By Cade Lucas
A bus route connecting Footscray and Laverton has been rated as one of the worst in Melbourne in a review of bus services at train stations earmarked for housing development by the state government.
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) conducted the review of 51 bus routes running through 25 train stations classified as high density housing “activity centres” in a policy announced by the state government late last year.
The review rated bus routes stopping at each station as either, good, fair, low quality or poor depending on the frequency of services and whether they operated on weekends or not.
The 414 bus from Laverton to Footscray was one of only eight routes to be rated as poor, with the service marked down for only running once every 40 minutes on weekdays, once every 60 to 90 minutes on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays.
The 414 stops at West Footscray and Middle Footscray stations, the only western suburbs stations included in the review, and both of which have been identified as activity centres where high rise housing developments can be built.
Of the other six bus routes stopping at one or both stations, only the 216 and 220 routes from Sunshine to the Melbourne CBD were rated as good, while the other four, including the 472 from Williamstown to Moonee Ponds and the 410 from Sunshine to Footscray, were rated as fair.
PTUA spokesperson Daniel Bowen said bus services at both West Footscray and Middle Footscray stations were a mixed bag.
“The ex-tramways routes 216, 220 and 223 all have pretty good timetables, with a bus every 10-15 minutes on weekdays, and every 15-20 on weekends – not perfect, but enough that people can rely on those routes to get around without too much trouble,” Mr Bowen said.
“Some other local bus routes provide a reasonably good service on weekdays, but on weekends are less frequent. And some routes have very limited services on weekends, or simply don’t run.”
Mr Bowen said without better public transport services, the housing activity centres would prove ineffective.
“Denser housing around public transport makes a lot of sense, but must be served by frequent reliable services to avoid people having to rely on cars to get around.”
