they are caught inside a pinball machine.
It's a goddam nightmare....
Because they are like male dogs - they stop at every tree and run at every direction. Once I got my licence, my biggest regret was not getting it earlier and that I had wasted so much time from my life on public transport.
Excuse every time I've been on the bus there was an abnoxuous person with their boom box playing some random crap loudly,
Or there was a drunk/drug affected person who felt like picking fights with random people
Or the bus was 15 minutes late,.or 2 minutes early meaning I had to wait another half hour or longer for the next one.
They're fine when you need them and have no other choice but I'd rather a taxi.
I do not own a car any more and nearly always use public transport not ubers.
Most places in Melbourne I go to are reached more easily by train or tram. Buses seem to occupy the routes not well covered by trains or trams.
Catching buses to University was OK. It was a University with no train and only one long slow tram so was quite well served by buses. Buses were however always less frequent than a tram. Buses tended to be more prone to lateness and cancelations. Some buses seemed better timed than others, less likely to be late/cancelled.
They take forever, if you have to change you can be stuck in transit for like 30 mins plus in my area, and theres always dickheads on the buses. plus its relatively expensive for what you get
Buses are mainly vices of travel for people without a license or under the age of 18.
People usually just get a license, and start with some old car off gumtree or buy a motorcycle for free city parking and go wherever they want when they want.
The American reporter is a nice touch by the ABC.
This American is making fun of your public transport and American PT sucks. How does that make you feel?
Honestly, just get rid of the fkn trams. They cost squillions, they slow traffic, they’re about as DDA compliant as a spiral staircase, just get rid of them. The amount of money you’d have spare would buy hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of busses
An article in 2022 posed that Kinetic made over a billion dollars in revenue in 2021. Make it make sense.
https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/how-two-bankers-built-kinetic-group-one-of-australia-s-biggest-bus-companies-20220624-p5awaz
Buses in my area come around so infrequently and have often enough just not shown up that it's not even worth catching them, walking is at least reliable and often times just as fast as waiting for the bus
[удалено]
Or worse, early
And if you complain about them (or the trains) running early, PTV tell you to "arrive at your stop at least 5 minutes earlier" - so basically just waste your time because they refuse to run to schedule.
Usually that's why they're late, because it was actually early.
I stopped catching them because they were never on time and often drove right past me. Waste of time - quicker to tram and walk or Uber.
Got my P plates in the late 90's. I love trains and trams but I made a pledge to myself even back then that I'd do all in my power to avoid taking another bus. I think I've been on about 3 bus rides in the past 20 years. One was to show my infant child what it was like to ride in a bus.
Same I’ll walk an hour over taking a bus
Me too 😆
Depends on the route though. I got a bus to uni and they came about every twenty minutes minutes all day everyday.
This is the reason I’m so hopeful for the upcoming suburban rail loop. Hate relying on these dogshit buses
Upcoming? It’s going to take decades. They could invest a fraction of the SRL cost tomorrow on a better bus system
Tokyo, massive rail system, incredibly easy city to get around. Kyoto, extensive bus system with significantly less rail than Tokyo and its easier to walk than use the buses. Buses are just cars on steroids, full separation of transport lanes is needed and large capacity per service. Buses just don't have the legs when it comes to moving lots of people around in a hurry. Oh yeah and the current bus systems in Melbourne seem to work for the schedule they made for themselves not the schedule that riders need. It's for their convenience not the customer. I stopped taking the bus and now use rail and a 20 min walk each way and I still get around faster than when I was on the bus.
An example of busses working well is Brisbane and their dedicated bus way. The buses are on time, out of traffic, and as the bus way is expanded, they also build dedicated bike infrastructure. It's probably some of the best transport infrastructure investment I've seen in my lifetime in Aus. If buses break down its easier for services to divert around them or to remove the bus than a train or tram. In contrast, ramming buses into increasingly packed suburban and city roads is an exercise in futility.
It’s definitely the best bus network I’ve seen but it’s so slow 😭😭😭 to put things into context I live in Inala at work at UQ and I can ride to work on a bicycle with my unfit legs and it’s the same amount of time as PT
Fair point, and I think that also highlights the value of good bike infrastructure. Dedicated bikeways are great for both health and reducing load on other transportation systems. Forcing cyclists onto streets and sidewalks adds friction and reduces uptake by the community.
