SmartBus turns 20 today. Starting as a pilot project on Blackburn and Springvale Rd its first decade saw an expansion to include new university, orbital and Doncaster area routes. It changed how thousands get around Melbourne, adding to previously sparse evening and weekend service on major roads, particularly in the eastern suburbs. And the increased service it brought was a prime reason for the commensurate boom in bus patronage encountered.
See my 18th birthday write-up for a more detailed story.
SmartBus had a huge growth spurt in election year 2010. Then nothing new for the decade-plus since. Ex-Met routes that already closely meet or exceeded SmartBus service standards (eg 216, 220, 223, 234, 246 etc) remain outside the SmartBus house. The proposed Blue Orbital and western part of the Green Orbital didn't happen despite even bigger PPTN plans existing. And a bold $1.5b 2015 BusVic proposal for 20 new SmartBus routes got no further than this TV news report.
Government and bus operator commitment to even the existing routes has lessened with the use of specially liveried SmartBus vehicles, though effective in promoting the service to car drivers, declining. SmartBus probably reached its low point under the disgraced former bus operator Transdev Melbourne who ran dirty and/or unsafe buses on its routes until pinged by Transport Safety Victoria in 2017.
Transdev then smartened its act, with the COVID pandemic assisting already improving cleanliness. But that didn't stop it losing the operating franchise to Kinetic which has since maintained better standards. And there's been some good news on the service front in the last few years. These saw small weekend service upgrades on routes 703 and 900. Also Doncaster area SmartBuses gained long-overdue Sunday evening services and in some cases Night Network and weekend frequency boosts as well.
SmartBus has been transformational. It helped change the public transport network from a CBD-centred asterisk to a more versatile web. And it showed conclusively that if you improve service more people will use buses. These are, I think, its two biggest achievements.
SmartBus' three big remaining challenges include a. still low frequencies, particularly weekends, b. slower than ideal travel speeds due to car traffic, and c. lack of expansion since 2010, particularly in Melbourne's west, north and outer south-east.
What about the future? Victoria's Bus Plan mentions a hierarchy of routes but had little specifics of future network changes. My Future Frequent Network adds needed detail, proposing a direct frequent network similar in size and concept to the PPTN outlined in 2006.
So happy birthday to SmartBus. If you've had any interesting SmartBus experiences please share them in the comments below.
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