Express bus services are not "useless" because it's not about saving time. Buses have a much more limited passenger capacity per vehicle than a train, and long routes can often fill up with passengers only travelling to, lets say, Dog Swamp Shopping Centre or Nollamara, which then means Lansdale passengers can't even board the bus. The 970X express serves a 'load balancing' purpose, making sure most people getting on are those travelling further than Mirrabooka. You could always run more buses, but the buses would be mostly empty north of Mirrabooka, which is creates unoptimal fleet usage with their limited number of buses. Additionally, every time a bus pulls over to the side of the road, it falls behind in the traffic flow, and may be more affected by traffic lights, or be unable to pull out of a bus bay (even though road laws dictate you must give way to a departing bus).
@@AbsintheBabe Oh I never thought about that reasoning. It makes sense now with the 970X but the current 370 which only goes to Mirrabooka isn't really necessary with the 970s still having room and 370s only have like 5-10 people on them.
@@TransportofPerth Yeah, the new express makes a little more sense. Plus it gives a group of people a one seat ride to the city. That corridor really is a gap in our rail service footprint
The Treen Street route through Balga goes back to the route 64 days in the 1980s and seems to have had all stops upgraded. Very strange to be deleting this to save 1 minute from such a long route. The 354 number has been associated with bus routes in Flinders Street since the 1970’s or 80s. 354 was the trunk route between Mirrabooka and Wellington St Bus Station via Nollamarra shops. The current 354 is a cutback version of this.
I think the route change probably something to do with safety and visibility the slip lane from Culloton crescent onto Wanneroo road is a little bigger than the one on Treen street especially when it’s busy it’ll give the drivers more time to access the left hand lane rather than having to go try and go straight across to get to beach road they’ll be able to slip into the right lane then gradually move over to the left
I wonder if they'll add the X on the desto for the bus or just leave it as 970 and just say express somewhere on the desto. I mean the gassies and NH's can't do an X with their 7 segment displays. Potentially you could cheat it by putting an X at the start instead of the end and use some of the flipdots or put an express symbol like what thet do with the little school kids symbols on some school services. I believe it was done on beach services too where surfboards were permitted on select busses.
I lived along Culloton Cres in the early 90s & the 64 service was abysmal, so it's nice to see the introduction of a high frequency service, but they didn't really need to cut it from Muswell & Treen, ppl would board & alight on those stops all the time... it was bad enough when the 373 was turned into 386 & removed from there and that whole section through to Princess/Arkana/Ameilia, and now this *shrug*
@@Realford.gaming C-series on the opening day. Mainly 3-car B-series during normal operations, and maybe the occasional A-series like we see on the Yanchep and Mandurah Lines.
Quite surreal to be honest. I just immediately went to filming all these bus changes so I haven't felt bored enough for it to settle in yet but it will soon. I always still feel like there will be more coming at some point but now it's just not which is really weird.
I'm going to Melbourne for two weeks from Monday with some friends who are also transport enthusiasts so we can explore another network as a reward for finishing. I am doing Urban Planning at Curtin University next year hoping I can get a job in road and transportation planning for Perth in the future!
@ Congrats on both fronts Even though you are a Perth guy through and through, you and your buddy’s are going to have tough time doing Melbourne in two weeks. But hey, somebody’s got to do it. Enjoy
Oh well that was the very last thing I needed to do to finish filming all the changes you may have seen my crazy rush from the car in the carpark to the bus I literally made it to the last one of the day with seconds to spare.
I'm quite excited for the 975, being the first high frequency circumferential route since the CircleRoutes were given their high frequency status.
Hope you did well in you're exams Mark. Thanks for the video, might see you around ellenbrook filming the routes.
Mark and I have finished the Ellenbrook filming. Wonder were you there as we experienced a strong resistance by the drivers that day...
@justinmaster86 what did the drivers say when filming?
@TP-4000 you will know when that's out
@justinmaster86 I'm a bus enthusiast so you'd never have any opposition from me.