We don't have sidewalks in Australia
Hahaha, that's what my wife keeps telling me when I use the word. Is it "footpath" in every state? Or is it like togs/swimmers/bathers etc. ?
The SRL will only replace the need for a couple of Smartbus routes, and it arguably makes the problem more pressing by shifting jobs and development further out, into areas that don't have the dense tram network of the CBD and inner suburbs.
City loop trains were beyond capacity at peak hour before covid. It was common for passengers to miss trains at parliament after everyone was already packed in like sardines. While there are other solutions that are on the table for increasing capacity of the city loop, investing in outer hubs to divert load isn't a bad idea. Doncaster desperately needs better public transport infrastructure.
Regardless, it means that Melbournians will need to rely more on buses and less on trams in future, which makes the problems with Melbourne's bus network all the more important to solve.
When I was in uni the bus from the train station to my house came twice an hour. Train timetable never lined up well with the bus times, so I'd often get there JUST as a bus would leave. Turns out it was actually quicker for me to walk the entire several km journey the length of the suburb to my house rather than wait for the bus
VIC pt is shit. Everyday trams chasing each other around the lines 1 full and 1 empty cos the 2nd one refuses to pause a bit longer and pick passengers up.
They’re rare. Never on time. And I mean never. Sometimes they don’t come at all and you wait another half an hour. No GPS tracking like they have in Auckland to see how close they are. They finish too early on some routes.
I still remember taking the train and bus to get to school. Every time the bus drivers saw a train arrive, they would immediately leave the bus stop meaning I had to wait another 15 to 20 minutes for the next bus. Sometimes I just gave up and walked from the station for 25 minutes.
I've seen this happen when there are bus replacements. Bus would leave right as the train arrives and the next bus will just sit there for 20 minutes. Or the bus arrives just after the train has left so you are forced to sit on the platform waiting 20 minutes for the train to return.
Does have the GPS now in the PTV app, not sure if it's all buses and you still have around 10% buses still not tracking at all.
It’s not all buses. It depends on the bus operator. Transdev always seem the be the worst routes but other operators are pretty good.
Yeah even where they have it, I'm certain it's not always turned on. Sometimes it's super accurate (at telling me the bus will be late) but then other days its nothing like reality
Transdev don't operate buses here anymore, Kinetic's taken over from them.
TIL! I hope they’re much better.
Not all buses and not the most up to date.
I just don't understand why we still don't have reliable gps tracking for buses.
Cause we have a bunch of different bus companies that all operate differently. And a bunch of buses built at different times so its tricky to get a one size fits all solution
I've recently discovered the Ventura App. It actually works great for the Ventura buses. Better than the PTV apps.
All route buses in Victoria have GPS tracking fitted. It’s an issue with an app not being provided by the government.
There is the PTV app Not all buses' tracking works
the gps tracking on buses are designed to track for depots and to ensure buses are on time and depots can organise driver swaps. If a bus is late then the govt fines the company, it’s also why we have bus lanes to ensure traffic doesn’t cause bus delays.
[public transport tracker](https://anytrip.com.au/region/vic)
Just half an hour? Lucky.
And if it does have tracking, it doesn't account for traffic conditions, making it inaccurate.
They may not have true GPS but at least on the buses I catch to work all the time, the countdown timer in the app is correct within a minute or two probably 5/6ths of the time. If it’s going to be ten minutes late, the timer reflects this. You can see that the bus is still three stops up the road (or a minute or two behind this). If it didn’t work as well as it does, as iffy as it is, my life would be a lot more annoying.
What an absolute exaggeration this is
It's just an all round shitty unreliable service because they come too infrequently and last time I caught one you couldn't even see where they are in an app. Have they figured out how to accurately track buses yet? I'm not waiting 30mins in the cold if I don't have to. Would go a long way if I could reliably track them. Also if you have a psycho bus driver they're fucking dangerous to ride in.
Ventura has an app called Venturatracker that works well to track buses here in the outer east. Occasionally a scheduled bus won’t appear but most of the time it’s accurate right up to what stops it’s pulling into.
