Fawkner residents need much better public transport. The current oil and cost of living crises make this even more urgent. An upgraded Upfield Line and better bus services in Fawkner are essential, but just over Merri Creek there are the Reservoir buses. Currently, access to these buses from Fawkner is limited. Just a few infrastructure upgrades would provide more public transport options for Fawkner.  

Merri-bek Council has identified “improving Fawkner buses” as an advocacy priority. Perhaps this should read “improving access to buses for Fawkner residents”. A short walk to a neighbouring suburb to catch the bus should be straightforward, but for many Fawkner residents, it is not.

Fawkner and Reservoir are separated by the Merri Creek (and they are in Merri-bek and Darebin Councils respectively). While the south of Merri-bek has lots of bridges crossing the Merri Creek, Fawkner hardly has any. Let’s look at the possibilities for crossing the Merri Creek in three locations:

• South Fawkner
• Middle Fawkner
• North Fawkner

We also need to consider where people travel to. People using buses are likely to be headed to destinations in the northern metropolitan region. The top ten destinations within this area shown. These destinations have clusters of employment and retail activity. Two other important destinations are La Trobe University and Melbourne Airport. 

South Fawkner 

There are NO FOOTBRIDGES across the Merri Creek in the south of Fawkner. The distance between the footbridge at Bakers Road Coburg North and the footbridge at Hare Street (in the middle of Fawkner) is about 2.6 km as the crow flies. 

Yet next to the Merri Creek, on the Reservoir side, there are buses running along Newlands Road. Fawkner residents can’t access these without a long detour.

We propose that Merri-bek and Darebin Councils do a feasibility study on a footbridge between approximately Lorne Street Fawkner and Edwardes Street Reservoir. While this section of Newlands Road is mostly industrial, there is a housing estate next to the park zone adjoining the creek. 

A footbridge in this area would have many benefits for residents of Fawkner and Reservoir, including improving access to jobs, schools, recreational facilities and parklands. A new footbridge would also improve cycling links, including between Edwardes Lake and the Merri Creek Trail. 

Note also that the Fawkner Merri Creek Parklands Plan suggested investigating the feasibility of a creek crossing near Dairy Drive. This would also provide access to Newlands Rd. Given the large gap between footbridges in Fawkner, we suggest that both footbridges are warranted. See image at the end of the blog for proposed locations.

Let’s focus on public transport access that would be provided by these new crossings. The two buses along Newlands Road are routes 561 and 553.

Route 561 bus

The 561 bus is a key east-west public transport link across Merri-bek and Darebin. It runs from Pascoe Vale Station to Macleod Station. It provides access to four rail lines (the Craigieburn, Upfield, Mernda and Hurstbridge lines), tram route 86 and La Trobe University. This route helps people access several of the key destinations listed above. Moreover the Northern Region Transport Study (2022, Northern Councils Alliance) suggested that the 561 bus route be extended to Melbourne Airport. 

The 561 bus route offers a reasonable service level, operating at a 20 minute frequency on weekdays till after 10pm. While it is a useful bus route, we would advocate for improvements. As Peter Parker from Melbourne on Transit notes “the service drops to only every 40 minutes on weekends. It has potential to be a more useful route with more frequent weekend service and longer operating hours“.

Route 553 bus

The 553 bus provides access to routes 11 and 86 trams and Reservoir Station. It provides access to Preston, including the Preston Market. Preston is the top destination within the northern metropolitan region – see Figure above.

Of course the service on the 553 bus also needs improvement. Although it runs till past 9pm, seven days a week, the weekday frequency is only every 30 minutes. Peter Parker from Melbourne on Transit calls it “confusing and indirect”, and it is “exactly the sort of route that would have been simplified had the state government’s promised but then dumped northern suburbs bus review gone ahead“. 

Middle Fawkner 

Middle Fawkner already has a footbridge across the Merri Creek at the end of Hare Street. See image above. The bridge joins to Broadhurst Avenue, Reservoir. There you can catch the 558 bus route to Reservoir Station.

Unfortunately it’s not a great bus route. Peter Parker says, “558 is Melbourne’s most complex bus route. It is a nightmare to understand, reverses direction in the middle of the day and stops short of Campbellfield shops. Some stops only get service a few times a day. To cap it off it has an uneven timetable basically unchanged for decades with a midday finish on Sunday, no Sunday service and irregular train connections.”

So advocacy is required for improvements to this bus route.

North Fawkner 

Residents in the north-east can already cross the Merri Creek near Moomba Park to reach Mahoneys Road. This has a good bus service – the 902 Smart Bus. But the footbridge across the Merri Creek and the path leave a lot to be desired.

The bridge needs some repair work. It also needs better signposting from Moomba Park. The path to the bridge from the Merri-bek side needs upgrades to make it accessible. Note that the Darebin side has an accessible path. Lighting is also an issue. The Fawkner Merri Parklands consultation found support for “wildlife sensitive lighting for key movement routes such as key bridge crossings to Reservoir“.

We urge Merri-bek Council to address these issues.

Route 902 bus

This bus along Mahoneys Road runs along the northern boundary of Fawkner. (It can also be accessed from the north-west of Fawkner via a footbridge across the Metropolitan Ring Road.) 

The 902 is a major east-west bus route across the north. It runs every 15 minutes, past midnight. It provides access to Broadmeadows Station and shopping centre, Airport West and many destinations in the north and east, including those identified as key destinations. The Northern Region Transport Study (2022) proposed that this route “terminate at Melbourne Airport (instead of Airport West Shopping Centre) to improve access for airport employees”.  

Other improvements are also possible. Peter Parker notes that “it does not evenly connect with train services which are typically every 20 minutes. It also finishes at 9pm on Sundays so provides less than a full-time service. Access from Coburg and Fawkner would be improved if it could take passengers from a new Campbellfield station on the Upfield line“. 

Next steps?

We propose that Merri-bek Council undertake a feasibility study for one or two footbridges across the Merri Creek in the south of Fawkner. We propose they upgrade the footbridge and path in the north of Fawkner near Moomba Park. And we propose Merri-bek and Darebin Councils advocate for upgrades to all the bus routes discussed above.

Further links on improving public transport for Fawkner residents:

• Fawkner’s Public Transport demands: Minister responds
• Reliability of trains on Upfield Line gets worse
• Metro Tunnel delivers NO new services for Upfield line
• Fawkner residents need much better Public Transport
• What happened to the Fawkner Tram Link (i.e. shuttle bus)?
• Advocacy win on Sunday Service 536 bus Fawkner to Glenroy in State budget

Blogpost by Andrea Bunting and Rhydian Cowley