Sunday 27 January 2013

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.




Monday 21 January 2013

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).

Tuesday 15 January 2013

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.