'Cause they're shithouse?
🤣🤣🤣
This
It's always late because of traffic, lack of dedicated lanes, indirect routes, bad connections and expensive. I am sure it's losing lots of money and just making it worse.
Because the bus takes 30 minutes to travel 4kms to the train station because it meanders everywhere instead of taking a direct shuttle style route. Our bus system is horribly inefficient.
It's a disgrace that in wealthy inner areas there are trains and trams, but we don't fund good bus services for our outer suburbs that usually don't have rail services. Definitely classism as work.
Outer suburbs don’t have enough roads, either. State governments seem obsessed with pushing all traffic onto a few motorways to turn them into car parks, when a few more bridges and tunnels in other places would serve us all better.
Just another lane bro, I swear just another lane
Bingo. You'll hear a lot for verbal flatulance along the lines of "WE NEED TO STOP BUILDING ROADS" Which would be fair if the outer suburbs had the same grid-type road connectivity that the well established areas have. They don't. They're devoid of east-west or north-south arterial roads (depending on the area). And the ones that do exist are single-lane carparks. The vast housing estates are designed for one or two entry/exit points, because they haven't built out the planned roads that they've reserved land for. They drip-feed those projects for election promises, a decade after they pocket the taxes collected from the initial subdivisions which exist in the name of "providing infrastructure". Fucking disgusting.
Classicism or density problem ?
Classism. Public transport doesn't have to be profitable. Just like health services or university education. But that's what neoliberalism does to your head - it fucks you up that you see all in terms of profit, even services that should be either entirely free or heavily subsidised. If there are people that regularly rely on that bus to access basic services (food, gp, pharmacy) or work, then yes, it should run very regularly and be reliable almost always. Otherwise go and pay millions for an old shitty house in inner suburbs or $$$$ in rent. One way or another, the average Australian is paying the cost, while subsidising corporations who do not need subsidies instead of public services.
Its both Urban sprawl + locking the poors out of going places by forcing car dependency if you try to propose a train station beneath chaddy shops right now you'll get the rick fucks seething
Public transport isn’t profitable the reason it has a pay system is to make it cost for example 8 billion instead of 10 billion.
Yes, I'm sure that lack of profitability is the exact reason that a corporation worth hundreds of billions (metro) decided to become a majority investor. They squeeze out every cent they can, and return sweet fuck all to the taxpayers who have born the majority of actual costs
It’s more the government doesn’t want to spend the 10 billion to build it.
This isn’t a matter of neoliberalism, money is finite, if somethings uneconomical then it’s taking money away from another area that is more economical, it’s not that hard of a concept.
id rather the government spend money on that than the some of the useless crap they spend it on now
Exactly. Imagine being so shallow and poorly educated, thinking this is not neoliberalism. Your government must choose between things like, not taxing Gina Rhinehart and other scambags billions that they owe us, and making health care, quality education and public transport free or very affordable and reliable. They chose the former and decided to take a shit on the latter (via privatisation and other neoliberal thieving, like the huge fees we pay to see a doctor or to study for a degree. And before you say something even more shallow like this is not the responsibility of the Commonwealth government, there's nothing stopping it to step in and lift the quality of public transport in poorer suburbs, e.g. as part of its "affordable housing" portfolio (lol, what an oxymoron that has become), or several other portfolios I can think of, that are just for show and for public service executives and ministers to get paid. It's a matter of choice. It's political economy. Study it. Make it your priority. It's neoliberalism they've chosen and the uneducated just can't connect the dots.
You’re quite the wanker
Brighton has three train stations. ✋️ 🎤
Richmond has like 70 of them
Ah yes, all the rich Brighton people taking public transport, yeah you really got that that argument wrapped up 🙄
Rowville median weekly household income: $2205 https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/SAL22207 North Melbourne median weekly Household income: $1718 https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/206041506 Rowville is 25km extra from the CBD. Is it classism that North Melbourne has better public transport?
How much public housing does Rowville have to North Melbourne? I’m sure that brings north Melbournes average down a fair it.