Cant wait to watch!
Express bus services are not "useless" because it's not about saving time. Buses have a much more limited passenger capacity per vehicle than a train, and long routes can often fill up with passengers only travelling to, lets say, Dog Swamp Shopping Centre or Nollamara, which then means Lansdale passengers can't even board the bus. The 970X express serves a 'load balancing' purpose, making sure most people getting on are those travelling further than Mirrabooka. You could always run more buses, but the buses would be mostly empty north of Mirrabooka, which is creates unoptimal fleet usage with their limited number of buses.
Additionally, every time a bus pulls over to the side of the road, it falls behind in the traffic flow, and may be more affected by traffic lights, or be unable to pull out of a bus bay (even though road laws dictate you must give way to a departing bus).
@@AbsintheBabe Oh I never thought about that reasoning. It makes sense now with the 970X but the current 370 which only goes to Mirrabooka isn't really necessary with the 970s still having room and 370s only have like 5-10 people on them.
@@TransportofPerth Yeah, the new express makes a little more sense. Plus it gives a group of people a one seat ride to the city. That corridor really is a gap in our rail service footprint
The Treen Street route through Balga goes back to the route 64 days in the 1980s and seems to have had all stops upgraded. Very strange to be deleting this to save 1 minute from such a long route.
The 354 number has been associated with bus routes in Flinders Street since the 1970’s or 80s. 354 was the trunk route between Mirrabooka and Wellington St Bus Station via Nollamarra shops. The current 354 is a cutback version of this.
I think the route change probably something to do with safety and visibility the slip lane from Culloton crescent onto Wanneroo road is a little bigger than the one on Treen street especially when it’s busy it’ll give the drivers more time to access the left hand lane rather than having to go try and go straight across to get to beach road they’ll be able to slip into the right lane then gradually move over to the left
I wonder if they'll add the X on the desto for the bus or just leave it as 970 and just say express somewhere on the desto.
I mean the gassies and NH's can't do an X with their 7 segment displays.
Potentially you could cheat it by putting an X at the start instead of the end and use some of the flipdots or put an express symbol like what thet do with the little school kids symbols on some school services. I believe it was done on beach services too where surfboards were permitted on select busses.
Thanks for the info! Excited to ride the new train line
I lived along Culloton Cres in the early 90s & the 64 service was abysmal, so it's nice to see the introduction of a high frequency service, but they didn't really need to cut it from Muswell & Treen, ppl would board & alight on those stops all the time... it was bad enough when the 373 was turned into 386 & removed from there and that whole section through to Princess/Arkana/Ameilia, and now this *shrug*
Yeah exactly I'm surprised they're removing the section too.
Do we know what trains are running on the Ellenbrook line? A mix of all of them?
@@Realford.gaming C-series on the opening day. Mainly 3-car B-series during normal operations, and maybe the occasional A-series like we see on the Yanchep and Mandurah Lines.
How does it feel to be done with school? Looks a lot of changes coming
Quite surreal to be honest. I just immediately went to filming all these bus changes so I haven't felt bored enough for it to settle in yet but it will soon. I always still feel like there will be more coming at some point but now it's just not which is really weird.
@ So what’s next? Maybe something travel or transport related?
I'm going to Melbourne for two weeks from Monday with some friends who are also transport enthusiasts so we can explore another network as a reward for finishing. I am doing Urban Planning at Curtin University next year hoping I can get a job in road and transportation planning for Perth in the future!
@ Congrats on both fronts
Even though you are a Perth guy through and through, you and your buddy’s are going to have tough time doing Melbourne in two weeks.
But hey, somebody’s got to do it. Enjoy
I saw you going on the 378 from Mirrabooka today lol I was catching a bus to family’s place in Landsdale
Oh well that was the very last thing I needed to do to finish filming all the changes you may have seen my crazy rush from the car in the carpark to the bus I literally made it to the last one of the day with seconds to spare.
@ You did, you were sprinting and JUST made it as I was hopping off 415 changing to 376