This week trains finally returned to Melbourne’s west, after two weeks of rail replacement buses between Sunshine and the city, thanks to West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project works.
The closure affected the Williamstown, Werribee and Sunbury lines were closed from June 23 to July 9, so that the Dynon Road bridge over the railway at North Melbourne could be widened to provide more traffic lanes aimed at the heart of the Melbourne CBD.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
Media attention
Unusually this two week shutdown got a lot of media attention.
A bus driver shortage could exacerbate transport mayhem for the next two weeks as work on the West Gate Tunnel Project shuts down the train network and blocks off a major road connection, effectively cutting off Melbourne’s west from the city.
The state government is warning of significant delays and urging residents in the western suburbs to consider working from home from June 23 to July 9, which coincides with the school holidays.
Across the city, nine of the 16 lines in the Metro network and four of the V/Line corridors will be out of operation this weekend, placing bus replacement services under strain.
Transport Workers’ Union Victoria branch assistant secretary Mem Suleyman said bus operators were experiencing a driver shortage, one which left them struggling to deliver enough replacement services earlier this year.
He said drivers had a good track record supporting rail replacement work, but the size of the upcoming shutdown would be challenging.
“This is a big demand, and it won’t be perfect.”
Eastern suburbs commuters experienced long delays to board buses when part of the Lilydale/Belgrave line was shut for level-crossing removal work between February and May this year. Lines of passengers stretched almost 150 metres along Spring Street from the corner of Collins Street to the steps of parliament.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the failure to provide enough replacement buses was a recurring issue. With so many train stations cut off, resourcing would be particularly stretched in the upcoming work, he said.
“There’s often insufficient information for passengers, not enough staff at stops to help people, a lack of shelter at the temporary stops, and a lack of [road] priority to help these buses get past other traffic,” Bowen said.
“They will have to look at resourcing very carefully, particularly during peak hour, and they need to make sure they get enough buses and drivers.”
Bus Association Victoria executive director Chris Lowe said replacement providers were “as best prepared as we can be at this stage and don’t anticipate any major shortfalls”.
The combination of road and rail disruption had been specifically scheduled to take place during the school holidays, while fewer people were driving or using public transport, a Department of Transport and Planning spokesperson said.
But the impact will still be felt: almost 32,400 passengers catch trains along the affected Sunbury, Williamstown and Werribee lines every weekday during school holidays, according to state government data.
The Herald Sun testing five modes of transport between Yarraville and Southbank to see which was quicker.
The challenge found cycling was the quickest way to make the 9km trip, our rider Ethan Kusch clocking in at 24 minutes, making use of the dedicated bike paths to record an average speed of 23km/h.
The motorcyclist was next to arrive at 27 minutes, negotiating trucks, cars and roadworks along Footscray Rd and through Docklands.
But car driver Jackson Haddad, who took the West Gate Bridge route, was delayed exiting Williamstown Rd and crawled into Southbank in 40 minutes.
“It was a bit of a nightmare getting on to the West Gate. Think we waited about 15 minutes just to get on the bridge,’’ he said.
That time was a mere three minutes faster than runner Fergus Ellis whose size 12s carried him along Footscray Rd and Southbank Promenade.
“It was just under 44 minutes. Nice view of Melbourne on the way in but (I’m) pretty sweaty.
“But I’d rather run in both directions than catch a bus any day,’’ Fergus said.
On the bus and the slowest, by a long way, was not surprisingly Helena Powell whose disjointed trip – bus to North Melbourne and then packed City Loop train to Flinders St station – took one hour and four minutes.
All for a journey that would normally take about 18 minutes.
And Channel 9 News interviewing passengers stuck waiting for buses.
There's been commuter chaos in Melbourne this morning, as major construction projects force nine train lines to close. @_Stephanderson #9News pic.twitter.com/aSN1Y0rmSJ
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) June 26, 2023
And on the ground
On the morning of Friday 23 June the car park at Sunshine station was turned into a interchange for rail replacement buses.
Marquees to shelter waiting passengers.
Along with some giant puddles.
But after trains stopped running at 8.30pm, the bus interchange was empty.
For some reason the buses were sent to the other side of Sunshine station.
But by Saturday morning the buses had moved location.
But nowhere near enough buses for the number of intending passengers – long queues forming.
At the city end, rail replacement bus operated from a temporary interchange on William Street, next to Flagstaff Gardens.
With a second set of bus stops a block away on King Street.
Intending passengers sent on a long walk through Flagstaff Gardens to reach the bus stop for express buses.
To find their bus hiding in the dark.
On Sunday night an inadequate number of buses was again provided.
Buses filling quickly, and leaving passengers behind.
And the first weekday
Come Monday morning, the crowds of commuters arrived by train at Sunshine.
Sent over the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ to their rail replacement buses.
Only to be greeted by long lines at the bus stop.
And dozens of parked buses.
The Channel 9 News helicopter filming the scene from the air.
A bus would eventually show up but fill quickly, leaving a long line of intending passengers.
More buses arriving, but never able to keep up.