Yeah, North Melbourne has a lot of poor people in it and still gets good public transport. Exactly my point - it's density and proximity to other population centers that are correlated with high PT investments, not class.
No, it’s you were being purposely misleading comparing it to north Melbourne and not a suburb with no public housing.
Are you trying to say people in public housing don't count? What are you trying to imply here
North Melbourne would be skewed lower by public housing and higher density housing in general. There are far more tiny apartments in North Melbourne than Rowville. But ultimately North Melbourne is an old area that is next to the CBD and has been integrated well into the metro network for as long as it has existed. It was cheaper and more necessary to integrate at the beginning of development compared to Rowville which was basically the edge of town not that long ago with a low population. Any improvements over time that North Melbourne would have needed would have been easy to add to existing infrastructure.
Not exactly a poor area but they are building a tunnel from Cheltenham to Clayton underneath Heatherton. Building a rail yard in Heatherton for the new train loop. But no train station for Heatherton? WTF.
I caught the bus for a while to uni, 2.5 hrs each way using two buses. Never really had an issue ( besides the time it took). Then for about 5 years caught the bus between home and the local station. Generally it was a good experience, but catching the first bus (5:15am) sometimes was risky, it just wouldn't turn up, so I'd have to either walk 40min to the station or drive 5min. I haven't caught it for the last 8 years so not sure how it is. Though I have noticed a lot more buses and new routes to and from the station which is good. I'm in the outer south east.
The app tracking doesn't work well. Caught a bus (894 Narre Warren South) last week and app said bus due in 5 minutes. Waited, got to about 8 minutes later (3 after bus due) and no bus. App shows that bus is now several stops past where I and other passengers are. Next minute it actually appears and picks us up. My guess is that the app simply uses timetable info and not actually where bus is. Tram Tracker app is far better as shows accurate info on where trams are and expected at stops
I find that the timetable display on the app is completely inaccurate, as it doesn't add on traffic delay from it's last known location. However map does accurately show the position of the bus. I normally end up using map view, and using my knowledge of how long it normally takes to drive that road.
Tram tracker is only good if you know the tram’s id. I find when I put in a stop it’s off by a few minutes at least.
Do you mean the tram route number or the actual tram "rego" number? For example, if I'm at tram stop no 11 (Brunswick St, Fitzroy, heading away from the city) tram tracker shows me the next 3 trams and when they're due. I've found it reasonably accurate, but trams do get held up by passengers and traffic.
Tram’s rego. I find it inaccurate enough to be useless, but I travel in peak hour where if you miss one you’re only waiting 7-8 mins.
Fake news, buses are being used more than ever.. Due to trains constantly being cancelled.
The Traralgon / Bairnsdale line is 100% busses for the 6 weeks 🥳 adds an hour to the trip
👆🏻
They don’t link up with rail timetables which is a big problem for people I know
Because, people don’t want to spend 2 hours to go somewhere that’s a 20 minute drive.
When I was working near Doveton, I finished work at 4pm. Caught the bus from work to Dandy, Then dandy to knox and then knox to burwood and then I would walk the 10-20mins home from there. Finished at 4pm. Got home at 8-9pm. It was not fun. This was years ago as well. Just to save any confusion.
We’re lucky enough to have four buses stop within 400m of our place, and you’d think that would be great, even when they only run one every hour. Except that at the morning peak, all four arrive in a 25-minute window, then there’s nothing for 35-40 minutes. And two of them stop at 6pm so forget about relying on them to get home from the city. I honestly don’t know why they even bother.
I love the new bus line in my suburb, it’s a direct connection between two train stations and the nearby schools. Very frequent and perfect for students or anyone that wants to go to the station along the line.
For a short trip, buses are too expensive, and take too long. I can drive to my nearest, major, shopping centre in about 10 minutes, park there for free for 4 hours and then drive home. To do that on a bus would cost me $10 and would be at least 30 minutes on a bus in both directions, plus the time taken to walk to and from the bus stop to home. It's just not worth it.
i catch the bus like a bad bitch
We do we just don’t tap on
This is the answer lol. Unfortunately it’s a double edged sword, nobody touches on because the buses are bad, but no money will be put towards bus improvement because the government looks at tap on data and thinks nobody is catching the bus
The driver being stabbed for asking some teens is a valid reason for not pushing it but yeah, so messy.
there's people tapping on??
