Transperth High Frequency Services Map

[Mr OC Benz]

I decided to draw a bit on Transperth's latest zone map which shows a good overview of the network.

I have just roughly gone over in red on the map where there is a bus every 15 minutes or less on a weekday interpeak (i.e. between 9 and 4), shoulder peak period (7-7ish, it varies), Saturday and Sunday. Note it is not 100% accurate.

A few points to note:
- Most major road corridors bus intervals are actually 10 minutes or better during the daytime Monday to Friday. Buses on most of these corridors also run every 15 minutes until 9pm weeknights.
- In peak periods, the majority of bus routes in the Transperth network run every 10 to 20 minutes.
- Majority of the high frequency services are within Zone 1 and Zone 2, however some extend further and provide good coverage as far south as Rockingham/Mandurah and as far north as Butler.
- Weekends and nights are not detailed. This is just a Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday base daytime frequency map.
- Only bus routes are outlined. It is not necessary to outline train lines because all Transperth urban rail lines have a frequency of 15 minutes or greater Monday to Friday daytime anyway.
- Inset A is not used to display frequencies.
- Perth, Fremantle and Joondalup CAT routes are shown as is the Midland Gate Free Shuttle.

It shows some strengths and weaknesses in the metropolitan area, however when you compare with similarly sized cities such as Adelaide and Brisbane and their Go Zone and BUZ networks respectively, Perth seems to win when it comes to cross-metropolitan frequencies and also the higher frequencies generally offered on radial routes out of the City. Some weaknesses although not visible or annotated, night time frequency on some of these routes is less than 1/4 of the day time frequency and the fact that since on some major corridors, bus routes start to stem off rather quickly out of the City, the high frequency is not maintained for long.

Colour codes:
Red: Every 1 to 15 minutes
Blue: Every 16 to 30 minutes
Green: Every 31 to 60 minutes

Monday to Friday Overall Network Frequency as of September 2015:



Monday to Friday Only High Frequency Services (15 mins or better) as of September 2015:



Saturday Only High Frequency Services (15 mins or better) as of September 2015:


Sunday Only High Frequency Services (15 mins or better) as of September 2015:

[102 at 1625]

Someone has picked up on this map!

[User 11872]

Good stuff OC.....well-earned recognition.

[Mr OC Benz]

...

[Ade]

What they should do is have the 210/211s run every 30mins each to Thornlie station where people can transfer there and catch the 212 for the rest of the journey. That would make catching the 210/211 more appeasing to those folks who live south of the river and will help fill up the 212s and allow for even more expansion of the 212 route.

Could be possible as the 210s and 211s will not travel to the city anymore.

[PoweredByCNG]

What they should do is have the 210/211s run every 30mins each to Thornlie station where people can transfer there and catch the 212 for the rest of the journey. That would make catching the 210/211 more appeasing to those folks who live south of the river and will help fill up the 212s and allow for even more expansion of the 212 route.

Could be possible as the 210s and 211s will not travel to the city anymore.

Why not run all three routes every 30min and have a 10min frequency between Thorlie and the City?

[Mr OC Benz]

Is it even necessary? Don't forget Thornlie has a train line that is barely used, why are we competing with that? It has a sufficient 15 minute frequency linkage with Carousel and Albany Hwy and the City for those not going where the train line goes. I doubt there is the catchment and density to justify a higher frequency south of Thornlie on the 210/211 which is already also served with frequent circulars that connect with the train.

[Mr OC Benz]

See first post.

[Mr OC Benz]

Updated maps in the first post effective: 01/02/2015. Only minor changes noticeable on the map, notably the 406 introduction and the 527 extension to Wandi. Also minor fixes to the high frequency red coding to accurately reflect areas that receive high frequency services.

[Mr OC Benz]

Latest maps in the first post commencing from 19 April 2015. Only main change is the introduction of new route 565 and time changes to routes 564, 567 and 568 which has now brought in a new high frequency corridor along Safety Bay Rd between Warnbro Station and Arpentuer Dr.

