New Trial Service - Route 529

[Leyland B21]

New route 529 (Armadale - Cockburn Central): Community Information Display

Transperth is pleased to announce new trial service, Route 529.

Route 529 will provide direct access between Armadale Station and Cockburn Central Station, extending to Gateways Shopping Centre outside peak periods.

The proposed service will operate Monday to Friday on a 30-minute frequency during peak and on an hourly frequency outside peak periods.

Representatives from Transperth will be available to discuss this new route at the following location and time:
Armadale Shopping City

Date: Thursday 2 September 2010
Time: 2:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: Jull Street, Armadale
(Outside Liquorland)

All interested parties are invited to attend.

Please click here to access a map of new route 529.

The new route will appear on the South Eastern 8 timetable from Tuesday 12 October 2010.

The service will operate on a three month trial basis, in which the route’s patronage will be reviewed. The continuation of this route will depend on consistent and well-supported patronage.

For more information regarding service changes, please call the Transperth InfoLine on 13 62 13 (TTY: 9428 1999, TIS: 13 14 50).

Posted on Friday, 20 August 2010

[Mr OC Benz]

This could mean that there might be a service reduction or deletion of route 254 since route 529 will cover almost all of the existing 254 route.

[busdriver12]

Shades of the old 224

[Q4004]

Be interesting who will do this service and what buses will be used?

[busdriver12]

Be interesting who will do this service and what buses will be used?

At a guess, if it originates at Cockburn then Canning Vale (diesels) or if from Armadale, then Southern River (gas).

[Leyland B21]

i like the fact that it is using the entire stretch of Armadale Road between Cockburn and Church Avenue. Giving this service a better catchment than former route 224. Personally i dont feel it will affect route 254, at least not while its a trial service anyway.

Route 529 was originally planned for the SSR opening but was scrapped at that point in time. On a personal note i think it would have been better servicing between Armadale & Kwinana giving the southern end of Nicholson Road and Thomas Road a service for a first time. There is enough catchment compared to between Nicholson Road and Cockburn

[BusSpotter97]

Also will we see shifts mixing 529 and 527 runs.
eg, Southern River Run
529T,527F,527T,529F

[Mr OC Benz]

Not neccessarily. The majority of the 529 route is in the Southern River contract and most likely will be a Southern River run by what I have heard, although it is possible that it may mean Southern River may do some 527's but I think this will be a bare minimum.

[Q4004]

Be interesting if it is a Mixed Canningvale/Southern River Run then NH's can go back to Armadale and OC's to Cockburn

[Leyland B21]

although im not in the west these days, im under the understanding that Southern Rivers allocation are all CNG Gassies. In this regard i suppose it would be good to see some NH's out and about in Armadale, but who knows until the trial starts!!!

[bJase][/b]

[runawaybus]

I don't see this bus anywhere on the TP website

[Fleet Lists]

It is only in the planning stages at this stage - that is why.

And if you read the first post "The new route will appear on the South Eastern 8 timetable from Tuesday 12 October 2010."

[Mr OC Benz]

Yes... If you scroll through the updates on the homepage you'll see the page with the info about the proposed route. There should be a timetable coming soon...

[busdriver12]

I don't see this bus anywhere on the TP website

Have a look here

[tbc1983]

Shades of the old 224

The 224...yeah, that was the route when the driver would say "Where's that fkn turn-off? "


Cheers!

[Leyland B21]

Funny old route the 224 was, winding its way through Hammy Hill, Looping through Bibra Lake, Little visit to Yangebup and then pretty ordinary to Armadale. Miss it though, Nice being able to go to Freo at that time without having to catch 2 trains!!!

[Leyland B21]

Ok the new timetable has been released and i was incorrect my suspicions of route 254 being deleted whilst 529 is a trial service. Noticed the upgrade in route 244 frequency which is only of minimal improvement.

Jase

[Mr OC Benz]

And by the looks of it because its not a fully accessible route it could quite mean that high floors from Canning Vale will do some. But then again I've heard whispers about Southern River getting some high floors meaning that they could be used on the route??? We'll see what happens I guess...

[busdriver12]

One upside of this is the re-arrangement of stands at Cockburn Central. Instead of the 527 going in both direction using Stand 3, now Stand 3 is allocated to outward services (i.e. 527/529 towards Aubin Grove/Armadale. Services extending to Gateways shopping Centre will now use Stand 8. This has been the cause of no end of confusion over the years and I'm glad it's finally been sorted.

A win for common sense

[BusSpotter97]

How'sthe patronage going.
Are Pax in Forrestfield now travelling to Cockburn Central.

[Leyland B21]

How'sthe patronage going.
Are Pax in Forrestfield now travelling to Cockburn Central.

One Would assume u mean Forrestdale? its easier for ppl in Forestfield to get to Perth than Cockburn for a Mandurah Train lol

[Leyland B21]

it posted twice. Apologies

[BusSpotter97]

Oh yeah.
Sorry thats what I meant.

[Leyland B21]

Im trying to work out why my post came up twice!!! I only had a 6 pack at that point in time!!!

Jase

[busdriver12]

Having compared the current 529 timetable to the old 254 timetable, it appears that there were not many passengers to start with there being 3 inbound trips in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Now there are 18 trips to Cockburn Central and 19 to Armadale which is a huge increase in service level. I'd say that the 254 did not have very large numbers in the first place and it appears that this service has been set up to fail (a comment made to me by a PTA inspector) and I tend to agree. If there was a will to get this service to work, the trial period would be longer that 3 months.

This reminds me a lot of the 205 service which is a politically motivated route with poor loadings. It's trial period was slated for 12 months and continues because of that political commitment despite passenger numbers which would ensure it's demise. A new service such as the 529 needs at least 6-12 months to have a chance to establish seeing the closest service to link the Mandurah and Armadale lines is the 850/851 which runs between Murdoch and Maddington. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the new year when this trail period is up and hopefully I'll get a chance to run this service to see for myself.