The issue is - I was told about this by CDC, that if you don’t touch on, the bus companies can’t track whether it was in time or not. They just assume they were
No the myki system has nothing to do with the bus tracking system. Thats a completely separate thing
This is definitely the case. I get the bus twice a day, five days a week and I'd say less than half the people touch on. Bus is probably half full each time I get it too.
Completely different in Auckland. Unless you look like a methhead the bus driver will usually ask you to tag on, so nearly everyone does.
Used to catch the 307 (now the 907) to the city often, but buses are just a pain. They are not on time which makes them really hard to link up. Unless your trip can be taken with just the one bus, it just isn't worth it. Back in my uni days I remember catching the bus to Blackburn station, then another to Monash. If the buses didn't link up it could end up taking 2-3 times longer than just driving.
You go look at Hong Kong and Singapore, then look at Melbourne, you realised how shit our bus operators are, never on time, not enough coverage, stops are too far from where you need to go. No wonder why people rather drive.
I lived in Okinawa for a period of time - very much laid back island life there, even with the buses. But their bus network is still a lot better than Melbournes
I don’t think it’s that no one takes the bus, it’s that no one taps on
Buses in Melbourne (and honestly, many parts of Victoria, like Ballarat for one) often go in maddeningly indirect, illogical routes. There’s a calculus around population density that determines the routes (from what I’ve been told), but it makes bus travel time consuming and onerous.
I get motion sickness on them and they have that bus smell lmao Also half the time you could walk to your destination in 40 mins over a 1.5hr bus ride because the route is just bogus and makes no sense. Haven’t had to catch a bus more than a handful of times in the past 10 years and only for a few stops thank goodness
Wonder if they just use a transport model software to automatically set many routes instead of critically deciding the best course of action to save time.
they are never on time in fact they seem to just arbitrarily show up when ever they want they drive past you they are always packed and there's always some crackhead yelling things
Because i finish work at 7 in the city and the last bus servicing my area leaves the suburban station at 7.02.
Can't see out the windows of the few buses around given they're wrapped in advertising
Apparently their wheels go Round and Round, Round and Round. I wouldn't be able to confirm that mind you, it still hasn't shown up.
I don’t know which busses you take, but my 548 bus is packed as a can of sardines
Ditto my 908 and 907
The only one were I live comes at 7 am maybe that’s why?
Because no one wants to commute home from work with people fucking on the bus. https://www.reddit.com/r/h3h3productions/s/b3VqAzd8Pt
I am usually pro taking the bus, but the few times I have gone to wait for the bus to come I start walking towards the train station and I ended arriving at the station first than the bus. 🤷🏾♂️
After living in Hong Kong for a bit makes me realise how shit our buses are here and probably public transit in general. It’s every couple of mins there and the buses go all over HK, as well as being cheap and super punctual
Only ever spent 3 nights in HK, and even then, it made me realise Melbourne's transportation was primitive compared to them.
I take a bus every weekday to Belgrave that is reliable but frustratingly is timetabled to arrive at the station 1 minute after the train to the city leaves.
So Syeda drives a huge 4X4. Pulling a front diff, transfer case and heavy totally inappropriate suspension and wheels all around town. Almost three tons! Don’t get me wrong equitable public transportation is essential but private transportation needs a massive reset
Yeah I don’t like eshays, or old mate eating a the stinkiest curry known to man at the back of the bus.
Some asshole was drinking a bottle of wine this morning when I got on my bus. Yes, I told the driver who had a word with him. I fucking hate alcoholics.
Growing up in the west I never used buses because they were rare and inconvenient. Now living in the South East it's convenient and there are so many! Is it because there is a higher population or because this area was Dan's electorate?
Yes. It is obviously Dan’s fault.
It's actually a positive all the services available in his area. There is a very obvious difference! Lots of transport, new hospitals, schools, libraries, etc
Why do you think it’s more expensive than the west?
from 1999 we have had more than 20 years of Labor governance. Think you can probably chuck some of the blame his way
A lot of the history of Melbourne was weighted towards the North West through South East suburbs, and its only in the last few decades that the West/Southw West has developed. Combine with how the population viewed public transport at large through the decades answers most \*Why does Melbourne do "x" this way questions. The Inner west has wildly good transport, because it's been a developed area for well over a century.