Queues might disappear for a minute or two.
Until the next train full of intending passengers arrived.
So where did the buses come from anyway?
Dysons was the lead contractor supplying buses for the rail replacement contract – as well as operating route bus services in Melbourne’s north, they have a fleet of older low floor buses dedicated for school and rail replacement work.
They also went scratching around the depot for spare buses, like this ‘301 Shuttle’ liveried bus not needed during the La Trobe University holidays.
Transit Systems is another large bus operator with a pool of older buses for rail replacement work, and sent out some buses they recently acquired second hand from Darwin.
And buses they bought second hand from Brisbane.
CDC Melbourne operates route buses in Melbourne’s west, and supplied a number of older low floor buses from their depot at Tullamarine.
Some newer PTV liveried buses not needed for normal route services.
And a bus or two normally used on charter work.
Kinetic also got tapped on the shoulder to supply buses, sending out a few PTV liveried buses not needed on their usual route service.
Plus a few older buses used for rail replacement work.
But still more buses were needed – so more operators were called up.
Sunbury Coaches supplied coaches normally used for school runs.
As did Firefly Charter.
And Crown Coaches.
There are also a number of second tier charter bus operators who in recent years have acquired secondhand low floor buses for rail replacement work.
Mee’s.
Nuline Charter.
Driver Bus Lines.
And Sunshine Coaches.
The call also went out to country Victoria for even more buses.
Gull Geelong normally uses their coach on runs to Melbourne Airport.
McHarry’s runs PTV services in Geelong.
And Millars Bus Lines sent a coach on a three hour drive all the way from Kerang to help.
But still that wasn’t enough – the call went out to third tier bus operators you’ve never heard of, using unbranded buses bought cheaply at auction, driven by drivers without uniforms.
ABC Tours with an ex-Brisbane bus.
Melbourne Premier Buslines with an ex-Perth bus.
Transporter with another ex-Brisbane bus.
And MelMax with a surplus coach from a mining contract in Western Australia.
So what work were they actually doing?
Interestingly, the media release from the State Government actually undersold the works on the Sunbury line – works for the West Gate Tunnel project being the headline item.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
But on the ground, the bulk of the work was happening on the signalling the turnback platform at West Footscray .
Connecting up tracks installed back in 2020.
Welding rails.
Installing point motors.
And fitting out the signals.
The end result – High Capacity Signalling equipment for terminating trains at Footscray.
And West Footscray.
Platform 2 at West Footscray was also finally renumbered.
Now marked as platform 3.
So how soon until the new signalling is taken advantage of? Hopefully soon!
A note on the signalling at West Footscray
The new platform at West Footscray opened way back in July 2020, but as a direct swap for the previous platform 1.
In the years since, there have been multiple shutdowns of the Sunbury line to complete further work on the turnback.
Installing signal gantries.
And signal heads.
So why didn’t they bother commissioning it until three years later in July 2023?
The story I heard is that they didn’t want to commission a new conventional signalling arrangement at West Footscray to handle the new turnback platform, only to rip it all out a few years later when they were ready to install the final High Capacity Signalling system from the Metro Tunnel portal through to West Footscray.
However there is one flaw in that argument – in recent years just that has happened at Caulfield, which was resignalled in 2020, 2022 and then again in 2023!
I hope you enjoy another year or two of bus replacements!
Incredible archival work recording the full list of buses and carriers. It got funnier as it kept on going and going!
Thanks – I’ve been meaning to do a post about where rail replacement buses materialise from, and this kinda turned into it.
I can travel west again!
Rail replacement buses were once a bit more fun as very old non air conditioned buses were dragged back into service. Not one really old one to be seen now.
Regional Rail Link works a decade ago saw lots of old high floor buses being used.
https://railgallery.wongm.com/rrl-bus-replacements/
I have to say, the experience was not as awful as I expected it to be. Rarely had more than about five minutes wait going to Flagstaff from Sunshine (on an express, usually between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning), and most of the time no wait at all. Returning (mix of off-peak and peak) was a similar experience.
I imagine it would have been worse though for people getting on/off at intermediate stations. I was fortunate in that didn’t have to go or down any stairs, because the 420 stop in front of the Derrimut is close to that carpark.
Biggest issue was the bottleneck on the roads (whichever route the driver would take) into and out of the city. You’d be making steady progress heading in,and then just crawl.
Worst experience of the fortnight, somewhat predictably, was after the Bulldogs-Collingwood game at Docklands. Took an hour to get from Flagstaff Gardens to Costco. Then the driver took a wrong turn on the Bolte. Overall, a two hour trip home.
I caught the rail replacement buses a few times, but had the luxury of being able to pick when I travelled – by waiting until peak traffic had died down, the travel times on the express buses was comparable to driving myself, with a clear run down Sunshine Road to Footscray and then along Footscray Road, with the only congestion being the last bit along Dudley Street to Flagstaff Gardens.
