Catching the V/Line bus to the city is scenic but unpredictable. Here’s our chance to fix it.
By Catherine Watson
WHEN the V/Line bus to the city works well, it’s a dream run, much better than driving.
Time: anywhere from two and a half to three and a half hours, depending on traffic and roadworks.
Cost: next to nothing. Free in May and half-price for the rest of the year.
Highlights: the view from the bus. From up high, you see things you never noticed before.
Convenience: no navigation, no parking, no city driving.
Drivers: apart from one notorious grump, they are helpful, cheerful and professional.
But anyone who uses the buses regularly has their own stories about long waits when it all goes wrong. As a regular bus user before entering Parliament, Bass MP Jordan Crugnale knows the gaps and frustrations all too well.
WHEN the V/Line bus to the city works well, it’s a dream run, much better than driving.
Time: anywhere from two and a half to three and a half hours, depending on traffic and roadworks.
Cost: next to nothing. Free in May and half-price for the rest of the year.
Highlights: the view from the bus. From up high, you see things you never noticed before.
Convenience: no navigation, no parking, no city driving.
Drivers: apart from one notorious grump, they are helpful, cheerful and professional.
But anyone who uses the buses regularly has their own stories about long waits when it all goes wrong. As a regular bus user before entering Parliament, Bass MP Jordan Crugnale knows the gaps and frustrations all too well.
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When she was elected in 2018, improving public transport in Bass Coast was one of her priorities. Eight years later, with her retirement looming in November, she is determined to fix the gaps before she leaves office.
Last month’s state budget included funding to improve our bus services. Now she wants to hear from us about where the system fails and how it could work better. At the risk of sounding like one of those little boys who knows all the train timetables, here are my observations of our bus services. |
VLine Bus Survey Join us in our quest for more services for Bass Coast. We continue to push for more services, modern timetabling, and better connections that suit how we move around in the 21st century. We all agree the VLine bus service could be whole lot better! Yarram and Leongatha VLine got a service uplift announcement last year. It's our turn now. Please help by filling out the survey. - Jordan Crugnale MP |
First an explainer for those of you who don’t use the buses: Bass Coast’s V/Line buses leave alternately from Inverloch and Cowes, connecting at Koo Wee Rup with buses from Yarram and Leongatha. “Their bus” goes directly to the city while “our bus” heads to Dandenong Station.
The problem is that 90 per cent of passengers want the direct Melbourne service. Quite often there’s no room left for Bass Coast passengers on the morning services. That means staying on “our bus” to Cranbourne or Dandenong, adding 30-60 minutes to the journey.
Connections
Getting home from Melbourne can involve three separate buses:
It sometimes works surprisingly well but it can also be problematic. Heading home in the afternoon, there are often long queues at Southern Cross to board the Leongatha or Yarram bus and long waits at Koo Wee Rup for “our bus” to arrive from Dandenong.
A cryptic timetable
A friend once waited four hours at Southern Cross for the Wonthaggi bus before another passenger explained she actually needed to catch the Yarram bus. The VLine bus timetable is incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t already know how the system works.
Staff don't think to explain the connections and the printed and online timetables don't make them clear.
Weekend services are shit
Weekday services are reasonable. Weekend services are few and far between.
I saw a woman burst into tears after being dropped at Anderson late one winter afternoon and realising she was still 17 kilometres from Wonthaggi and had no way of getting there. Old hands leave a car at Anderson or arrange a lift.
The Myki mystery
Then there’s the ritual at Southern Cross: a queue of 20 people waiting at the V/Line ticket office while a solitary staff member serves customers one by one – knowing that the bus is due to depart in five minutes and there won’t be another for three hours.
Everyone else in Victoria can tap on with a Myki card, whether they’re travelling to Ballarat, Bairnsdale or Warrnambool. Why not us?
My fixes
The problem is that 90 per cent of passengers want the direct Melbourne service. Quite often there’s no room left for Bass Coast passengers on the morning services. That means staying on “our bus” to Cranbourne or Dandenong, adding 30-60 minutes to the journey.
Connections
Getting home from Melbourne can involve three separate buses:
- Southern Cross to Koo Wee Rup (Yarram bus)
- Koo Wee Rup to Anderson (Cowes bus)
- Anderson to Wonthaggi (South Coast bus)
It sometimes works surprisingly well but it can also be problematic. Heading home in the afternoon, there are often long queues at Southern Cross to board the Leongatha or Yarram bus and long waits at Koo Wee Rup for “our bus” to arrive from Dandenong.
A cryptic timetable
A friend once waited four hours at Southern Cross for the Wonthaggi bus before another passenger explained she actually needed to catch the Yarram bus. The VLine bus timetable is incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t already know how the system works.
Staff don't think to explain the connections and the printed and online timetables don't make them clear.
Weekend services are shit
Weekday services are reasonable. Weekend services are few and far between.
I saw a woman burst into tears after being dropped at Anderson late one winter afternoon and realising she was still 17 kilometres from Wonthaggi and had no way of getting there. Old hands leave a car at Anderson or arrange a lift.
The Myki mystery
Then there’s the ritual at Southern Cross: a queue of 20 people waiting at the V/Line ticket office while a solitary staff member serves customers one by one – knowing that the bus is due to depart in five minutes and there won’t be another for three hours.
Everyone else in Victoria can tap on with a Myki card, whether they’re travelling to Ballarat, Bairnsdale or Warrnambool. Why not us?
My fixes
- Allow Myki cards on Bass Coast V/Line buses.
- Have peak-hour morning buses stop at Pakenham Station so passengers can transfer to trains if they want to.
- Preferably time it to meet the Vline train service which is much faster.
- Have our buses waiting to meet the trains at Pakenham on the return journey in the afternoon.
- Extend Bass Coast buses through to Southern Cross instead of terminating at Dandenong.
- Increase weekend services.
- Ensure local connections for passengers dropped at Anderson, including taxi connections after hours if necessary.
- Replace underused large town buses with smaller minibuses running more frequently.
- Trial “on-demand” minibus services within towns.