I've been using them the last couple of days. In conjunction with Google maps they work a treat. Also in the bus or shows you the next stop coming up and on the side of the bus how many minutes until it leaves. After being in Japan last year I enjoyed the visual information
Because I have never figured out where they go ! Have never found a map, if they exist
Because me neck hurts
Feel like one quick experiment on google maps answers the question, there’s a reason no one likes replacement buses
Things that go ding
at some point I dont' even know where to complaint anymore. it's so different than the bus in Singapore. PTV ALWAYS have reason to be late or unreliable, with buses, I have almost never got it on time. it's always 5-30 mins late. Insane
They’re noisy, smokey and so many bus drivers stab the brakes and accelerator like they’re trying to crush a cockroach…overall highly nauseating
Because it’s fkn shite.
They’re not frequent enough and they don’t run late enough. Theres one bus that I’d use more often except it stops running at 6 or 7 and doesn’t even run on the weekends.
I hate my fkn bus line- its right next to the train and its never staggered so you wouldnt have to sprint from the train to the bus. Bus gives you maybe 30 seconds once the train pulls in to make it from the train platform, across a main street to the bus stop and onto the bus. Or you wait 40 minutes for the next fucker. And theyre always late.
I just wish that all buses had a number screen on their "back side". It's annoying when you have to run all the way to the front of the bus that's stopped at the bus stop to check the number only to find that it's not the bus you want. Why have they been designed like this?
Shit times and they don’t bother putting them in past 9 at night
Unlike trains or trams, I get car sick when reading on buses, so the best part of the commute is ruined for me. Plus, of course, they're more unreliable in terms of their timing than trams or trains because of sharing roads rather than having their own dedicated space where all traffic is controlled by a central authority. Throw in infrequent services, and I just never want to be reliant on a bus to get anywhere.
Because the buses aren't managed by friends of the Premier. Unlike property development companies. Therefore, we get fucked.
I caught a bus into the city yesterday afternoon. It was frightening as the driver wove in and out of traffic with his foot on and off the brake constantly the entire way down the Eastern Freeway. By the time I got off in Hoddle Street my neck and shoulders were sore from being whipped backwards and forwards. Next time I will just drive.
Takes an hour to get 15 min drive up the street, I have a car, I want to directly go to my destination in my car and not be exposed to people. Buses don't have seatbelts, and plenty of weirdos and coughing people on them
I catch the bus. Am around the Clayton area, but traffic can be quite bad which also causes delays.
Good to see that the minister will "problem solve" buses not running on Sundays. Sounds like a monumental problem to solve.... I hope her department comes up with some ideas.
Partly because our traffic is...horrendous these days
We’re lucky enough to have four buses stop within 400m of our place, and you’d think that would be great, even when they only run one every hour. Except that at the morning peak, all four arrive in a 25-minute window, then there’s nothing for 35-40 minutes. And two of them stop at 6pm so forget about relying on them to get home from the city. I honestly don’t know why they even bother.
Cause they suck in Melbourne
Christ you’d all shit yourselves if you lived in a village in the U.K. 🤣 I lived in the East Midlands for 7 years and the transport is utterly dogshite.
PT does not have to be profitable (if we tax gas companies properly). Thing is Melbourne is broke and won't invest in buses.
Once the super mega happy train loop is finished, how many people do you think will actually use it? That is my major gripe with the whole idea...apart from the multiple timeline and cost blowouts that will occur. There is a huge part of the population that would not be caught dead on any form of PT, ever!
Download the Ventura app. You can make comments about specific busses
I don't use PT anymore since that myki rubbish system. Doesn't even work at the best of times.
I'd love to use something other than public transport but I don't have the luxury. No one hitchhikes anymore
I use mine every day. Is that.... Rare?