I went to a public lecture last week in East Melbourne, and to avoid the chaos, I got a train from Watergardens to Sunbury, 479 from Sunbury to Melbourne Airport, 901 to Greensbrough and a train back to the city. At night, I got the replacement bus from Flagstaff to Sunshine, and I manageed to get on the first bus there. I am so relieved to hear that the chaos was not as severe as the media (and in particular commercial) reported it to be.
With the signage at West Footscray, why didn’t they replace the old signs with the new ones, unless they are waiting for the Metro Tunnel to open which would require the signs with yellow to be replaced by light blue late next year/early 2025. And the desto board on Kinetic, it look very good.
On the signage front there was a few years where some stations got the new design while others didn’t – so who know what is going on!
Any ideas why Flemington Racecourse station wasn’t used as for the RRL works? The shorter trip from Sunshine would have reduced the number of replacement buses required, and it would have taken the road section of the trip onto less congested roads.
Why could Werribee line trains not turn around at Footscray as in the RRL works? One story is that the points at Footscray are out of service. Surely fixing these wouldhave been cheaper than hiring as many replacement buses. Fixing these points would also be make the system more robust in the future, so Werribee line passengers could change to MM1 trains, because a train replacement train is a whole lot easier to arrange than a train replacement bus. Does each project operate in a silo, only delivering on its narrowly-defined goals with no contribution to any wider plan?
Were more passengers using the Vline services than usual? For example rather than parking at a Werribee line car park, instead park at Tarneit of Deer Park.
I tried the ptv journey planner for the first Monday of the disruption. From Watergardens to Melbourne Central it recommended taking a Metro train to Sunbury, followed by a Vline train to Southern Cross. For a journey from Sunshine to Southern Cross, it recommended taking a Vline train from Sunshine to Deer Park, followed by another Vline train to Southern Cross. Were there any signs of passengers following these recommendations?
I saw somebody report one morning that there was 100 passengers waiting at Ardeer for a train to the city.
I also heard of a Metro Trains driver at Sunbury telling passengers to get off their train and wait for the V/Line train coming from Bendigo a few minutes later, as it would run through to the city.
Finally! The trains are back in operation again. Though I read your article at that time and astoundingly there are 18 bus companies that are operating as part of train replacement services at the duration of rail disruptions.
So far I haven’t gone through all of my photos from the past two weeks – I think there were probably a few more bus operators in the mix, plus for the rail shutdowns in the south-east there are another lot of more small operators running the buses there!
Rather odd to see so many buses here (not that I’m complaining) though I thought the issue was more that there wasn’t enough drivers. I kind of feel they could have deployed the buses in a more effective way.
If there were dedicated bus lanes all from Sunshine through to Footscray Road, it might have allowed the buses to go through faster. As it is some buses got stuck on the Westgate bridge in traffic.
Also there were some odd decisions with bus deployments. The Cranbourne/Pakenham line was opened just in time for this 2 weeks shutdown while the Frankston line was still shut. I felt if they ran those rail replacement buses to Caulfield from the Frankstone line, they could have just made the Cranbourne/Pakenham services stop all stations through the MATH stations, saving the need for enough buses to run all the way to the city.
And it would have been nice to make Vline services do the shuttle in lieu of trains through the Sunbury line, but I guess they would struggle to have enough Vline drivers and trains.
The #208 replacement bus got a pet subscription to PBS FM during the bus replacement. Heard it on Soul Time last Wednesday.
Great summary Marcus. Agree the actual rail works on the Sunbury line were undersold in the comms.
I only had to travel two stations in the counterpeak direction to connect with Geelong trains, so no issues with the buses. Once I was even the only passenger going to Sunshine!
Is there any indication as to whether the third platform at West Footscray will be used before the Metro Tunnel opens? Probably no point though. Can West Footscray be used as an inbound terminus as well if needed, or only for turning around from the City?
I also saw a test train running through Sunshine yesterday.
And does anyone know the reason why Geelong peak trains aren’t stopping at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale? Is that a capacity issue through the West Gate Tunnel works, or something else?
I was on leave at the time, so missed the V/Line outage last school holidays where V/Line basically dumped their passengers at the Metro boundary. Doesn’t work the other way, though. Although I saw a few more passengers than normal getting off V/Line trains at Sunshine last week – never more than one at a time though, just more frequently than normal.
The new West Footscray turnback can be used to terminate trains in both directions, and they have also installed a crossover outside Middle Footscray station to allow Sunbury line trains trains to terminate at Footscray.
On the first weekend of this two week shutdown V/Line trains terminates short of Melbourne – Bendigo passengers changed to coaches at Gisborne, Geelong passengers changed to the metro buses at Sunshine.
This was to allow minor changes to be made to the signals on the Regional Rail Link signals at Footscray – I believe the ‘M’ and ‘R’ identifiers were added to assist train drivers distinguishing between signals when a CBTC equipped train is using the suburban lines and the signals are dark.
My understanding is that the works also involved abolishing the crossovers at the down end of South Kensington?
I believe so – the crossover would’ve also been another handover point between the new CBTC system and conventionally signalled areas – so by getting rid of it, they’ve only got a single interface at the up end of South Kensington.