Old passenger lines that Bus don't follow

jemo27 · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:06 pm

i was looking at the vline map on the rubbish bag that is on some trains, and i noticed that you cannot get from Ararat to Portland by Bus, when you used to be able to get there by train, when the portland trains toped was there ever a bus service that followed the old path.

i looked it up on viclink website and it takes 6 hours atleast

kuldalai · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:09 pm

This is the history behind this one. In the mid 1970's the Tulloch DRC's were proving not to be very reliable and from time to time the Commissioners replaced the Ararat - Hamilton - Portland DRC's with buses, which by the the early 1980's had become a pretty permanent arrangement (i:e: bus replacement).

In October, 1981 as part of a dramatic rationalization of country passenger services the Ararat - Hamilton - Portland service was replaced permanently with two separate coach services . (i) Ararat - Hamilton and (ii) Warrnambool - Portland - Heywood.

In addition a third existing through bus service Melbourne - Ballarat - Hamilton was bought into the V/Line network and fares. (later truncated to Ballarat and connecting there with trains.)

The logic being that there was very little local travel on the line outside of Ararat - Hamilton. In the case of Portland it was much faster and more direct to service it off the Warrnambool rail head. And Hamilton people could travel either on the direct coach or by train to Ararat and then coach

As part of the disasterous Kennett/Brown cutbacks of 1993 Dimboola train services were cut back to Ballarat . At that time the Ararat - Hamilton service was withdrawn owing to little roadside traffic , and the service was beefed up to two (2) return coach trips daily each way to/from Hamilton meeting trains from/to Melbourne at Ballarat.

A private bus service currently operates in each direction between Portland and Hamilton on Weekdays for shoppers.

In a similar manner the former Tallarook - Yea - Mansfield railcar services were replaced by two direct coach services passing through Melbourne's Northern suburbs because that was a much faster and direct route to both Yea and Mansfield .

route14 · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:10 am

The rubbish bag also has a coach line to Broken Hill, but it's also a private one.

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nor the white cat
but the right cat

kN · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:11 am

The Mt Gambier - Hamilton - Ballarat - Melbourne coach service was an Ansett service. I remember the coaches stopped in Hamilton behind the Ansett Motors dealership, and ran to a Coach terminal under the Ansett building near the top of Swanston St. The coaches used to run down Bouverie Street so as to cross Victoria Street perpendicularly and then head straight into the terminal.

The rail bus left from Hamilton station and made all its stops at the stations in the various towns, all of which are off the main highway and necessitated a lot of stuffing around in back streets. As the coach went to Ararat to met the train from Dimboola, it was a much slower journey than the direct Ansett, subsequently Wannon Roadways, coach.
Once the Ararat coach was withdrawn, the Wannon coach became a V/Line service, but Wannon were still the operators, in fact I believe they could still be.
With the Kennett rationalisation, the coach to Melbourne was cut back to Ballarat to meet the train, which caused uproar in Hamilton at the time as many in the town perceived a drop in service level in that they now had to make a change, and as unforseen delays on the Glenelg Highway were built into the timetable, it meant a significant increase in journey time. Another complaint at the time was that the coach stopped in the coach station at Spencer Street, and so therefore the walk was less to the taxi rank / trams than whichever platform the train might pull into!

kN, formerly known as Kilonewton

kuldalai · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:30 pm

There are principally two types of coach services operating under V/Line livery, fares and ticketing . To the passenger they offer a seamless service.
The historical network inherited in the early 1980's has resulted in some complex administrative arrangements.
1. Rail Replacement services - these are under contract to Government and principally replace former rail services . e:g: Geelong - Ballarat , Castlemaine - Maryborough, Warrnambool - Portland - Heywood.
2. Privately Marketed services - These are Operator owned services operating with Government subsidy . Examples include Warrnambool - Mt.Gambier, Wodonga - Canberra, Bairnsdale - Narooma.

In respect of current services to Hamilton . The Ballarat - Hamilton - Mt.Gambier trips are Privately Marketed; and the Hamilton - Ballarat trips are Rail Replacement . Both services are run by Wannon Roadways which is the successor of the former Ansett Roadways.

Gwiwer · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:55 pm

Factor in shifting demand patterns over extended time periods and you don't always need to run services parallel to where rails used to go.

I don't pretend to know about travel patterns around Portland but I suspect that at least as much demand exists to travel west (to Mt Gambier) and east (to Warrnambool) which are serviced. Travel north might reasonably be heading towards Ballarat (which is shorter via the Glenelg Hwy than via Ararat) or towards Horsham.

But whilst in that area I have never understood the logic of making passengers change service twice when travelling from Melbourne to Halls Gap. The bus connects from Ararat to Stawell where a second bus is required for the final 25 kms to reach Halls Gap.

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T395_rules_the_line · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:34 am

its a shame really. buses should follow old train routes

Lubeck to bolangum line does not get followed by bus it should as there a few towns on that ie Rupanyup and marnoo. people has to get off at rupanyup to go to marnoo its a shame that people has been griping up there for years.

xxxxlbear · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:53 am

DalyWaters · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:27 am

Hairy · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:50 am

Depending on how far back you are talking about bus replacing train services. Although there is a V/line coach service following the old Maffra to Traralgon line, there ain't anything directly between Stratford and Maffra. Evil or Very Mad

Yep, way back when, a Railmotor did ran from Stratford to Traralgon, on the line.

kuldalai · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:29 pm

The Stawell - Halls gap service is run by a school bus in available down time in the middle of the day . As such it does not require a separate bus to provide the Halls Gap service . If it operated as a separate through bus from/to Ararat then an additional bus would be required above the current availability. This involves extra capital cost of several hundred thousand dollars (for another bus) which is built into the contract price. Such cost would make the service prohibitively expensive to operate .

Whilst there is no bus service between Maffra and Stratford, there never was a rail passenger service either. Pre rail replacement the railcar service was Traralgon - Maffra. There is now both a rail replacement service by bus Traralgon - Maffra but also extended to/from Sale (via Rosedale) Mon to Sat. Whereas there is near zero demand for travel between Maffra and Stratford, there is a small demand for travel to/from Sale as a major regional centre for shopping and professional services .

ZH836301 · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:24 pm

PaxInfo · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:15 am

Lance-Fieldline · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:29 am

Hi there

On the Robinvale line there is no coach service replacing the railmotor to Ultima, Gowanford, Waitchie, Chillingolah, Chinkapook and Cocamba.

Cheers
Lance

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xxxxlbear · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:25 am