Monday to Friday
Safety Bay Rd – West (between Warnbro Station and Arpenteur Dr)
Routes 564, 565, 567 and 568
First bus: 0521
Monday to Friday Peak Periods: Every 10 minutes
Monday to Friday Off Peak: Every 15 minutes
Monday to Friday Evenings: Every 30 minutes
Monday to Friday Nights: No Service
Last bus: 2126

Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays
Safety Bay Rd – West (between Warnbro Station and Arpenteur Dr)
Routes 564, 565, 567 and 568
First bus: 0742
Weekend Mornings: Every 15 minutes
Weekend Daytime: Every 15 minutes
Weekend Evenings: No Service
Weekend Nights: No Service
Last bus: 1927

[User 11872]

What is considered "evening" in your book OC? I would've considered 1900 hrs onward to roughly 2100/2130 hrs yes?
Therefore, last service 1927 hrs surely should be listed as "1 service"..

[User 11872]

Also above, check that the corridor along Rockingham Rd to Spearwood should be included on Saturdays.....I'm too lazy

[Mr OC Benz]

I don't use "fixed" times to define each period because the frequency patterns vary between routes. Also the definition of those time periods vary between days as well. But as a rough guide for evenings, generally the frequency provided from after PM peak until later in the night when the frequency may drop off which is within the timeframe you mention. So for example the 950, this evening period is from about 1900hrs until 2200hrs whereas with a feeder, it may drop from a 30 min frequency to 60 min frequency around 2000-2100hrs. In the case of Safety Bay Rd, the last service is 1927 which may be in the evening, but you can't really define evening in this case because it very much borders with the daytime service, especially when you consider the broader context with the other 3 routes which all finish before 1900hrs. It needs to serve a reasonable chunk of that period (i.e. evening) for it to be worthy of noting. Well at least by my interpretations anyway.

That corridor you mention doesn't quite fit into the high frequency category on weekends. There are gaps of 20-30 mins in an hourly period, even if there are 4-5 buses per hour along that road.

[User 11872]

I draw my observations from a passenger perspective, which when in Sydney in the 80s was formed by a PT book written by a Peter Spencer. In the book was a frequency guide which gave passengers information on,among other times, evening/night journeys and frequencies. So, for example, someone living or working in Sydney's outer west simply want information related to a time-frame on their service. They aren't concerned about the fact that in the city the 380 is still running every 10 minutes up to 11pm! As stated in the book....evening is roughly 7pm to 9pm, late evening or night is after that. This consistency isn't (and simply shouldn't be) viewed or determined by the operating characteristics of any other individual timetable or route in any other. The parameters of what defines time are simple and universal.
Further, single, erratic or infrequent journeys are listed as such for eg 3J/2J being 3 journeys in the early evening and 2 in the late evening slots. By seeing that, or any other frequency listing someone simply knows that it implies a service(s) between 7-9 and after 9. Single journeys simply stated the time, in our case "1927"...beside the time period.
After all, time is time, no matter where you are correct?

[Mr OC Benz]

You raise some good points, but recording by trip numbers for my record keeping purposes at least would imply that perhaps the route has a very poor level of service. In this case just putting in "1 service" could mean that the service may be at 7pm, 8pm or 9pm and there may be a two or three hour gap between services. Hardly practical information for anyone. Hence why I have noted first and last bus times to compensate for the lack of any fixed time periods. The parameters of time may be simple and universal, but I have collated and presented the information (for my own purposes) in a way which makes it easy to identify the level of service appropriate to a certain point of the day. For example, the peak period of a bus route varies a little from something that operates inner city which would typically have higher frequencies between 1500 and 1800hrs whereas for a route to the far north or south would typically see peak frequencies between 1600 and 1900hrs or sometimes even later... For routes like the 950, this even encroaches beyond 1900hrs, however it would be inaccurate to generalise weekday evening frequencies to 7-8 minutes just because that is what is provided from the City for the first 20 minutes after 1900hrs. So hopefully from that perspective you can understand that it would be more ideal recording frequencies as such where the majority can be related to a certain period of the day. In this case, while yes I would personally also say that the 1927 service encroaches on the evening, in this case it is an "isolated" service you could say. But for the reasons I mentioned above, I am reluctant to record on a trip count basis. After all it is done in a format that can generalise the frequencies into some categories and is easy for me to follow.

