2025-04-13: Ballarat weekend upgrades

At Creswick, CDC Ballarat #199 (Scania K310UB, Volgren Optimus) (30/10/2017) (Jase Robinson)

Upgraded timetables for local Ballarat Line buses will commence on 13 April 2025 in conjunction with an upgrade to weekend trains on the Ballarat Line from hourly to 40 mins, following the ALP’s 2022 state election commitment and the reduction of statewide fares in March 2023.

A media release issued on 28 February 2025 first indicated “Most weekend bus services that connect to trains on the Ballarat Line will also now run every 40 minutes – a significant boost to the frequency of bus services.”

Since this announcement, PTV have released a more detailed summary by route stating some 662 additional weekend services across Melton, Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat. Over 300 of these extra trips will operate in Ballarat.

The new weekend timetables for Ballarat buses were uploaded early onto the PTV website on 28 February (weekday timetable unfortunately missing however, so unclear what happens there yet) but these were then taken down the following Friday.

Complete timetable data is yet to be published as of 14 March.

Review of Ballarat weekend upgrades

On Saturdays Routes 11 (Wendouree via Howitt St), Route 21 (Buninyong) & Route 22 (Sebastopol) currently run a 30 min service. In contrast, Routes 21 & 22 run every hour on Sundays while Route 11 currently runs just 3 trips, roughly 4 hours apart.

Routes 11, 21 & 22 will all be going to a 20 min service on Saturdays! Routes 21 & 22 will run every 40 mins on Sundays while the skeleton Sunday service on Howitt St remains, but now with a 4th trip (extending span to around 7pm and cutting wait times to roughly 3½ hours). Current timetables for Route 11 have a 30 min Saturday service but just 3 trips.

The stark contrast in Saturday and Sunday service levels on Route 11 reflects funding constraints for Sunday buses in the original January 2017 network. Originally nearby Route 10 effectively ran just a couple of streets apart of either Routes 11 & 12 between Wendouree Shopping Centre & Ballarat, including some common sections with both routes.

In September 2017, Route 10 was realigned to run the entire length of Norman St, reinstating a connection from Ballarat North to Wendouree previously provided under the old network by Route 2. The Sunday service on Howitt St was not increased to hourly (or more) to compensate, leading to the current bizarre situation.

Saturday frequencies on all other Ballarat routes go from 60 mins to 40 mins

Sundays is a complete mixed bag depending on the current timetable. Routes that ran 60 mins on Sundays previously now go to every 40 mins (14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24). Routes that ran every 90 mins or so now to every 80 mins (10, 12, 13, 25 & 26). As noted above, Route 11 goes from 3 trips a day (4 hours aparat) to 3 trips.

Creswick Route 30 remains as 3 trips on Sundays (despite the 40 min Saturday timetable) while Miners Rest 31 remains as a 6-day-a-week route.

CDC Ballarat #149 (Volvo B12BLE, Volgren “CR221L”) turns from Grenville St to Curtis St on a 20 to Canadian (5/6/2020) (Joseph Mazzetti)

Many of the routes that run 80 mins are likely to be more productive but effectively are stuck running on their pre-2017 network Sunday timetables.

Some of the routes that currently run the better 60 mins headway on Sunday (soon 40 mins) did not have a Sunday service prior to 2017.

Areas that gained Sunday service in 2017 included Eurkea (former 8, now 20), Invermay Park (former 4, now 13), Black Hill (former, 5 now 14), Brown Hill (former 7, now 15, previously 2 return trips), Mt Pleasant (former 11, now 23) & Alfredton (former 18, now 26).

The span of some of the routes that now run every 40 mins on Sundays does not really allow for Sunday daytrips to Melbourne – for instance the last bus to Mt Pleasant (Route 23) is at 4:08pm, Brown Hill (Route 15) at 4:11pm and Canadian (Route 20) at 4:52pm.

A total review of the network is needed to better allocate resources to key corridors than just following a misguided status-quo.

Current vs New headways

Weekday headways
30 mins all day – 11 (Wendouree via Howitt St), 12 (Wendouree via Howitt St), 14 (Black Hill), 15 (Brown Hill), 21 (Buninyong), 22 (Fed Uni via Sebastopol), 25 (Delacombe), 26 (Alfredton)
30 mins interpeak, 60 mins peak – 24 (Sebastopol) NB: less service in peak periods
60 mins all day – 10 (Lucas), 13 (Invermay Park), 20 (Canadian via Eureka), 23 (Mt Pleasant), 30 (Creswick), 31 (Miners Rest)

Saturday headways
30 mins all day – 11 (Wendouree via Howitt St), 21 (Buninyong) & 22 (Sebastopol*) – upgraded to 20 mins
60 mins all day – 10 (Lucas), 13 (Invermay Park),14 (Black Hill), 15 (Brown Hill), 20 (Canadian via Eureka), 21 (Buninyong), 22 (Fed Uni via Sebastopol), 23 (Mt Pleasant), 24 (Sebastopol), 25 (Delacombe), 26 (Alfredton), 30 (Creswick), 31 (Miners Rest) – upgraded to 40 mins

Sunday headways
60 mins all day– 14 (Black Hill), 15 (Brown Hill), 20 (Canadian via Eureka), 21 (Buninyong), 22 (Sebastopol*), 23 (Mt Pleasant), 24 (Sebastopol) – upgraded to 40 mins
90 mins all day – 10 (Lucas), 12 (Wendouree via Forrest St), 13 (Invermay Park), 25 (Delacombe) & 26 (Alfredton) – upgraded to 80 mins
3 return trips – 11 (Wendouree via Howitt St), 30 (Creswick) – 1 additional return trip on Route 11
No service – 30 (Miners Rest)

* – on weekends Route 22 only operates to Sebastopol. Federation Uni is served by Route 21 7 days a week.

BCSV

Bus and Coach Society of Victoria