A Dandenong-based community group is welcoming an upgraded timetable for a popular seven-day bus route between Dandenong and Chadstone.
The revised timetable for route 800 will see the Sunday service on Melbourne’s Princes Highway reinstated after 33 years without running, with the number of Saturday trips to triple while buses will run later at night.
The group, FixDandyBuses, says the extended seven-day timetable will better meet modern travel and working patterns, particularly on weekends.
“Long operating hours and frequent service is key to making buses a useable alternative to driving,” FixDandyBuses convenor Peter Parker says.
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“This can save people money and widen job and housing choices.”
Major job and shopping destinations to gain from the expanded timetable include Dandenong Plaza, Chadstone Shopping Centre, IKEA, M-City and other Princes Highway retail. Monash University students travelling to Noble Park North will also benefit.
Funded in the May 2024 Victorian state budget after a two year community campaign, the new route 800 times will commence on Sunday November 24.
Route 800 passengers will have access to buses every half hour during the day and every 40 minutes in the early mornings and evenings on weekends – with 51 new services on Sundays and 37 services added to the Saturday timetable.
This is the latest improvement to service Chadstone, adding to the Sunday services introduced on Route 612 in August, which better connects Box Hill Station to the shopping centre and Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster.
“We’re providing more frequent and reliable public transport across Melbourne’s south east that better connects people to jobs, education and key retail destinations over more days of the week and more hours of the day,” Victorian public transport minister Gabrielle Williams says.
Parker has praised Williams and the Department of Transport & Planning for starting the upgrade in time for the busy Christmas shopping season.
He invites residents to check timetables on the PTV website, use the upgraded service and avoid parking hassles.
Parker says evidence of high usage would help build the case for further Dandenong area bus upgrades, including seven-day service on routes 802, 804 and 814, for which FixDandyBuses is seeking 2025 state budget funding.
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