[User 11872]

Fair enough. But you'd actually only list "1J" as it's time - as I said. What if that journey was at 2053hrs or 2342hrs? It's a significant piece of information in light of that by itself...wouldn't you agree?. As for my post, I said that Further, single, erratic or infrequent journeys are listed as such for eg 3J/2J being 3 journeys in the early evening and 2 in the late evening slots which is self-explanatory. If there were three journeys at a 60 min freq, or roughly so then obviously that is the number that is listed - 60 (min frequency). I agree with the 950 example, and you wouldn't list the initial higher frequency. But think of it this way too....larger regional centres where people live and work are just that in their own right. To those people early evening is still early evening and the like and &pm to 9pm is just that. I believe it needs to be more consistent to include all relevant information.
But as you say, this is for your purposes so we'll agree to disagree,

[Mr OC Benz]

Latest updates in the first post predominantly showing:
Monday to Friday Map - Extension of 955/956 to Annie's Landing Estate, Ellenbrook/The Vines.
Saturday Map - CircleRoute short 98/99 extension to Morley.
Sunday Map - Route 37 enhancement between Kings Park and Belmont.

[Shoudy Chen]

I had a look at the green line of the Albany Hwy between Beckenham and Kelmscott and noticed that this is pretty low frequency due to the fact that not a lot of passengers use the Route 220 to and from Perth CBD. This is the fact with an 88% chance of people using the train instead to make their journey more efficient.
But on the other note, the Stirling Hwy, Canning Hwy, Marmion Ave and Lord St are one of the busiest routes around Perth with a frequency time of buses every 1-15 minutes.
And look on the map in the south-east corner. The 253 is a bus route running from Armadale to Jarrahdale and has very poor frequency due to the fact this is on the rural-urban fringe. God damn it. I had a feeling that the Route 253 would be increased from 3 times per day to 7 times per day!

[Mr OC Benz]

I had a look at the green line of the Albany Hwy between Beckenham and Kelmscott and noticed that this is pretty low frequency due to the fact that not a lot of passengers use the Route 220 to and from Perth CBD. This is the fact with an 88% chance of people using the train instead to make their journey more efficient.
But on the other note, the Stirling Hwy, Canning Hwy, Marmion Ave and Lord St are one of the busiest routes around Perth with a frequency time of buses every 1-15 minutes.
And look on the map in the south-east corner. The 253 is a bus route running from Armadale to Jarrahdale and has very poor frequency due to the fact this is on the rural-urban fringe. God damn it. I had a feeling that the Route 253 would be increased from 3 times per day to 7 times per day!

Despite the fact that most of these comments either don't make sense, answer your own questions or just re-reading what has been posted, I'm still going to attempt to respond...

Having the train alignment close to Route 220 along Albany Hwy between Beckenham and Kelmscott doesn't help, but also urban development is relatively scattered in the area. There's no need to duplicate in such area (versus say Claremont-Fremantle and Stirling Hwy where urban development is consistent and of higher densities in some sections). Ditto with the rural and townsite nature of the 253 route.

Yes those corridors are busy, but the service frequency or overcrowding levels do not always reflect what the busiest routes are. Unfortunately it's difficult finding detailed statistics, but the busiest - 950 carries over 3.7 million passengers a year while the 990 (fourth busiest) carries over 1.1 million passengers a year.

[User 11872]

I just plain don't get your posts (shoudy Chen)......wtf are you trying to say exactly? Think about it, reflect upon it then put it into a succinct if not brief explanation. It's extremely annoying atm.