MELBOURNE'S SMART BUS PROGRAM

Smart Bus is developing initiatives to upgrade existing cross town bus routes in Melbourne to demonstrate the potential demand for such services when provided to a high standard. The project aims to improve the quality of services for existing users, attract people out of the cars competing for road space, and attract new users who currently have limited transport options. It is intended to achieve this by improving levels of service, reliability, service information, accessibility and service coverage through: (1) changes to infrastructure (allocation of road space, signal operations, stop facilities, etc) to reduce and define travel time; (2) information provided to passengers (next bus to arrive and minutes to arrival, etc); (3) route alignment and coordination with complementary services; (4) route service frequency and hours of service; (5) travel demand measures; and (6) publicity. Initiatives are to be trialed on two long-distance metropolitan Melbourne bus services (703 and 888/9) which use parallel north-south arterial roads in a common corridor as a basis for identifying how to improve bus services more widely across Melbourne. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E205948.