Connecting Ballarat

A few weeks ago, the PTUA launched a proposal to dramatically improve Ballarat's bus network, called Connecting Ballarat. The plan aims to reform the bus routes and timetables, increase frequencies and extend the span of hours the buses run - to provide a dramatically better service that would attract people out of their cars, and take pressure off parking around the stations and in the CBD. Read the full report here.

The cornerstone of the route reforms is to straighten out the paths routes take through the CBD, by joining routes on opposite sides of town together; Ballarat station would be the centrepoint rather than the terminus. This would mean routes could still go to both Ballarat Station and Bridge Mall, but in the order that makes the most sense - rather than zigzagging and twisting back on themselves to hit them in a particular order. This would make more sense to potential users, and would be much quicker and more efficient in terms of driver time (and therefore taxpayer resources) which can be reinvested into service improvements.

Buses would flow in one side of the CBD and out the other

Under the plan, buses would start earlier in the mornings and finish later in the evenings. As discussed in previous posts, if you want to catch the first few trains of the day, or any train after the evening peak, you have to drive to the station - there are no buses available for you. By extending normal frequencies to around 9pm, and having buses "meet the trains" in the early mornings and late evenings, the bus network would not only be much more usable for commuters, it would allow people to actually use the buses to get around Ballarat in the evenings - going out for dinner or drinks, or to the movies or theatre.

One reason it's important to start this push now, is that we have about a year before the Ballarat Line Upgrade (BLU) project finishes. At that point, train frequencies will change from hourly between the peaks (and a slightly haphazard 30-40ish minutes in the peaks) to a 20-minute peak/40-minute off-peak service. The increased frequency is very welcome, but it does break the connections with the existing 30/60 minute bus frequencies. The proposal calls for most routes to be upgraded to 20 or 40 minutes, to maintain connectivity with the trains (not to mention provide a higher-frequency service for those travelling around Ballarat). A few key routes would be upgraded to a 10-minute frequency, to provide a proper turn-up-and-go service along the spines of the network.

Why a year? Well, the upcoming election is one factor - now is of course the best time to get politicians to commit to spending money on things. But the main reason is that it simply takes this long to get this kind of reform to happen - even in the best-case scenario where everyone's keen to do it and there's funding for it and so on. The idea is that PTV will take up the proposal and run with it, using their myki data (and general expertise) to fine-tune the proposal - for example, tweaking which two routes on opposite sides get joined together, or avoiding a road they know can't handle the weight of buses - and take it to the public for consultation and further finetuning. These things don't happen overnight.

The story got a good run in local TV, radio and print media

The reaction thus far has been pretty good. The launch got good media coverage, which was heartening - it's always a lot harder to get attention for buses than trains, but it got a good run. The reaction from the public has been overwhelmingly positive, despite a few critiques (I was honestly expecting to get a bunch of angry emails demanding to know why I was proposing to take their local bus away, or demanding to know why I wanted to ruin their street by putting buses down it, but thankfully that hasn't happened). Committee for Ballarat, the Mayor, and the Liberals have all made positive comments in the media - although none have formally committed to anything specific. Labor deflected the question when asked, saying they'd already invested in extra services this term (true), that they're building a new bus interchange at Ballarat Station (also true, if controversial) and will be reviewing things once that's finished.

So basically the political reaction was about as I expected. The report does praise the increases in frequency introduced under Labor, and praises aspects of the route changes introduced this term while criticising others; overwhelmingly what it does is point out how successive governments have failed to invest in a bus network that is seriously attractive to drivers (which is obviously a bipartisan issue). But of course anything that criticises the status quo can be viewed as an attack on the government of the day, so the Liberals using it as a sword and Labor defending themselves is pretty much to be expected. I don't think you can really read too much into either party's public reaction - both will probably be quite open to sensible reforms within the existing funding envelope, and both will probably need a lot of convincing to invest serious money into the system.

So basically, now the task is to build as much support for the proposal as possible, to put pressure on both parties before and beyond the state election, to make sure something actually comes of this. The proposal is undoubtedly ambitious - but if we can get even incremental improvements next year, we can keep building from there.

Want to help? Talk about it on social media using #ConnectingBallarat, write to the candidates for your electorate and tell them you want this, and if you're not already a member, join the PTUA