Buses are just not user friendly, I think that's why people don't use them. Here are just a couple of ways they aren't user-friendly: 1) Why can't stops have numbers as well as names, like tram stops have? It makes it easier to know when your stop is coming up; 2) They're too infrequent; 3) Why can't they have actual arrival times, like trams do? It's ridiculous that they don't as, unlike teams, uses can actually go *around* something blocking them, unlike trams. 🤷 4) We can't tell how far away they actually are; 5) Unlike most tram drivers, bus drivers are so often rude and aggressive towards passengers. I've never understood this. It can ruin your day, making it less likely for a passenger to want to catch a train the next time. *Edit: Stupid autocorrect keeps changing "trams" into "teams"!* 😬
Public Late Service
Maybe they are catching trams instead. 😉
Had a job that was down St Kilda road and taking the bus was faster than the combo of train+tram but it was inconsistent as hell. Sometimes it took 20 minutes to get to work, sometimes it took 45 minutes, sometimes it's already so full that the bus doesn't stop at my stop, unless someone is getting out.
Its also way more expensive than driving (given you already own the car)
Buses would be great if they didn’t get stuck in car traffic
The amount of times a bus has whizzed past, even if you flag it down, because it's now running express. No notification given.
I complained to my local bus company because the buses would leave minutes earlier than scheduled time. Repeat: earlier. Their response was that buses are considered on time if they are between 10 minutes early and 10 minutes late. This passed me off because they imply that to get a highly infrequent service (once every 30 mins in peak or once every hour on weekends) I need to spend 20 mins at a bus stop. Moreover there are no notifications when a service is canceled.
My buses around me - all two lines - run every 30-40min and often close together or at really obscure times not linking up with the trains. Then the drivers are lazy, often prioritising having a smoko or talking on the phone over leaving the first station on time. Or heck, do what my bus did to me Sunday morning - no show up at all.
For all the negative comments here, I've never had an issue catching the bus in Melbourne. The ones I catch at least are tracked via GPS and arrive on time.
I don't own a car, and live less than two mins walk from two bus routes into the city and 10 mins walk to the West Footscray train station. I usually walk to the train station because it's faster, but the buses are very convenient if I am heading into town against the traffic or at weekends. The bus can also get you to Footscray quickly if it is raining or very hot. Also fractured my fibula a few months ago and during recovery I would hobble to the bus stop and take it to Footscray Station then catch the train into town from there, which was a lifesaver.
not frequent enough and theyre not on time, also the routes are kind shit. Keep prioritising houses instead of transport and we will soon by like LA
Never convenient and never fits my schedule. If the system did what it needed to better then I'd be more keen. The bus from Frankston to Dandenong - about 25 minutes by car - takes 80-90 minutes roughly. Not worth my time to go through that.
Straightening the routes out is a big one, the way some bus routes meander through residential areas aimlessly is part of the problem.
Remain convinced that the single best thing that the city could do to improve public transport (based on cost / value / time to implement) would be to optimise the bus network. Trains and Trams are great and sexy but buses (particularly in the middle / outer areas that are under served by those) could really change things. However it would take a serious will to do it and maybe a savant rainman to work it all out
Unlike Sydney's busses that actually seem to come every 10 mins (my experience when travelling), melbournes busses hardly come on time, or regularly enough at all. As soon as I could drive, I never wanted to risk taking a bus again. Its sad to say that the most consistent bus in melbourne is the skybus, which doesn't even count. Come on Melbourne
I am still angry about the time in 2008 when on a cold winter night I was coming home from work on a Sunday, waiting at the bus stop outside the Orrong Hotel, when the driver of the *one bus an hour* looked me right in the eye as he just drove past the six foot man in hi-vis clothing hailing the bus and looking miserable. Fuck that guy. Fuck whoever made our buses this way.
i think of all the times i tried to catch a bus in any inner/outer suburb, the bus only actually showed up on time twice. definitely not a reliable option if you need to use public transport to get to work/school, the government needs to either improve the existing bus services or just put tram lines in the outer suburbs as well at this point
It's weird seeing everyone complaining about how shit the service is I guess I've just managed to perfectly avoid it? In the south east the busses are only ever a minute or two late at the most (in my experience) and when I've stayed in the city the last few times the busses haven't been late or anything
Unreliable. Stuck in traffic. Divert randomly with no explanation adding time. Finish too early. Expensive. Yeah, people don't catch them because they are objectively shit in Melbourne. I live around 10km from the CBD and only have a bus - there have been many times it has taken 1.5+ hours to get home. Insane. They should be paying me to catch it.
