901 bus service 'flawed'

More than three years after it began, the high-frequency public bus to Melbourne Airport has not dented the overwhelming dominance of car travel at Tullamarine, even as it has bloomed into one of Melbourne's most popular bus services elsewhere on its route.

The route 901 SmartBus - which departs the airport every 15 minutes, travelling to Broadmeadows railway station and ultimately to Frankston on a 4½⁄-hour, 115-kilometre journey - has the second highest patronage of any bus route in Melbourne, carrying 15,000 passengers each weekday. Its passengers say it provides reliable cross-town public transport in the outer suburbs.

But it is used by just 310 people a day to visit the airport, a tiny fraction of the 62,000 daily vehicle trips to Tullamarine. Even airport staff largely ignore the bus: a staff survey found just 1.4 per cent used it to get to work, while 94.7 per cent drove.

Victoria's leading public transport advocates say the service between Broadmeadows and the airport has several serious flaws preventing it from reaching its potential.

"The 901 SmartBus has been departing its terminal at Melbourne Airport 71 times every weekday for nearly four years now, often near empty," the Public Transport Users Association writes in its October newsletter. "That's several thousand empty seats per day leaving an airport precinct which is super-saturated with cars."

The association argues that the 901 bus is held back by an inconveniently located bus stop, a lack of connection with Craigieburn line trains, and a slack timetable that allows 20 minutes' travel time for an eight-kilometre run between the airport and Broadmeadows that should take 12 to 15 minutes.

The airport bus stop was moved in June, to a more central location opposite terminal one.

However, Graham Currie, professor of public transport at Monash University, said the route 901 bus needed to stop directly outside the terminals to succeed.

"It has got to have front-door access, just like SkyBus, if you want to take it seriously," he said.