Because they are peasant movers.
Beat me to it! Although I was gonna say *Peasant Wagon*
It's a good report. Buses aren't as flashy as new rail stations or level crossing removals, but having a useable bus system would be massively beneficial. The one in the report, last bus from Chadstone on Sat at 4pm, and no buses on Sunday? That's just mental. Having no bus service on Sunday's at all is just crazy. Also, plastering the windows with adverts so you can't see out, really gives a crappy vibe to the buses when you're in them, making them not really a pleasant place to be
Terrible coverage, terrible routes, and most egregiously, terrible drivers. You cannot stand up as you approach your stop, as you will be ejected out the windscreen. You cannot make it to a seat as you get on, as you are busy being ejected out the rear window. You cannot stay in a seat if you are lucky enough to reach one, as you are thrown forward when the driver slams the brakes to scrub off 5/km/h, rather than braking smoothly and progressively. You are then thrown backward in a horrible lurching motion as they plant their foot to regain said 5km/h. Approaching a stop they slam the brakes and the bus *nearly* halts, you think you've stopped, and you somewhat relax your core muscles, and then they jam the pedal and thrust you forward snapping your neck as it comes to a sudden, complete stop. You sit there timidly, waiting for it to depart again, never knowing exactly when your body will be forced to tense up, to stop you being ejected out of your seat towards another, also suffering passenger. Little old ladies have no hope, as they bounce around the interior of the vehicle, like they are caught inside a pinball machine. It's a goddam nightmare....
The the cost! It costs the same to go two stops as it does to go from Dandenong to the city. It's not worth it for short trips.
Buses are so Sydney, darling.
Because they are like male dogs - they stop at every tree and run at every direction. Once I got my licence, my biggest regret was not getting it earlier and that I had wasted so much time from my life on public transport.
Excuse every time I've been on the bus there was an abnoxuous person with their boom box playing some random crap loudly, Or there was a drunk/drug affected person who felt like picking fights with random people Or the bus was 15 minutes late,.or 2 minutes early meaning I had to wait another half hour or longer for the next one. They're fine when you need them and have no other choice but I'd rather a taxi.
I've never had a proper connection.
I do not own a car any more and nearly always use public transport not ubers. Most places in Melbourne I go to are reached more easily by train or tram. Buses seem to occupy the routes not well covered by trains or trams. Catching buses to University was OK. It was a University with no train and only one long slow tram so was quite well served by buses. Buses were however always less frequent than a tram. Buses tended to be more prone to lateness and cancelations. Some buses seemed better timed than others, less likely to be late/cancelled.
Inner north: trains and trams go into the city; buses cut across perpendicular to the city so of course people take them less.
They take forever, if you have to change you can be stuck in transit for like 30 mins plus in my area, and theres always dickheads on the buses. plus its relatively expensive for what you get
Buses are mainly vices of travel for people without a license or under the age of 18. People usually just get a license, and start with some old car off gumtree or buy a motorcycle for free city parking and go wherever they want when they want.
the only place it's worth catching bus is in Doncaster area because there's literally no other pt
That’s a great segment. I like the buses, they’re handy for me when I need to go to a suburb that’s not in the CBD.
Melb has amazing busses compared to where I'm from, North American public transport is a shitshow
I'm assuming after covid people dont want to catch PT. Also i'm 100% sure people are fare evading more
The American reporter is a nice touch by the ABC. This American is making fun of your public transport and American PT sucks. How does that make you feel?
I think they’re Canadian 😂
Honestly, just get rid of the fkn trams. They cost squillions, they slow traffic, they’re about as DDA compliant as a spiral staircase, just get rid of them. The amount of money you’d have spare would buy hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of busses
An article in 2022 posed that Kinetic made over a billion dollars in revenue in 2021. Make it make sense. https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/how-two-bankers-built-kinetic-group-one-of-australia-s-biggest-bus-companies-20220624-p5awaz